Hardwear Sessions

We've kick-started our Diva & Conquer contest!

Diva & Conquer celebrates today's active women. These amazing women juggle work, family, and the outdoors without missing a beat.

Do you know an Outdoor Diva?

Visit our Diva & Conquer page to nominate an Outdoor Diva, and help her win some great prizes. While you're there, learn about our fun-filled Ladies' Nights, and read inspiring stories about your fellow Divas.

Diva & Conquer closes on November 5, 2007, so nominate your Diva before this opportunity slips away.

In the summer of 2007, the German climber Robert Jasper traveled to Tibet to attempt a solo climb of Cho Oyu, the sixth highest peak in the world. In Jasper's own words, "First I [will] try to climb alone the NW ridge (classic route) to the summit. If the conditions are well, I will try to solo a first ascent using new route up to the summit."

Last week, Jasper experienced an ice avalanche on Cho Oyu's glacier. Here, he tells the story.

After an interesting journey through Tibet from Lhasa, I reached base camp safely. I started from camp ABC (advanced base camp) 5700 meters in perfect weather for the acclimatization up the mountain.

I reached camp 1 at 6400 meters and set up my very small bunker tent. Some days later I was back on the way to camp 1 to climb higher up the mountain. Suddenly, a very big serace collapsed at around 7000 meters and crashed down to the glacier were I was climbing up.

I jumped behind a small boulder. The pressure and the snow stopped my breathing and I thought, "It's over." But luckily the big ice and snow avalanche stopped some meters in front of me. I injured my shoulder and neck during this action but at least I had very big luck to survive.

After a check by the expedition doctor at base camp and some rest days, I tried to climb the mountain again but the pain and the injuries were too big.

For me [there is] now no chance to climb at the moment and to try to summit.

So this expedition is over but I am lucky to survive.

By Will Meinen

As the snow begins to fall in the Canadian Rocky Mountains and old man winter takes his grip once again, the alpine rock season abruptly comes to a close. With a very short alpine rock season here in the Rockies, the apprenticeship of an aspiring young alpinist is a very testing process. However, with persistence and a humble attitude, alpine climbing can bring forth moments and memories that can be treasured for a lifetime.

Reflecting upon my alpine rock season I must say that it definitely brought forth more failures than successes, but (with my limit experience) this seems to be the nature of the matter. My new motto has become "failure and hardship brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character." I figure as long as I take away lessons with my failures they are not failures at all, but rather mini-successes.

Several weeks ago a friend and I attempted to climb the East Ridge of Mt. Edith Cavell (III 5.3 3373 m) in Jasper, Alberta. Mt. Edith Cavell is considered one of the 50 classics of North America. As I read the guide book description, prior to my attempt, it sounded too good to be true: Easily done in a day, the best route on Mt. Edith Cavell, etc, etc. I was shut down. Hard.

Mountain Hardwear and Montrail are teaming up with the Richmond Hilltop YMCA for the inaugural Home Front 5 and 10k Run, to be held on September 30. 2007, along Richmond's beautiful Bay Trail .

• Event Name: YMCA Home Front 5K and 10K
• Event Date: September 30, 2007
• Registration: Online or at the Event
• Location: Richmond -- Marina Bay
• Starting Time: 10:00AM
• Fees: Adults $25; 18 years and under $20; $30 day of event. Families of 4 $72; $18 for each additional family member (plus handling fee).
• Course Description: Flat along the scenic Bay Trail, starting at Lucretia Edwards Shoreline Park and ending at the Marina Bay Park.
• Contact: On Your Mark Events
• Proceeds Benefit: Richmond Hilltop YMCA Youth Fitness Programs
• Fees Include: Race Shirt - Mountain Hardwear Wicked T's; Goody Bag; Raffle Prizes (e.g., Montrail Running Shoes, you must be present to win); entrance to the Home Front Festival; water and snacks.

Our athletes and field testers have long wished for a lightweight softshell designed for high-impact aerobic activities, something that could stand up to inclement weather, feel good next to the skin, and accommodate a wide range of movements. When Gore-Tex introduced a new generation of WINDSTOPPER fabrics, including a stretch knit, our designers realized that they had found the perfect starting point.

Ryan Riggs, a dedicated Mountain Hardwear employee, has the ambition to climb 50 peaks in 50 states. Read about his latest adventure, and view his photographs on Flickr.

By Ryan Riggs, MHW International

I'm not much for the restaurant scene or the arts, so if I were to make a top ten list of reasons to move to Seattle, my number one would be the North Cascades. In fact, in the last few years I have done very little in and around the Portland area, preferring to spend my time up in Washington in some of the most unique outdoor settings in world. Recently, my buddy Brian and I had the chance to climb Mt. Baker.

