To know Berghaus is to know its athletes. Take alpinist Leo Houlding, who once raced an Audi supercar to the top of a Swiss mountain—and won. The British mountaineer later scaled Everest on the trail of George Mallory and Andrew Irvine, fellow Brits who, in 1924, many believe were the first to summit the world’s highest peak (only to perish on the descent). When mountaineers discovered Mallory’s frozen body in 1999, there was one tell that historians used to identify him: the neatly stitched labels of his London tailor on his Burberry coat.
That same English value of fine garments has lived on with Houlding, who cites Berghaus outerwear as his “most trusted partner on dozens of expeditions to gnarly peaks and giant walls across seven continents,” including his pioneering free ascent of Mount Asgard in the Canadian Arctic. During his 20-day siege of Antarctica’s most imposing big wall, the Northeast Ridge of Ulvetanna, Houlding credits his crew’s protection, “clad entirely in gear we designed, developed, and built like armour.”
So, who is Berghaus? To understand the British brand that outfits free-climbing expeditions to the ends of the earth, you need to start in Newcastle, a city famous for its industrial grit and North Sea chill. There, Gordon Davison and Peter Lockey founded a small shop in 1966 to create exacting outdoor gear, testing it on northeast England’s rainswept fells and higher peaks abroad. Berghaus was the first to develop an internal-frame mountain pack, the first in Europe to embrace Gore-Tex, and the first to use hydrophobic down in technical climbing kits.
“Berghaus has always been about British ingenuity and a love for the outdoors,” says Charlie Pym, senior vice president of Berghaus. “Born in the northeast, we’ve spent nearly 60 years creating kit tough enough for Britain’s wildest weather and timeless enough to become part of its culture. From the fells to the city streets, that same adventurous spirit continues to define every generation that wears it, and we’re proudly bringing it to the U.S.”
Berghaus’s uncompromising alpine gear quickly gained the loyalty of such climbing luminaries as Houlding and Sir Chris Bonington, whose high-mountain exploits include a technical new route on Annapurna and the first ascent of Everest’s Southwest Face. Later, the brand earned a following in England’s dynamic 1990s street culture. Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher wore a red-and-blue Meru jacket on the band’s breakout 1997 Be Here Now Tour, cementing Berghaus’s dual identity as an innovative purveyor of bulletproof mountain gear and an enduring symbol of Britpop style.
Berghaus embraced the punks and ravers, recognizing in them a version of the subversive spirit that drives the very best alpinists. When Berghaus launched its 2024-2025 “ICON” campaign with reboots of its Meru Peak and Trango jackets and 97 Fleece cut from sustainable new fabrics, the company asked Gallagher to represent the line on Oasis’s U.S. Reunion Tour. For the rocker who borrowed his brother Noel’s Berghaus jacket for years, the opportunity felt like closing a circle. “I always said when I’m rich and famous, I’m getting myself one,” Gallagher says. “I finally did that, and I’ve still got it to this day.”
Whether onstage or at the top of the world, Berghaus stands as a symbol of performance, reliability, and style—a bold color-blocked statement of Davison and Lockey’s founding philosophy that the outdoors is for everyone. It’s an ethos that Houlding holds close to the heart, be it on an Antarctic scarp or outside his own front door.
“Just last week, the first named storm of the winter blew the big tree down in my garden,” the mountaineer says. “But despite the floods and hurricane-force winds, I was up in the hills with my young family in our Berghaus kit.”
Born in 1966 above a shop in the northeast of England, Berghaus has spent nearly six decades making gear to help people get out there. Built on innovation and tested in extreme conditions, every product—from waterproof shells to expedition gear—combines technical performance, durability, and a relentless passion for the outdoors.
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