Hardwear Sessions

Excerpt from Soundings Magazine, May 2007. "Change in course proves fatal"

...An hour later, at 5 o'clock, Templeman saw the one-in-10 wave, another 45-footer, approach from astern, cresting twice. "The third time, it crested just as we came to the top of it and flipped the catamaran over," he recalls.

Klinges, in his port-hull cabin in full foul weather gear, simply walked out of his bunk and onto the overhead as his cocoon turned upside down. As he made his way aft, he encountered Hobley, still only in thermals and fleece. The skipper had taken just enough time to put on his life jacket. The pair went aft to the escape hatch on the hull. Klinges had grabbed the ditch bag, in which the EPIRB was stored, and had it fastened to his harness.

Outside, 35-foot waves attacked the boat relentlessly...

Kevin Klinges writes:

"I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for some of your gear that I was wearing. I have been a 14 year follower of your gear from tents to clothes. This winter I did something a little different than the usual backcountry skiing I do every year In Sun Valley Idaho."

"I was delivering a 38 foot catamaran from France to the States. I brought my entire top of the line gear including Mountain Hardwear base layer tops and bottoms and mid layer tops and bottoms. Wearing this gear on February 19th 2007 was a primary reason to my survival and the ability to tell my story."

"Necessarily but sadly the Coast Guard had to cut all of my gear off to treat my hypothermia. But thank you for designing something that really works.
Thank You Mountain Hardwear, a real life saver."