This past week I had the distinct pleasure of accompanying Outdoor Alliance (OA) team members during a series of meetings on Capitol Hill. A broad coalition of top industry advocacy groups, including the American Canoe Assoc, the ACCESS Fund, American Whitewater, the American Hiking Society, IMBA and Winter Wildlands Alliance, OA’s mission is to promote conservation and stewardship of our public lands and waters through sustainable human powered recreation.
I’ll admit, that’s a mouthful so I’ll frame it a different way. OA is a dedicated group of climbers, skiers, paddlers, cyclists and hikers fighting for the places that sustain them – not to mention you, me and our industry as a whole. In this instance our fearless friends stepped out of more familiar climes – on belay, in the backcountry, on the trail and/or river – to roll up their collective sleeves and take the outdoor community’s message to Washington.
The goal in D.C. was a simple, but important one. To meet face-to-face with key decision makers, policy chiefs and Senate staffers to add the human powered recreation community’s voice to the myriad of discussions happening on the Hill. Not just because OA feels that protecting our public lands is the right thing to do – of course it is – but to illustrate that there is a real economic benefit to land and water conservation thanks to the over $700 billion and 6.5 million jobs that outdoor recreation contributes to the national economy.
In two days of meetings with the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, Dept. of Interior, Center for Environmental Quality and numerous Senate offices topics ranged from Climate legislation and Forest Service Planning to federal and state Roadless Rulings and Land and Water Conservation funding. Throughout it all, it was clear that Outdoor Alliance is a welcome partner in crafting a 21st century vision for our public lands. In fact, the beltway was noticeably abuzz over the recently signed Presidential Memorandum launching the America’s Great Outdoors Initiative and frequent conversations across the agencies turned toward Outdoor Alliance playing an important role in moving the initiative forward.
All in all, it was an incredible glimpse behind the curtain in our nation’s capital and an astonishing opportunity for Outdoor Alliance to make sure our voice is represented for generations to come.
Local Photog extraordinaire Dave Clifford snapped this shot of Jeff Johnson headed for Shoshone
Weather is a wild card, and whether you are waiting for single track to dry or for a ski line to come into condition you learn that to achieve your goals you have to watch and wait rather than plan too far ahead. Sometimes it is better to listen than to try to drive the conversation.
Kristo getting wake up face shots on Marble Sunday
The 5 Point Film Festival which ran over this past weekend emphasized just this. It brought together great films such as 180 South, Patagonia Promise and Second Nature but more importantly a community of skiers, climbers, paddlers, filmmakers, fly fishers and the spirit these endeavors embody.
Melody Grote from 1% For The Planet introducing a film
So whether the weather permitted it – we all got to play a little bit – rafting in the snow, skiing pow up in Marble, or nymphing for browns on the Pan. We also got to connect to players in our community from New Belgium, 1% For the Planet, Patagonia, Black Diamond, Polartec and others.
Pretty simply, getting together with friends and sharing work/play experiences is why we do what we do.
“If you find yourself alone you are probably late.” Those were the simple, sage words of Leifur our Viking guide, as he described our nimble itinerary following the eruption of Eyjafjoell the morning of our arrival in Reykjavik.
Good thing we had our shovels...encountering permafrost and mud on Hekla
Roads were being dismantled to avoid flooding and bridges being washed out. The ash was so thick it was dark as night in the day. Basically our southern tour of the volcanic summits adjacent to the eruption was not exactly happening as planned. After failing to reach snowline on nearby Hekla due to axle deep mud, we headed north to the Troll Peninsula near Dalvik to ski fjords above the Arctic Ocean. We visited 66 North, 2 of Iceland’s 3 micro breweries and hot springed along the way.
Ponies and Powder
It was awesome.
Peter Plattner Plows the Powder
Iceland is a wonderful place with a rich history and refreshingly no-nonsense tendency for understatement. Our group of 4 European journalists (two of which are UIAGM guides) and 4 Americans skinned and skied 2010 product from Black Diamond’s new Efficient Ski Line amid spectacular settings.
Northern Light
Drew Pogge, Editor from Backcountry Magazine summed it up nicely at the bottom of a gigantic Glory Bowl type of run – when he uttered, “I don’t know what I would do if I did not ski.”
