Black Diamond is a climbing gear brand headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. It was founded in Ventura, California, in 1989.
In 1972 pitons made up 70 percent of Chouinard Equipment's sales, and the company used its own catalog to ask climbers to stop hammering them in. Black Diamond, the Salt Lake City company that grew out of it, still sells gear built to come back out of the rock.
Chouinard Equipment filed for Chapter 11 in early 1989 after several product-liability lawsuits. That December, employees led by Peter Metcalf bought its assets in Ventura, California, and renamed it Black Diamond. In September 1991 they moved it to Salt Lake City, which Metcalf has said was, at the time, "a mountain town masquerading as a capital city."
Clarus Corporation has owned Black Diamond since 2010, and in May 2026 it began a review of options that include a sale. The Camalot C4's product page lists Taiwan as its country of origin, and the Express ice screw's lists the US.
In 2011 a writer for Touchstone Climbing's blog toured the Salt Lake factory and reported that 10 percent of all Black Diamond gear ended up in quality assurance, where staff broke new cams and carabiners on purpose. It may be the only department where a snapped carabiner counts as a finished job.
The Camalot cam dates to 1987, two years before Black Diamond existed, and today's largest Camalot C4, the #8, weighs 960 grams.
Black Diamond gear is all over my closet, and their carabiners are clipped to everything. Love how local they are.
Alex
New from Black Diamond
Alpine running collection with norda
Black Diamond and norda, a Montreal shoe company, launched a joint collection in Chamonix, led by a $295 trail shoe called the norda 000. It also includes $279.95 carbon poles, and US stores got it on August 31.
