Having worked for a time at one of the UK’s leading equipment manufacturer’s, Berghaus, American, Bill Wilkins,decided to set up his own business and in 1972 Ultimate Equipment was his dream come true. Tents were a speciality though there were lots of other items including this helmet which dates from the mid to late 1970’s. It once belonged to Mick Tighe’s Mountain Guiding business, Nevis Guides.
In 1980, Wilkins helped set up and sponsored the Ultimate Challenge in conjunction with the Great Outdoors Magazine (TGO) and Hamish Brown. The challenge was to walk across Scotland from west coast to east coast. Remarkably successful, the event contiues to this day(2011) though with the demise of Ultimate Equipment which went into receivership, it is now called the TGO Challenge.
In November 2011 we see that the ubiquitous Bill is now running a business called Mountain Focus.