Olaf on Aspects
“What are the units on the scale of awesomeness?” Derek Gustafson, a ski boot designer from Black Diamond asked rhetorically.
Icewater-Land
To top it off the last morning before our flight home a handful of us braved 4 degree centigrade water to snorkel along the joint of the North American and the Eurasian continental plates. To see more photos check out Boris’ blog. See you out there!
Forecast is calling for snow in Carbondale tomorrow, yet for some folks that doesn’t really matter. They’ve said goodbye to “Old Man” winter and have signed up for spring. It’s time for shorts & flops, longer days, outdoor BBQ’s, float trips, bike rides and of course, weekend trips to Fruita and Moab. I’d bet the chances are good that these same people will be clamoring for winter come July?
Instead of fighting the tide, I decided to join some friends recently on an atypical spring pilgrimage to the desert. With temps at home flirting near 70 degrees, I packed up my skis and all my warm clothes and headed for the La Sal Mountains. The La Sals are located near the eastern border of the state of Utah, rising above the town of Moab. The maximum elevation is at Mount Peale, reaching 12,721 feet (3,877 m) above sea level. The range contains three clusters of peaks separated by passes. The peaks span a distance of about 18 miles (25 km). Having spent a majority of my winter preparing for the Elk Mountain Grand Traverse (for a race report), always having some sort of training objective in order, it felt great to be headed to the La Sals with only a few goals in mind: to explore a new mountain range & have fun skiing with friends.
OK, I have to be honest, we had some goals. Our first one was Little Tuk – 12,048 feet. Not the tallest peak that we climbed in the La Sals, but in my opinion one of the nicest ski lines. And then off to Mount Tukuhnikivatz – 12,482 feet (3805 m) – aka Big Tuk. Can you say Tu-kuhn-ik-ivatz really fast 10 times?
And lastly, it was off to Mount Mellenthin – 12,645 feet (3854 m), the second highest peak in the range.
For sure this was my best trip to Moab ever. And I was skiing. So cool to be looking at the desert floor from the peaks above! So for all of you like me, still clinging on to “Old Man Winter,” if it’s getting a little to warm where you are…keep an adventure like the La Sals in mind. Time to plan for my next ski trip on Saturday. Sounds like we will have some fresh POW…
If you fancy yourself a a bike geek, or even just an avid cyclist, Serotta is a name you’ve probably heard before. Ben Serotta has been hand-crafting beautiful custom bikes in the US since 1972. In the 1980’s Serotta built bikes for the 7-Eleven team (though they were labeled as Huffy) helping legendary riders like Eric Heiden win the US Pro Championships, Davis Phinney win a stage of Tour de France in 1986 (the first for an American), and Andy Hampsten win the Giro d’Italia. Serotta also pioneered bike fitting, developing the first Size Cycle back in 1979 and organizing the industry’s first School for Professional Bike Fitting. Serotta also created the first double-butted titanium frameset, the “S” bend chainstay and the patented pivoted ST carbon seatstay.
Today, Serotta is one of the most vertically integrated bicycle manufacturers in the world, with its own carbon fiber composites production facility in Poway, California and manufacturing in a state of the art facility in Saratoga Springs, NY. Serotta also just strengthened its leadership with the addition of Stan Mavis as the new president. Stan was a co-founder of Pearl Izumi and later president of Sugoi (not to mention a former world record holder in the half marathon and Colorado Running Hall of Fame member). The newly formed Serotta Sport company will continue to offer Serotta’s legendary custom, hand-built bicycles and also be the exclusive North American distributor of Catlike helmets and ETXEONDO cycling apparel.
For those of you in Colorado, Stan and the team from Serotta are making a few stops at their dealers to show off their latest handmade creations and talk about what’s new in the world of professional bike fitting. Serotta will be in Aspen today and then in Boulder on Saturday and Sunday. Here are the details:
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Thursday 4/22: The Hub of Aspen, 3-6pm (970)-925-7970
Skiing is wrapping up. Spring is here with good road riding in the RF valley in between snow storms and powder tours.
Backbone recently was named one of Colorado Companies to Watch by Colorado BIZ magazine. Backbone was one of 50 companies named out of a field of over 420. Additionally, Nate Simmons was voted one of Sporting Goods Business 40 under 40 – one of the most influential young industry professionals for his role as Global Director of Marketing for Polartec and partner here at Backbone.
