all photos courtesy of Dane Burns
A couple of weeks ago, I had the chance to head down to Salt Lake City to attend the Outdoor Retailer show at the Salt Palace. It's always a great opportunity to see the "newest latest" in gear and textiles that most of the major manufacturers in the outdoor industry are offering for the '11 year. It's impressive to see what was considered well designed gear improved. Makes me wonder what developments will happen next year.
The OR show is also an event that attracts many like minded people so it's not uncommon to run into friends that I haven't seen for up to 10+ years. Really cool to see old friends from times past and to catch up on the evolutions in our lives.
One of the best parts about being down there for me was the time I got to spend hanging with the KAVU crew and to catch up with the "boys" from KEEN. Super positive energy while looking toward the future was all about laughing it up and planning adventure. Pretty easy to be stoked around those guys. So psyched to be involved with both companies. First, they provide the clothes and shoes that keep things comfortable and casual during daily life, and, both are all about "giving back" and sharing the positivity with communities around the world. Their generosity has lent to the Cloudbase Foundation's effort to help the kids in Canoa, Ecuador. Proud to be linked to KEEN and KAVU, for sure.
Along with seeing old friends, I had the opportunity to meet some new people. I had heard about Bill Belcourt for years in both the flying and climbing circles. He heads the gear department at Black Diamond and has climbed rock and ice routes all over the world, some of which are routes that I would either love to try or have been lucky enough to have done. He is also a multi time US Paragliding world team member and is still killing it with huge flights in his home state of Utah. A true mountain pilot and climber, he also has a family with a young kiddo. We have so much in common that I was hoping to get a chance to meet Bill and to check out the Black Diamond booth while in Utah.
After meeting up, It worked out for Bill to take a day away from work and the family to go out and swing the tools on a road side route, just up the canyon from the house O'brien lived at while in Provo. I met him and his friend, Dane Burns, at the park and ride next to the Point and we drove up to climb the 5 pitches of ice on a route called "stairway to heaven". On the short walk in, he schooled me on the many ways to strategically convince your partner to allow you to lead the best pitches. In the end, it just stung him as my "nice guy" technique allowed me to get to lead the money pitches but, the truth is, he had done the route so many times in the past that he only allowed me to think I was playing it well. I felt like I lost by winning...or is it won by losing? Either way, I was stoked to be there, so it was winning regardless;-) It was the perfect thing to do before an 8 hour drive back to Missoula. The ice was in pretty good shape and the climbing was fun. After topping out, we rapped off, I thanked Bill and Dane for getting out and was on my way. It was a great end to a good trip.
I had 6 days to crank in the shop, sewing as much as I could before heading down to the WW factory in LA to meet up with Steve and Mike, Jeff, Dustin, Zippy and our good friend from the Italian team, Filippo to get him sorted with his new glider and harness. More on that later.
