Wild Country

Wild Country came about as the brainchild of a UK based climber Mark Vallance and was set up to manufacture what was to become the most famous piece of rock climbing gear of all time, the Friend.

Friends were the brainchild of US climber Ray Jardine who Mark had met in the USA a few years earlier. Then when Ray couldn’t find a partner in the US to develop and produce his revolutionary new unit Mark and he joined forces and Wild Country was born. Founded in 1977, at a tiny factory in a village in the heart of the UK’s Peak district, Wild Country went from strength to strength on the back of this revolutionary tool and became a name synonymous with hard climbing everywhere.