North face

North face or Northface or The North Face may refer to:

See also

North (disambiguation)

North is a cardinal direction.

North or The North may also refer to:

Geography

Music

The North Face

The North Face, Inc. is an American outdoor product company specializing in outerwear, fleece, coats, shirts, footwear, and equipment such as backpacks, tents, and sleeping bags.

Its clothing and equipment lines are catered towards college students, climbers, mountaineers, skiers, snowboarders, hikers, and endurance athletes.

The company sponsors professional athletes from the worlds of running, climbing, skiing and snowboarding.

History

The North Face began as a San Francisco climbing equipment retail store, founded in 1966 by Douglas Tompkins and his then-wife, Susie Tompkins. It was acquired two years later by Kenneth "Hap" Klopp. The idea of The North Face originated after a hiking trip on the Eagle Mountain in Minnesota. The north face of a mountain in the northern hemisphere is generally the coldest, iciest and most formidable route to climb.

For a time the store offered only highly selected merchandise targeted to climbers and backpackers. By the 1980s, skiwear was added, followed by camping equipment.

Alex Honnold

Alex J. Honnold (born August 17, 1985) is an American rock climber best known for his free solo ascents of big walls. He has broken a number of speed records, most notably the only known solo climb (mostly free climbing with a few points of aid) of the Yosemite Triple crown, an 18-hour 50 minute link up of Mount Watkins, The Nose, and the Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome. He and Hans Florine are the current record holders for the Nose with a climb time of 2:23:51. Honnold says that he likes tall, long routes and that he tries to do them quickly. He is the author of Alone on the Wall, a collaboration with David Roberts that details his climbing exploits.

Biography

Honnold was born in Sacramento, California. He started climbing when he was 11 years old. Upon graduating from the Mira Loma High School with a 4.7 GPA, he matriculated to the University of California Berkeley to study engineering. However, at the age of 19, he dropped out of school and has since devoted all his time to climbing. Between climbs, he runs or hikes to maintain fitness. Honnold lives out of his van, spending less than a thousand dollars per month, enabling him to follow the weather and climb all the time. Honnold prefers big walls and sport climbing, but enjoys any climb calling for extreme commitment, Yosemite being his favorite area because of its impressive walls and favorable weather. Honnold is inspired by such noted climbers as Peter Croft, John Bachar and Tommy Caldwell, and even more so by the stark simplicity and beauty of El Capitan.