Winter Gathering of The Tribe - Winter Outdoor Retailer
For more than 15 years I have been able to attend the Outdoor Retailer show. I spent the last couple of days down in SLC at, what I feel like is, one of the two annual gatherings of the tribe of outdoors people. I love going down to the show, catching up with friends, and getting glimpses at what the different manufacturers are up to.A few highlights of this years show; I had the opportunity to hang out with one of the individuals that I most look up to, Steve House. Steve has been working really hard, (his better half, Eva, verified this fact) on his newest book: Training for the New Alpinism. His book is going to quickly become an incredible resource for all outdoor athletes on how to improve fitness and by doing so, improve success in the mountains.
I had the chance to catch up with some of my favorite people in the outdoor industry. With some it was just a quick passing fist bump and smile, with others we had time to sit and truly catch up. I felt incredibly lucky to be able to escort one of the nicest ultrarunners on the planet on his walk from one side of the tradeshow to the other as he begrudgingly exited the show en route home. Too many to mention individually, but it was sure great to see so many dear friends.
One of my favorite parts of the show happens out side of the show. For summer OR, it is a night run with the Boxing Bear Running Club. For winter, a pre-dawn blitz towards the high country with an ever-growing herd of Rando Nerds. This morning, well before the sun made it's morning appearance, a group of 8 dudes on über-light rando gear headed out of some parking lot in Little Cottonwood Canyon, for an easy tour. As always it turned into a complete hammerfest with everyone pretending that they weren't suffering. We ticked off a few new-to-me summits in the Wasatch, skied some incredibly variable conditions, and made it back to the cars in time for everyone to get to work or family obligations.
Check out this sweet video by Jared Inyoue- He is my inspiration!
On pure chance, I bumped into one of my favorite authors, Brendan Leonard. Brendan released a book just before Christmas, that Tanae gave me and I quickly devoured. He also is the brains behind the incredible writings on semi-rad.com. Turns out he is even nicer in person than I had imagined, and had a couple of brilliant ideas he shared with me. I may regret him sharing them with me at some point, but I will let you know if that happens.One other significant highlight of the show was the opportunity to sit down with a couple of key individuals and plan some adventuring for the upcoming year. I am still tying up some loose ends, but it looks like the next 11 months of 2014 are going to be EPIC! I actually get sweaty palms just thinking about it. I am so grateful to have the support of so many great people, and particularly the chance I have to work so closely with the amazing folks at Patagonia. Here's to living the dream!