Segen Packs, Eugene,
very early 1970s ("Segen
Pax," Elegant laminated hardwood frames, a combination of
the best modern materials with the best of "organic"
old tech materials like cotton duck. 
The
comany's tagline was "Advanced Simplicity" and the pack
was touted as a "Natural Pack." Note: the Segen section
is under development, but here is one picture, from contributor
Terry.
Shadoworks sprang up in Lake Oswego, Oregon, a few miles south of Portland city center. The company's slim 1982 brochure begins, "Paul Smythe, founder of Shadoworks, is an Oregonian, a mountaineer, and a bit of a perfectionist." The tent pictured here is owned by this author, and dates from about 1983. Although I possess one of the company's slim color brochures, I have discovered no further sources of information about this small gear company. Readers are invited to contribute what they know.
This
tent is the company's smallest model, the "DL 2," (the
Dry Light 2). The yellow parts are made of Goretex ripstop, while
the navy parts are made of urethane coated tafetta nylon. The
pole sleeves are made of pack cloth, and around the bottom perimeter
is sewn a band of reinforcing nylon webbing. This tent reminds
me very much of a slightly down-sized version of Todd Bibler's
famed "I-Tent" model (Bibler Tents, which went on to
become much higher-profile than Shadoworks).... The DL 2 also
reminds me very much of the no-frills Integral Designs MK 1 Lite
tent.
Specs: the DL 2 weighs just
under 4 pounds with 3 small metal pegs and 4 light pull-out cords.
I measured its floor as 79" long x 45" wide, and the
center height is a tight 35"- There are just two aluminum,
shock-corded poles and they fold to 20 inches long. This tent
has a kind of canopy over the front door, but no back door, and
nothing you could call a vestibule.
As can be easily seen in
the picture, this is a very small tent indeed. In my personal
use of this tent I have concluded that it is too short to be comfortable
for anyone over about 5' 6" in height. It would be a really
ideal tent for a small person taking a solo trek (soon I will
post a picture showing it side by side with a standard-size two-man
mountain tent by Snowlion)..... I'm not sure how much I would
trust the Shadoworks tent in severe rain, especially severe rain
with cold temperatures. Using a good spray waterproofing on it
before a trip, and thorough initial seam-sealing help a lot. On
the plus side, this tent is extremely quick and easy to set up,
even when one is very tired, wet or cold. It is very strong, and
I would have no worries about a foot of heavy, wet snow falling
on it overnight while I slept. Under normal conditions, it is
freestanding, but using a few (2-5) small stakes can help maximize
interior room and wind-strength if needed.
Landav Designs was Portland-based and specialized in garments of high class and high-quality. Illustrated are a goretex Mountain Parka and woolen knickers. Many of their products exploited classic materials with perhaps a modern update, as in my classy knickers, which are made of a very good-looking and very functional 70/30 blend of wool and synthetic (30% nylon, probably to improve performance in the typically wet conditions of the Pacific Northwest). I do not have a firm timeline on this company yet, and readers are invited to contribute what they know.
A part of the History of Gear relates to a distant era when there wasn't an REI in every larger town, and a Starbuck's on every corner.. I grew up in that deprived era in Oregon. This was a State far-removed from the great centers of gear pioneering in Boulder, Seattle, the Bay Area, and Los Angeles. When I was coming of Age in the mid to late-1960s, we had little to choose from, and if you did not live in Portland, Eugene, or Salem, you were forced to drive long distances to purchase modern climbing or backpacking gear.
In the Medford, Oregon of 1964, I had heard about the new sport of backpacking, but when I looked around the limited horizons of Southern Oregon, there was only "Lamports" (Lamport Sporting Goods).... And Lamports only stocked two kinds of packs-- the old wood-framed Trapper Nelsons, and the new-fangled aluminum frame ones with some kind of hipbelt and a canvas-like packbag...of course, I purchased the more modern one. This loyal pack lasted only two years, meeting its demise in 1966 when I placed it too near my campfire. Exhaustion was my excuse-- I had just climbed Mt. McLoughlin solo, and wasn't paying proper attention.
After I went away to college
in the more populous and progressive Willamette Valley, I learned
about Oregon's "Mountain Stores" from senior members
of the OSU Alpine Club. We took field trips to Corvallis, Salem
and Eugene, each of which had an "Andersons Sporting Goods,"
and 90 miles north
in Oregon's largest city there were TWO Mountain stores to visit!
These were "The Mountain Shop," and the storied
"Cloud Cap Chalet" (named after a real historic
place high on Oregon's highest mountain (click for link)....Of course, in those days all the mountain shops
mostly supported themselves selling backpacking gear, outdoor
clothing, and often downhill skiing gear. (Interesting fact--
in 1968, the just-begun North Face company achieved its very first
sales when their new saleman Jack Gilbert sold some of the company's
very first products to Cloud Cap!)
As my training with the OSU Alpine Club advanced, soon I needed to rent crampons and an ice axe for my first real climb. That gear I rented from Anderson's in Eugene. Later that year, in mid-May, my graduation from snow-climbing school saw me on an adventure to climb Oregon's highest peak, 11,245 ft. high Mt. Hood. We stopped in Portland the day before, visiting the legendary Cloud Cap Chalet on 12th St. in city center. Black and white photos of famous climbs and climbers emblazoned the walls, many of them autographed... I rented ice axe and crampons, soaked-up the authentic atmosphere, and bought a lot of "Logan Bread." Our climb was successful, and in later years I was to visit Cloud Cap numerous times, until it was bought out and lost its identity somewhere in the 1980s. Anderson's lasted many more years, finally closing its doors forever in late 2001 or early 2002. The shopping bag below is a prized relic from a sad shopping trip I made to the half-stripped main store in Salem around Christmas 2001.
