We were not 100% sure who made these mittens though it wasn’t too difficult to work out it was a company called Makalu! They are an Argentinian company, so we got their e-mail and asked what they knew about the mittens, within 24 hours we got this very impressive reply:

“I’m Fernando Martinez, a founding partner of Makalu.

Your e-mail and photo of the mitten brought back a lot of nostalgia!

It’s a model manufactured by Makalu in the late 90s, more specifically between 1998 and 2002. I’m almost certain I sewed them myself. They had a breathable, waterproof fabric exterior (ULTREX) with a paneled construction and goose down filling.”

We had an equally helpful note from the donator of these mittens, Klaus Schwartz, who tells us:

“I bought these mittens in 2005 in Mendoza, Argentina, on my way to Aconcagua, which I climbed by the ‘Falso Palaco’ route on 18th February 2005. I wore them only early a.m. on the summit day”

So, two excellent pieces of information describing our mitts and their origins perfectly, many thanks to Fernando & Klaus.