MSR began in 1969 as a newsletter committed to improving mountaineering safety. Our founder, Larry Penberthy, was an engineer, professional inventor and lifelong mountaineer who dedicated himself to making the backcountry safer. At first Penberthy set out to meet this challenge under a committee of The Mountaineers. He spent more than eighteen months testing stove fuels, the elongation of ropes, the holding power of pitons, the strength of ice axes and a whole list of other important but generally neglected issues. As time went on, the scope of the project stretched far beyond what the organization, and Penberthy, could afford. “After six months, it became apparent that the outlay was more than I could manage alone, and so I formed Mountain Safety Research, Inc. as a vehicle to make and…