For the History Books: addresses and names of Oregon outdoor stores carrying GERRY brand climbing/backpacking gear in 1968 (GERRY was one of the oldest and most innovative of the early gear innovators).:(to visit my GERRY pages, click here)
Anderson's Sporting Goods in Eugene at 724 Willamette St. and in Salem at 163 Commercial St. NE.zip 97301...... Four Seasons Sport Chalet, 626 Medford Shopping Center in Medford zip 97501....and in Portland, the Cloud Cap Chalet at 1127 SW Morrison, zip 97205 (just four blocks south of the main Powell's Bookstore on 12th and West Burnside St.).
A reader named George sent me an account of the 38 years of great service he has gotten from his ALP SPORT goose down bag that he bought at Howell's Sporting Goods in Portland in 1970. Do any readers know more about Howells? What brands they carried? What happened to them? Click here for a recent reader contribution about Howell's.
New story, August 17, 2008.
A reader sent me a flyer about a chain of mountain stores that
began in Seattle in about 1963. Their company name was "The
Alpine Hut," and they apparently imported from Europe,
and also made some of their own gear at a factory in Seattle....
Their President was
famed climber Dick McGowan (Richard E. McGowan, 1933-2007), who
had previously been an REI Store manager. Famous Himalayan climber
Nicholas Clinch said of him, "He was a pioneer businessman
in the outdoor industry." Other important climbers of the
day were also named as "Directors," eg. Pete Schoening,
Lute Jerstad, and Paul Wiseman, among others....Oregon had one
of their stores, and it was located inside Oregon's first indoor
mall shopping center-- Lloyd Center, on the near NE side of Portland,
just off I-84 freeway. Any reader who knows more about this store,
or when it closed, please contact me.
Note: Anderson's opening its doors in 1920 makes me wonder about a possible connection to Lloyd Anderson, who was very involved in the beginnings of REI Coop in Seattle 18 years later. If any readers have information, I'd appreciate hearing it. (contact me).
A mountain shop dear to this writer's heart was Tri-Mountain Sports of Bend, Oregon, named for the nearby Three Sisters mountains.. It was founded in the early 1970s, quite a bit more recently than Anderson's or Cloud Cap, but was definitely worthy of spirit. It was a small shop in the historic part of downtown Bend-- small, but packed to the rafters with a diversity of the best brands of hiking, cross-country skiing, and backpacking gear! And the owner had periodic great sales! Click here for a reader contribution about Tri-Mountain.
Finally, let us not forget
Ed Johann's mountain store in Tigard, on Hall Blvd, just
south of the junction with Hwy 99W. Edward Johann was a survivor
of Pearl Harbor, and probably better known for his guiding as
the head of Johann's Mountain Guides Service, but his small mountain
store "Johann MT Shop" was begun in 1964 and moved to
its present quaint location in (I believe) 1976. 
It's
beginning was two years before Frosltine Kits of Colorado got
started.... Johanns was tiny by REI standards, and specialized
in two things: mountain climbing equipment and doing repairs and
modifications to tents, packs, etc. Nowadays, Mr. Johann himself
is gone, but his son-in-law Gary Craghead carries on in the same
location with "Johann's - Custom Sewing, Prototyping &
Consulting Services." For readers of this page, the important
thing to remember is that if you need any type of repair or modification
of a piece of your climbing, hiking or backpacking gear, you should
give Mr. Craghead a call (ph 503-620-1699).
"Dear Bruce: Howell's was located just off 23rd & Burnside in west Portland, and it is where I bought my very first 'modern' pack--an Alpenlite framed pack with a Sierra-Design stitched bag attached to it--$62, in Spring 1972. Howell's carried North Face, Trailwise, Sierra Designs, Alpenlite & Jan Sport as their main gear brands. The first floor was set up with backpacking gear, sleeping bags, clothing, packs and stoves--what was great about Howell's was that the spacious top floor was covered end-to-end with set-up backpacking tents from all the main tentmakers--I still have memories of viewing the Trailwise Fitzroys, Sierra Designs Glacier & 3-man tents and the Jan Sport domes, as well as viewing a blue North Face VE-24--my first look at a new type of tent--the geodesic! Every model from each manufacturer covered that top floor--it was great for comparison! Not sure when Howell's closed down, but it was probably in the early 80s. FYI--- JK
"Another shop you ought to mention in your list of backpacking shops was Tri Mountain Sports here in Bend--Pat McKeown started up the shop in the early 70s and closed it down in the mid-90s--I know he went at least 25 years with the store because he had some water bottles made up with a 25 year logo imprinted on them. He sold top end gear--Sierra Designs, North Face, Kelty, Dana Designs, Gregory, Osprey, and had some great sales on end-of-season gear. Had a great XC ski gear inventory, & even carried pulk sleds for awhile. Great owner & guy to work with--started with a small spot on Wall Street in downtown Bend and later expanded it back towards the Mirror Pond parking lot--- JK."