Graham Tiso opened a ‘mountaineering equipment’ shop in Rodney Street, Edinburgh, back in the 1960s. He was soon ‘in league’ with many of the outdoor equipment manufacturers of the era – Chouinard, Salewa, Berghaus, Helly Hansen, Stubai and Karrimor. It was to the latter he turned to make his Graham Tiso Standard Sac as Karrimor was the best and most experienced sac manufacturer in the UK at the time.

The very fine sac we have here in the collection is the Standard Sac with pockets, details of which can be seen on the scanned page from the Tiso’s 1970s catalogue. This particular sac was kindly donated by Mollie Porter, who, among many other things, became leader of the Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team (CMRT) in 1972 – the first woman to lead a rescue team in the UK. The sac has CMRT written inside, so we assume it once belonged the the team and Mollie.

P.S. Lots of 1960s/70s rucksacks had a ‘pull out’ that could be used for an emergency bivouac. The lower half of the body went in the sac in a sitting position, and spare clothing (if you had any!) on the upper body. Lots of climbers on the big Alpine routes used this system in conjunction with a duvet jacket.