Rock Exotica

Rock Exotica was started in a small garage in 1987. Rock Thompson had been experimenting with solo belay devices and purchased a war surplus mill for $250. He and his wife took it apart and rebuilt it over Christmas time to make it operable. The mill was all manual, so Rock had to turn both handles at the same time to make curves. The resulting device worked well, although it looked like something a caveman might have carved out.

A few months later more modern equipment was purchased and Rock Exotica began business. The company quickly became known for machining products out of solid alloy, which no one else was doing at the time due to the expense. Climbers and rescue people began contacting Rock Exotica asking and suggesting other high-end pieces of equipment. Some of the classic early products were the Wall Hauler, the Rescucender, the first Prusik-minding pulleys, and (admitted not very creatively named) the Swivel.

The company prospered and in the early 1990’s Rock began working in another venture making carabiners for a European company. Many of the Rock Exotica products became privately branded for another company.

In the early 2000’s Rock Exotica once again became active in designing and manufacturing the unique equipment we do best. The machinery is a little bit different now. We have a dozen high-end CNC machines. Some of the equipment includes machines that few, if any, in the industry have, such as high speed horizontal machining centers and multi-axis multi-task machines.