On the fun side, Nate and Greg were up with Chugach Powder Guides with crew from New Belgium, Powder (thanks Kback!) and various film crews like MSP. Check out Adrian’s warm up video below.
KBack, G-Dub and Nate
Backbone has always loved to bike. Now we are spinning with new clients Serotta Sports, Honey Stinger, Velogear and Jett MTB. Along with this, Backbone is proud to announce Mike McCormack joining our team. Many may know Mike from his Trek, Yeti or Breck Epic days. Mike is a cycling geek and has a 120 lb. dog named Boo – which easily outweighs both of his boys JJ and Tavish. Mike’s wife Emily is a PR powerhouse in her own right and runs Hula Communications.
To see all the official news you can go to our pitchengine newsroom or check it out on our site. Lastly, our good man Ian Anderson and his wife Sari recently added a new son Axel to their family. I realize we don’t “do” baby announcement blogs here so I’ll include that Ian was recently promoted to Director of PR here at Backbone doubling up his responsibilities.
Excuse my French but Axel will be a next generation bad ass
Life has been busy for Backbone’s Media’s Media Buying and Planning Director, Greg Williams. After returning last weekend from a life-altering ski trip in Alaska, Greg is getting ready to head out the door again. This time, however, he won’t need his ski gear, but instead, will have to dig through his closet for some rarely-used city clothes.
This week’s destination is ad:tech San Francisco, one of the nation’s premier interactive marketing conferences. Greg will attend with client New Belgium Brewing and social media application developer Friend2Friend. Backbone Media, Friend2Friend, and New Belgium Brewery have been invited to speak about their joint efforts on Facebook. The presentation will include a case study of New Belgium Brewery’s evolving presence on Facebook, and will address topics such as attaining a critical mass of followers, engaging with fans in a meaningful way, and localizing social media messages.
Backbone, Friend2Friend, and New Belgium Brewery will be presenting alongside Levis Straus and Toyota- wish them luck!
To learn more about New Belgium’s Facebook efforts read the blog post by Melyssa Glassman, Creative Director at New Belgium Brewery, vist http://tinyurl.com/y2oz6ry. Also, be sure to check Backbone Media and Friend2Friend’s most recent New Belgium Brewery Facebook application (pictured below) at http://tinyurl.com/4t993. If you’re not a fan of your local New Belgium Facebook page, you should become one!
French magazine Clin D’Oeil just published their list of the Top 15 Initiatives to Benefit the Planet, and 1% For The Planet ranked second for their digital music compilation that came out at the beginning of this year. The passage below (or what I can gather from guessing French words) describes the organization’s mission, rapid growth in the past few years, and debut of the digital music compilation that directly benefits member-non-profits.
1% for the Planet joins some interesting company on the list.
Number 8 is a rice-crispy treat turned into a hamburger:
Number 5 is this ad campaign that would never make it past the drawing board in the United States:
Its true, especially in the world of outdoor industry PR. Here in Jackson we have at least five public relations firms, and that number is growing by the minute. Whether it be our love of press releases, our obsession with new media strategies or our generally goofy demeanor, we all tend to share a common bond and actually happen to spend quite a bit of time together outside of the office. Whether this is a good decision or not I am still not sure…
Yesterday I took the afternoon off to enjoy Jackson Hole’s famous Gaper Day, where we trade in all of the innovative and technical gear from our fantastic clients and instead we break out our wigs, one-pieces, jeans, rear-entry boots and skinny skis. Also, blowing around on the lift, in freezing temperatures, in a retro ski jacket lined with what seems to be cotton balls, is also a great reminder of how far ski apparel has come. Although, I have to say the fanny pack is actually so practical.. not sure what happened there.
I met up with a team of Jackson PR all stars at the top of Thunder Bumps to do some unnecessary jump turns, some aggressive pole planting, a few spread eagles and uh um, talk PR of course. Joining me are Kristan Clarke of Rendezvous Event Management, Don Watkins and Alli Noland of Terra PR and Lauren Parker of Verde.
If you haven’t broken out the one-piece yet this season, good ole Warren Miller and I have one thing to say about that….”If you don’t do it this year, you’ll be another year older when you do.”
