MSR began in 1969 as a newsletter committed to improving mountaineering safety. The company was founded by Larry Penberthy, an engineer, professional inventor and lifelong mountaineer who dedicated himself to making the backcountry safer. Read more
In the beginning, Penberthy started by trying to meet all of the challenges that mountaineering had not yet solved. He spent over a year testing stove fuels, the elongation of ropes, the holding power of pitons, the strength of ice axes and an entire range of important but generally neglected issues. However, as time went on the project became very costly and Penberthy need additional income to supplement his efforts.
Thus, MSR was born as a vehicle to make and sell safety equipment, starting with the Mountain Safety Research® newsletter. Climbers who subscribed to the Mountain Safety Research® newsletter received the latest news about safety equipment. The first edition offered an ice axe reinforcement kit, snow flukes, an auto belay device, climbing rope, cold weather gloves, carabiners, webbing and a snow saw. It also included detailed instructions for building igloos.
Penberthy's goal was to make the best information and gear available to climbers. As time passed, the newsletter became more and more focused on the sale of new mountaineering equipment with many of the products being inventions by Penberthy himself, usually as a response to real-world problems that he experienced as a climber.
Today, the MSR team is still driven by Penberthy’s dedication to high quality products that offer that offer greater performance, reliability and therefore, safety in the backcountry. Mountain Safety Research is one of the oldest names in mountaineering equipment, with their renowned range of multifuel hiking stoves.
There is a model for every situation, from the expedition-ready MSR XGK to the lightweight MSR Whisperlite. Their stoves are user serviceable, and stories abound of customers whose stoves are decades old and still going strong. To complement the stoves, MSR makes a range of the best quality cookware and utensils.