As a backcountry ski guide way back when, Patrick found himself having to haul in huge loads - camping gear, food and sometimes his client's gear. Loads that made ordinary pack carrying unwieldy and dangerous.
The conventional approach to solving this at the time was an off-the-shelf kid's sled. A cheap solution, yes. Effective? No. For obvious reasons, they were trashed within days, they were unstable, and control was impossible.

Enter the "Smith Sled" as it was called then, and the creation of Mountainsmith.

The Smith Sled had a rugged, unbreakable hull, beefy runners for better tracking, and a rigid connection between skier and sled for impeccable control. Suddenly, they were being used for major expeditions and child hauling alike - opening up a new world for winter adventurers and granting parents the freedom to enjoy the same liberties they had before.

So important were these sleds, that they came with us upon the formation of Kifaru. Hunters and military alike took to them for the same reasons that mountaineers and parents did.

Patrick Smith's first product sparked the creation of so much more, and is still with us all these years later for a reason.