THE RAREST CHOUINARD CARABINER, ONLY 14 KNOWN EXAMPLES. FIRST ALCOA 1958-59

This auction is for the carabiner shown in the first five photos.  It is only marked 820   ® ALCOA 7075  which makes it one of the 14 known examples of Chouinard's first carabiner, manufactured from 1958 - 1959 & the most collectable Chouinard carabiner.  A slight later change added CHOUINARD to the other side of the ALCOA-CHOUINARD carabiner body.

A few years back, I helped to put together a Chouinard Carabiner timeline from catalogs, ads, and the memories of other old climbers, on climbing blog-site Supertopo.com.    Here’s the link,  which has considerable information on this rarest of all Chouinard carabiners.

http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=1327553&tn=0

For those who don't wish to follow the link, the short history is: in 1957 Yvon Chouinard paid for expensive dies that Alcoa used to drop-forge his original carabiners.     The first dies did not have CHOUINARD on them.     After deciding his name belonged on his carabiner, CHOUINARD was ground into the first dies, which is why CHOUINARD shows up somewhat faintly on newer CHOUINARD/ALCOA carabiners, which were manufactured until 1967.

I bought this carabiner from a climber collector, who managed to find a very few of the original Alcoa carabiner & last year I was lucky enough to acquire another from the two given as samples to the folks who ran Summit Magazine in the 1950's & 60's.    Another knowledgeable climber gear collector, who now exhibits much of his collection in the Patagonia museum in Ventura, CA, ran the figures with me this spring & we came up with 14 as the known number for this previously unknown, until three years ago, carabiner.     My auction price represents a "break-even" price on this rarest of all Chouinard carabiners.  

The first catalog photo is from a 1960 Dolt catalog.   It appears the 3 models of CHOUINARD ALCOA carabiner mentioned in it include the addition of CHOUINARD & a very, very slight change in the carabiner gate.    The 2nd catalog photo is from a 1965 CHOUINARD catalog.    I will be happy to email jpegs of thosE photos to the auction winner, at their request.  

Chouinard started manufacturing carabiners in Ventura, CA in 1957. He used the German Salewa factory to make one model for him from 1971 -74, then went back to manufacturing carabiners in Ventura. His climbing hardware company became The Great Pacific Ironworks in 1972 then changed back to Chouinard Equipment in the early 1980's. Chouinard Equipment went bankrupt in 1989 and disappeared as a brand, although Black Diamond cataloged and sold some Chouinard carabiners through 1991. Chouinards clothing brand Patagonia continues to prosper.

This carabiner is a significant part of climbing history from the "Golden Age of U.S. climbing. For your collection or museum.

Condition is "used, but functioning perfectly." This item is considered a rare collectable, rather than for use in climbing any longer.

Guaranteed authentic!

http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/1327553/Chouinard-carabiner-Timeline-Identification-Guide-1968-89