The Jensen: A pack that made our history

The history of Rivendell Mountain Works is a bit shrouded in mist, with a general timeline known, but exact dates unclear. The best account can be found on the the History of Gear five-page series. Big thanks go to Bruce Johnson for recording our history.

Rivendell Mountain Works was founded by Larry Horton in 1971 in Snoqualmie, Washington. Larry was working as the Manager of The North Face store in Berkeley, California, in 1970, the same time that Doug Robinson, father of clean climbing, was a metalsmith in Chouinard Equipment’s tin shed factory. Doug climbed with Don Jensen, a highly experienced mountaineer, outdoor gear tinkerer, and member of the Harvard Mountaineering Club. As rumor has it, Doug shared an early version of Don’s idea for an ultralight frameless backpack with Larry Horton who was, as a result, inspired to start Rivendell Mountain Works. The flagship product was, perhaps unsurprisingly, the Jensen pack.

Around 1974, the company moved to Victor, Idaho, in the western foothills of the Teton Mountain Range. The Rivendell Mountain Works factory was up and running in an old white church in town. Back then, Victor was so small that the shop didn’t even have an address. Outside the church hung a brightly painted hand-carved sign as a signal to all who journeyed there. The colors have weathered a bit, but the sign still records the history of the iconic brand.

During the 1970s, Rivendell Mountain Works made over 1,000 Jensen packs that were popular among climbers, mountaineers, backpackers, and backcountry skiers. Because Larry Horton never filed a patent for the Jensen pack, and perhaps because Don Jensen had spoken to several people about his innovative ideas, many copies of the design emerged on the market (again, more on that later). 

(Credits for several of the photos in this post go to Larry Horton, Eric Hardee, Bill Edwards, Bruce Johnson, David Crothers, and others. Although, the original source of several of these photos is very difficult to trace.)