On March 28th 1966 Val and Joe Brown opened the doors to their Llanberis shop and became pioneers of the fledgling outdoor retail industry. When we entered discussions to buy the business in 2005 we were VERY conscious of the sizeable shoes we were about to fill and are extremely proud to be able to continue the legacy of great service and equipment choice that Val & Joe began all those years ago. Our excellent staff team have a wealth of experience to draw upon when offering advice to customers and we have been overwhelmed with messages from customers and suppliers alike throughout our anniversary year saying just how much the shops have meant to them.

To celebrate we wanted to share these messages with Val and Joe and say a personal thank you for allowing us the opportunity to continue their hard work so with a little help from our friends at The Mountain Boot Company we were very proud to present Val & Joe with a unique commemorative ice axe made by Grivel. Joe used Grivel axes and crampons on his successful ascent of the third highest mountain in the world; Kanchenjunga in 1956, at the time the highest mountain ever climbed by a Briton. Joe is remembered fondly by the Grivel family in Courmayeur and the Kanchenjunga expedition features as a key point in the companies’ timeline of equipment development. Both Val & Joe were over the moon to receive their axe and enjoyed reading a compilation of messages from customers and suppliers who hold the shops in very high regard.

Joe was especially pleased to be presented with his very own DMM golden nut (in hindsight it probably should have been a pair) along with a compilation of all the happy selfies uploaded onto UKClimbing as a result of our “Hunt For Joes Gold Nuts” competition run earlier this year.

It was, as ever, an honour to sit in their kitchen/time warp and listen to a whole host of fascinating tales and anecdotes that got more and more humorous the further they got from the mountain. The Joe Brown shops played a long and pivotal part in both of their lives with Joe pointing out more than once that really, it was Val that ran the shops while he went away on expeditions.

We are proud to recognise the contribution they have both made to our industry, from the thriving business nurtured by Val to the buildings that Joe renovated and whose smooth slate floors we still walk on today.

Paul Casey, Cathy Casey & Gill Barnicott

Directors