Kluane Mountaineering was started in 1970 by two law students, John Faulkner and Jim Brown, who couldn’t afford excellent quality sleeping bags for themselves. John and Jim home-sewed two sleeping bags, ended up selling them to other climbing friends. They made two more and sold them too, improving the quality and style each time. Soon thereafter, John Faulkner and Jim Brown decided to start a sleeping bag manufacturing business. They hired Lucy, a former production manager at Levi’s jeans factory in Edmonton, Alberta and rented a commercial building to begin Kluane Mountaineering. As Kluane products gained in popularity, Lucy, the head seamstress, bought into the business soon thereafter and became a co-owner. Now Kluane Mountaineering makes some of the best down parkas and sleeping bags in the world.

John, Jim and Lucy designed Kluane Mountaineering garments from the need for warm and practical clothing. They were designed by trial and error to what they are today with quality being of the utmost importance. Canadian sourced goose and duck down has always been used in Kluane gear because of its superior warmth and light weight. Kluane uses only the best Canadian down because quality comes first. Each item is individually hot cut (to seal the nylon) and hand made (never mass produced). Kluane Mountaineering garments and sleeping bags all use 900 fill power down. The plumes of down are large and fluffy, making warm and lightweight garments. Kluane Mountaineering garments are made with care and quality to ensure customer satisfaction every time. Kluane jackets’ warmth to weight ratio allows superior comfort in the harshest conditions.

Kluane Mountaineering products have been used on almost every significant mountain top on Earth including Mt. Everest and Mt. Kilimanjaro, and used on every continent, from the North Pole to Antarctica. Government agencies, oil patch workers, lawyers, doctors, ranchers, dog sledders, etc. are Kluane’s top customers. They all enjoy the great outdoors but nobody likes freezing temperatures, so they buy from Kluane. Kluane Mountaineering has manufactured special tactical garment designs for the Canadian Mountain Ranger Service and several Expedition teams. Large corporations cannot make custom designs for these groups, but Kluane is able to make these custom designs because every garment is hand made and cut to order.