MADE IN INDIA | TESTED IN HIMALAYAS | GIPFEL QUALITY
MISSION AND VISION
To extensively field test our equipment in real life conditions before launching the product in the market. We will work closely with climbers and alpinists to relentlessly make changes/ improvements in our equipment to enhance the user experience.
We aim to be the world’s most trusted and reliable brand for outdoor equipment!
Project Manager
ARAVIND SELVAM
OUR PROMISE!
We at Gipfel are a climbing and camping gear manufacturing company, run by people actively involved in outdoor sports. Most of our products are designed in house, tested first in European labs to ISO standards and then finally by us in crags and in the mountains before launching on the market! The testing of various parameters, say breaking strength, waterproofing, UV and abrasion resistance etc, of gear can be done in the factory but we have learnt that when it comes to outdoor gear, user experience is key! We release the product only after all of us are completely satisfied with the process and have a product that we are thrilled to take with us on our own adventures.
STORIES
- All our tents and sleeping bags are field tested at one of the world’s most unforgiving ranges, our homeground and the source of all our inspirations, the Himalayas!
We sleep in our tents and journal down our unbiased experience as to comfort and “the feel” of the product. We also jot down key parameters such as the temperature and humidity inside the tent compared to the conditions outside!
Here’s a few images of the team testing our Tents and sleeping bags in the Dayara Bugyal and Kyarkoti during the piercing Himalayan winter.
2. Aravind and a whipper fall: Our harnesses and ropes are used pretty much on an everyday basis by our team as most of them are climbers themselves.
The webbing strength, the strength of the gear loops and the leg loops can easily be measured at the factory but you can’t really quantify the comfort of a harness precisely with a machine. We hang in first the prototype at the Gipfel factory, while journaling the comfort of the harness, jotting down hotspots every 5 minutes.
After this phase, then the harness is taken outdoors, and goes through a rigorous testing phase where our Team puts in solid hours using the harness, and come back with feedback. We render the first iteration and it goes back through the whole testing phase again. Only after multiple iterations and meticulous testing, the harness goes live on the market!
Aravind Selvam of Gipfel Senior Sales staff undertook the massive task of opening a new route that he later named ‘Be water, my friend’ (7c+/8a). Simultaneously, he has been testing some recent changes to Gipfel Saltoro harness (UIAA/CE certified). Here is a chance video that we happened to take of one of his falls.