Virtual basecamp for alpinists, adventurers, and climbers. Climb into our design rooms and out of the crags. Follow our professional athletes, first-hand looks from our designers, monthly contests, podcasts, video, insider articles, gear philosophy, tips and tricks. Enjoy the ride!
Which shelter would you rather be in? ...As long as those trailers don't land on you
A Veterinary Graduate Student from Boulder, WY writes,
...The wind picked up on Tuesday (last week) and rocked my trailer more than usual. I finally decided to jump ship and looked out the window to find carnage in the RV park. My trailer was unhurt along with a Mountain Hardwear tent that braved the microburst, but several trailers were totaled and several more were moved up to 15' from their original position. Most trailers lost skirting, anything left outside (including 2 ATVs), satellite dishes, etc. Luckily, nobody was hurt in the storm. The moral of the story is batten down the hatches (or buy a Mountain Hardwear tent!) -Laura Linn
Mountain Hardwear Athelete Ed Viesturs Joins Global Warming 101 Baffin Island Expedition
On April 16, 2007, Ed Viesturs joined the Global Warming 101 Expedition traversing Baffin Island. Ed will be along side Global Warming 101 founder Will Steger, Virgin founder Richard Branson and others. The expedition has been ongoing since February and is focused on raising awareness of global warming and documenting its effects on climate change.
With the help of Cisco Systems, Ed will be giving audio podcasts throughout his expedition. Each week Ed will release a brief video discussing everything from why he started climbing to the role of technology in climbing today.
You can also follow along with RSS feeds.
To view the Ed "Viesturs Joins Baffin Island Expedition" feed in your RSS Aggregator
1. Copy this URL: http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/tln/events/edviesturs/ed_viesturs.xml
2. Paste the URL into your reader.
The sport of slackline is growing increasingly more popular, however, there are still countless things to be done before the slackline community can consider the sport anywhere near mainstream. I have been slacklining since around May of 2005. I have always been an avid climber since my father introduced me to top roping at the young age of seven. It is easy to make a natural progression from climber to slackliner...of course, it's best to remain a climber and a slackliner and not the other way around.
AVOIDING FINGER TENDON INJURIES
With the gym season in full flight it can be worth taking a step back just to check that you're doing everything you can to avoid injury. Fingers are the first link in the anatomical chain for climbers and hence they are the most susceptible to going twang. Sometimes finger tendon injuries appear to strike cruelly at random — you did your warm-up so what went wrong? A complex combination of factors can be responsible. Lets examine the most significant ones:
My love affair with China finally came to an end at the close of 2006. After three trips in one year I can safely say that I'm climbed out! When we first saw the pictures of Yangshuo in South East China it looked too good to be true - a Karst moonscape with giant arches and towers looming out of the mist above meandering rivers and terraced padi fields. It was a potential sport climbing paradise, and yet it seemed that the late, great Todd Skinner was the only Westerner to have put up hard new routes out there. In November 2005 I jetted out with a small team of Brits including Seb Grieve (of Hard Grit repute) to see if we could add to the list.
When we started the Viperine tent project, we set out to make the most efficiently designed, 2 person tent that was actually livable but light enough for backpacking. We wanted it to be strong enough for most conditions but competitive on weight and price. We build a lot into our tents, such as welded zipper flaps and full taped perimeter seams — features that our competitors often skip. These features add weight and cost but also add functionality. In a world where customers shop on weight per square foot, we are challenged to deliver tents that live up to our standards of quality and still deliver on weight. Eventually, after much work, our lead tent Designer Martin Zemitis came up with what we think is a ground breaking design.
I'm usually not tempted to stray from snow covered mountains while there's snow on them, but the annual Moab MUni Festival is worth making an exception for. Mountain Unicycles, known as MUni's, have been around for about 5-10 years and according to Mountain Dew now qualify as "an emerging sport." This year's Muni fest attracted roughly 200 riders from all over the world, ranging in age from six to sixty. The two and a half day event is mainly a good excuse to get together and ride in a great setting. For the first time in the event's history it rained, which hardly slowed anyone down. If anything, it made things a little tougher, which MUni riders seem to thrive on.
Testing gear as well as nerves: the wilder sides of Escalante
By Micah Hinton
Hardwear Fans,
Here are some pics and some videos (part 1 and part 2) from our recent Desert Rendezvous in Escalante Utah March 22 - March 25. This event was open to all employees of Mountain Hardwear dealers. If you have never been to this part of the world you need to go now. Escalante is located in Southern Utah surrounded by Capitol Reef, Arches, Zion and Bryce National Parks. It is in the middle of the Grand Staircase National Monument, and some of the most beautiful country anywhere.
We had a great week out in the desert testing our backpacks, sleeping bags and tents in beautiful, rugged terrain. Every day we had groups out canyoneering the incredible slot canyons nearby, mountain biking, hiking, fly fishing and backpacking with the Exodus packs. We had 300 foot rappels, 1000 pound chalkstones, Indian ruins, 16" brown trout, flash floods, and everything else possible.
