Home Page

Wilderness

Experience

Chatsworth, CA

Page Four

FOR MORE INFORMATION: wildernessexperience.net

Wilderness Experience, Inc.

Look carefully and you'll see climbers on the iceberg. Photo is from a Wilderness Experience sponsored expedition to Antarctica.

To see the complete Wilderness Experience catalog click on the cover

1972 Wilderness Experience Trips

1973 Pack Catalog

Winter 1973

1974

1975

1976

1977

1978 Sleeping Bags

1978 Tents

1979 Packs

1979 Apparel

1982

1983

1985

1985 Mountain Travel Equipment Catalog

Letters and emails

After posting this Wilderness Experience web page I have received a number of emails from people who remember the early days of the company or have owned Wilderness Experience products. Following is one of those emails:

Hi -
I found your site with Google, based on "Wilderness Experience Chatsworth" as my search criteria. I didn't think I'd find anything at all, and I'm pleased to have found your contact data. Please feel free to share with anyone that may have had a hand in the company.

My parents purchased for me one of your backpacks in what must have been 1983, if I recall my history correctly. It's a smallish internal frame pack (two side pockets, one front pocket) with plastic webbing clips, very dark maroon. I used it for the Boy Scouts, and it saw quite a bit of action in my youth and teen years. I then took it with me to college, and it became my pack there for various trips around the world on vacations. Holding up well, it then started to be my primary travel pack when I was first employed in the early 90's with a company that kept me on the road quite a bit, and even as I found that I had the funding to replace it, I discovered I had no reason to. It was the right size, all the hardware worked, and it traveled well.

So here I am, approaching 40 and the backpack I take for granted is still going strong, though I did have to have a rip mended and the belt support buckle (lost, not broken) replaced. That bag has been on what by now is probably more than 1500 trips, and has logged millions of miles (most via aircraft, but let's not be fussy.) It's been rained on, trampled, scuffed, thrown, yanked, and hoisted more times than I can count but has shrugged off the abuse. I still travel about 30% of my time, and that backpack is typically what I take with me wherever I go.

My father (once a suit-and-tie business traveler) often looks at it with a bit of distaste but I reply to him "How many suitcases have you had in the same number of years that I've had this backpack?" and his inner spendthrift takes over and he grudgingly agrees that it probably makes more sense from an economic and convenience standpoint.

It seems a bit strange that I've never really thought about it until this evening when I looked over at the bag and the very faded tag (which seems to be the only component that shows wear) and decided to look up the company that made it. I can't say that I've owned much that I use regularly for 26 years - most of the things in that category are tools made of metal. For a fabric and plastic item to persist for that long - nothing short of a miracle.

So in short:
thanks for a great product - I have a real love for gear that stands the test of time, and I'm sorry I can't buy a duplicate.

JT

Read a review of someone's 25 year old Wilderness Experience Quicksilver backpack

Go back to Wilderness Expereince Page One

Read about Jim's work at Eastpak & Kipling

Go to "About Jim"

Read the Wilderness Experience Story in SNEWS Magazine

Read other stories about the history of the outdoor business