Early Life
Chouinard's father was a French-Canadian handyman, mechanic, plumber. In 1946, he and his family moved from Maine to Southern California. His early climbing partners included Royal Robbins and Tom Frost. A Sierra Club member, in his youth he founded the Southern California Falconry Club, and it was his investigations of falcon aeries that led him to rock climbing. To save money, and make adaptations for the way he was climbing, he decided to make his own climbing tools, teaching himself blacksmithing, and eventually started a business.
In 1971, Chouinard met and married his wife, Malinda Pennoyer, who was an art and home economics student at California State University, Fresno. They have a son (Fletcher) and a daughter (Claire).
Read more about this topic: Yvon Chouinard
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:
“...he came towards them early in the morning, walking on the sea.”
—Bible: New Testament, Mark 6:48.
“Journalism is popular, but it is popular mainly as fiction. Life is one world, and life seen in the newspapers another.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)