It's quite the drive from Portland to Baker, way up there near the Canadian border. We were hoping to summit early Saturday morning to avoid all the weekend warriors. You may not be aware of this important technicality, but if you start on a Friday you don't have to consider yourself a weekend warrior. I might have just made that up, but it sounds good.

By David Marchi

September 10, 2007 (Santiago)

After a day tour of Santiago we headed to Valle Nevado to do some resort skiing to refresh our minds and legs to skiing again after a long summer. As we would have suspected it was corn snow and warm temperatures but was great to get familiar with our equipment again. The remainder of the day we tried to rest on the super windy road back to Santiago.

We made it into Patagonia yesterday via Balmaceda into the town of Villa Cerro Castillo, nestled at the base of the Cerro Castillo Massif and surrounding mountains. Today was a logistics day preparing food, equipment and transportation into the mountains. Due to the unknown terrain we will be facing, we came up with a game plan to utilize horses to access basecamp. With the heavy vegetation down low, it will relieve a lot of time using the horse services. Our local team member Rodolfo has never seen this much snow in the area, which will help once we get off horseback and onto skis.

The mountain range is much more impressive than we could have imagined from pictures and maps that we have viewed in the past. There are hundreds of first ascent and descent opportunities and we are all drooling from the possibilities! It is such a climactic moment to come to an new area and finally see what is available, especially when its much MORE than we could have suspected. We need to keep our fingers crossed because the weather broke upon arriving in the area and it looks like we will have a high pressure system for a little while. However, we know that Patagonia is much like Alaska, where the weather is very fickle and can change at any time. But things look good and we are ready to move into the mountains tomorrow morning! Oh the possibilities!

This will probably be the last blog for the next two weeks until we return from the mountains, but we will have a day by day account accompanied by some killer photos.

September 7, 2007 (Santiago)

The name of our expedition is the Las Ardillas Expediiton, which represents the lodge in which we will be based during the trip into the Cerro Castillo Mountains.

After a fury of packing gear, finalizing travel plans, and soaking in the last minute warmth of San Diego, Petit Pinson, Forrest Coots and David Marchi have converged in Santiago, Chile for the first stretch of the expedition. With a fat snow year and a promising spring snowpack, we are heading down south to the Cerro Castillo mountains of Patagonia. Basing ourselves out of the Las Ardillas fishing lodge, owned by Rodolfo Quiros, our intentions are to extensively ski and explore these mountains for future trips.

This summer, Kenton Cool and Nick Bullock decided to test a new route on the north face of Mount Kalanka, in India's Garhwal Himalaya range. As Nick noted in a recent interview, Kalanka's north face currently has only one developed line, a fixed-rope climb. Kenton and Nick plan an alpine-style ascent. We would like to share Kenton's trip journal with you. Please keep checking our blog for future updates.

September 9, 2007 (Kalanka Base Camp):

Here we go.

Forecast looks ok and we leave for the route in a couple of hours, back in a week or so we hope.

Fingers crossed.

September 1, 2007 (Kalanka Base Camp):

Sitting back in BC after setting up ABC under the mountain. Nick and I spent the last two days getting all the equipment to high camp. We have found a great spot about 45 minutes from the start of the climb. The route there is pretty complex. A huge glacial moraine which takes hours to cross. Huge boulders that seems about to fall on you each time you pass, often we have to jump between them making the whole thing pretty scary.

We spent the night at ABC which was great, a really clear starry night (the first we have had), the only thing that disturbed the sleep was me screaming out during a nightmare. Interestingly Nick thought that I must have been dreaming about climbing and that I'd fallen off. In fact it was a cricket match??????

Now we are resting at BC with some bad wet weather again, will it ever clear up here??

The route looks awesome though.

By Alex Baires

Pull out your camping gear one more time before the weather changes. Or, if you need to upgrade, consider treating yourself to a Mountain Hardwear Light Wedge tent, Foray pack, or award-winning UltraLamina bag. These, among with a few select other Mountain Hardwear equipment styles sold in the U.S. come with a "Leave No Trace" outdoor ethics tag. This is our way of asking you to take a minute to think about your impact on the outdoors during your trips.

In a joint effort with Leave No Trace, Mountain Hardwear included outdoor ethics tags with approximately 7,000 packs, bags, and tents sold in the U.S. this Spring/Summer. We plan to continue this program next Spring/Summer and in the meantime, feel free to use this PDF file to print your own Leave No Trace outdoor ethics tag (on recycled paper, of course). Or, we would be happy to send you a tag if you send a self-addressed stamped envelope to:

Mountain Hardwear Gives Back LNT Outdoor Ethics Tag, ATTN. Alex 4911 Central Ave. Richmond, CA 94804

Looking forward to a good winter with lots of good snow in the mountains...

Cubicle Fever strikes and the Mountain Hardwear Customer Service crew responds with style.