Forty Below Ltd
Climbing Equipment for the Extremes™

About Us
Story of the Forty Below, Ltd Logo
Our Trademarks

About Us

Our mission is to help you have warm feet!

Forty Below Ltd was founded to help provide a solution to the serious need to have effective foot protection in extreme cold environments.  The company founder, Bill Lokey of Tacoma, WA, built his first insulated boot covers, called “Overboots” for a late winter season Denali expedition in March 1980.  After this expedition proving the functionality and with his experience of several years in Antarctica and numerous expeditions around the world, he started Forty Below Ltd and developed the original Forty Below® Mt. Everest™ model overboot, which became known and trusted in the worldwide mountaineering community.

Today, with over 40 years of experience, the Forty Below® line of products continue to be trusted and used on the most challenging of cold weather trips and expeditions, around the world.  Our goal is to provide functional insulating products for extreme environments for a wide range of users, from mountain climbers to all types of snow/ cold weather/ winter enthusiasts, both in recreation and industry.

We also make Forty Below® Brand insulated covers for bottles, specialized clothing, and a line of Forty Below® insulated covers for brewing products, as we are also active home brewers since the 1980’s.  All of our products are carefully designed, and proudly hand crafted in the U.S.A, Canada, and other very special places of this incredible world.

We take pride in helping you achieve your goals, and look forward to helping you match up our products with your activities and needs!  Please call, write, or email us for information.  Telephone 253-846-2081 9:30 AM to 3:00 PM PST  (near Mt. Rainier, about 25 miles west of the summit)  Email: Please use the “Contact Us” page in this website

Happy Adventures!

Joel Attaway, President, Forty Below Ltd.

 

History of the Forty Below, Ltd. Logo

From 1966 to 1969, Bill Lokey, the Founder of Forty Below, Ltd spent his summers on the Juneau Icefield. In 1966 he was a student member of the Juneau Icefield Research Program’s Arctic Sciences Institute, and he came back on the support staff each summer after that. That experience helped him get his first job as a support contractor with the US Antarctic Program, where he spent his first tour at McMurdo Station from Oct 1969 to Oct 1970. From 1071 to 1973, he alternated between the Juneau Icefield and Antarctica supporting research in cold places.

Sometime along the way, he began to hang out at the Red Dog Saloon in Juneau, AK. The Red Dog Saloon is a historic saloon in Juneau and is a regular stop for tourists. They had a selection of beer mugs, garter belts, panties, and other tourist souvenirs. It was a part of Bill’s early life, and when he settled down in 1975 and got married, his wife wore a Red Dog Saloon Garter.

Sometime in the early 1970’s he was relaxing (and enjoying an icy Rainier Beer in a quart bottle) at the Red Dog Saloon with a group of local climbers and support staff from the Icefield program, when the owner made the comment that “The man who takes a pair of Red Dog Saloon Panties to the summit of Denali will never buy a drink in this establishment again.”

With his work on the Juneau Icefield and in Antarctica, Bill had become a mountaineer. He climbed many of the major peaks in the Northwest and took part in expeditions to Mt. Hubbard (1973), Mount Vancouver (1976), and Mout Cook (1976). Bill had his sights on Denali, but felt he needed some expedition experience before an attempt. He also had a good friend who had climbed Denali’s Pioneer Ridge in the early 1970’s and believed that was a good objective. He decided to try it in March, when it was colder, but had a better chance for clear weather. He was joined on this expedition by friends John Schutt, another Juneau Icefield veteran and with whom he had climbed Mt. Hubbard and Mt. Vancouver (and later Mt. Waddington in 1987), and Sean Norman, a guide from Mt. Cook in New Zealand and an experienced Antarctic veteran, with whom he had worked when he was at McMurdo Station 1973-1974)

Knowing it would be cold, Bill (also an experienced SCUBA diver) took an idea from Sir Christian Bonington’s book on Annapurna and had a few pairs of neoprene overboots made by a local manufacturer for the team to use on this expedition.

The three left for Alaska on March 27, 1980. They arrived at Talketna, and after waiting a few days on weather, flew from Talketna to Kantishna, on the North side of the mountain just outside the National Park. They had hired a dog team to help carry 1000 pounds of food and gear to McGonagall Pass. The three skied in across the frozen McKinley River and tundra.

It was clear and cold weather as they made their way up the Muldrow Glacier to their 10,000 ft. Base Camp. As it had been a year of little snowfall, it was relatively easy to find a route through both the Lower and Upper Icefalls. From 10,000 ft. they gained Pioneer Ridge and started up. They had started at the Lower Icefall to haul loads, to climb high but sleep low to acclimatize, and climbed the route twice to 17,500 ft.

They crossed over the North Summit and descended to Denali Pass at 18,000 ft. to set up high camp as the first bad weather of the climb set in. This is where Forty Below got its name. The temperature that night was -40 degrees below zero. The weather showed signs of clearing the next day and the three set out for the summit, making it about 6 hours later as the sun set. Bill tied the Red Dog Saloon Panties he had been carrying to his ice axe and got his summit “Hero Shot”. It was -46 degrees F on the summit.  Believing he had truly developed a worthwhile product, Bill worked with a local manufacturer in designing and building the original Forty Below Overboots, and started Forty Below, Ltd. in 1982, using the summit photo for the logo.

Bill was able to collect his free drink at the Red Saloon a few times in the 1980’s and 1990’s when he passed through Juneau on work or on vacation.

We are very proud to have this real event symbol to represent our commitment to helping people achieve their cold weather exploration and goals!

 

Trademarks for Forty Below, Ltd.:

40 BELOW (TM)

FORTY BELOW ® Registered Trademarks

FORTY BELOW, LTD (TM)

Bottle Boot (TM)

Forty Below Purple Haze (TM)

Forty Below K2 Superlight (TM)

Forty Below Fresh Tracks (TM)

40 Below Camp Booties (TM)

Forty Below ZVB Vest (TM)

Forty Below Mt. Everest (TM)

Forty Below Penguins (TM)

Forty Below Can Boots (TM)

Forty Below Bottle Boots (TM)

Slogan: “Climbing Equipment for the Extremes” (TM)

“40 Below” is the name we use in addition to “Forty Below”, on our advertising, product naming, and labeling.  We have been referred and labeled that way since inception of the origin commerce and company, starting in 1980.  The term “Forty Below” is a multiple class Registered Trademark in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.  The terms “40 Below” and “Forty Below Ltd” are declared TRADEMARKS of Forty Below, Ltd.   ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Here are our Trademark Logos:

 

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