In his hometown, he was an apprentice blacksmith before moving to Paris first, and then Le Havre where he enrolled as a merchant seaman for 4 years, traveling as far as Africa and Brazil.

In March 1930, at the age of 30, Salathé, together with his wife and child, emigrated from Montreal, Canada to finally settle in San Mateo, United States.

In his San Mateo business, Peninsula Wrought Iron Works,[1] Salathé used high-carbon chrome-vanadium steel, similar to that used to make Ford axles, to forge extremely strong pitons which could be hammered into the hard Yosemite granite without buckling, as well as removed without getting mangled, thus rendering them reusable.

[2] He became a devoted member of a Christian spiritualist religious group called the Spiritual Lodge Zurich, led by the medium Beatrice Brunner.

[2] He maintained his vegetarian diet based largely on wild grasses and herbs, that he sought out, with barley, pinto beans and rice and preached his spiritualist beliefs.