Mission Project

By Trent Schutte

My wife, son, and I came to Butte Montana, located on the continental divide, to visit our families for vacation. We currently live in north eastern South Dakota. We were looking forward to several days of hiking and mountain biking while on vacation here. It started snowing nice, big, fluffy fakes on the afternoon of May 21 and we woke up to over 4'' on the 22nd. Since we could not go mountain biking in 70 degree weather as we had a couple days before, a morning of sledding and snowman building was in order.

My wife, son, and I had to borrow boots and gloves from my family for the activities since we had not expected to go sledding in May. Luckily I never leave home without my Technical Fleece jacket no matter what the weather is like. While packing for our vacation I told my wife that I should bring my Subzero jacket just in case it got cold in Montana, but she convinced me I wouldn't need it.

See more photos on Flickr.com

By McDevitt, Sean

Why I ride
As a member of our design team here at Mountain Hardwear, I took on the mission blog challenge, to get out there and use our gear and write about it. During this time my cycling habit became a "problem." So while my neighbors asked why I haven't mowed my lawn for 6 months, I began asked myself why I ride. I ride because it teaches me things about myself and the world around me. Doing endurance bike races tells you things about yourself, your life and your choices. In the middle of the night the VOLUME IS TURNED UP. When I was a runner, I used to hear that the run begins the moment when you forget that you are running. The same is true with riding your bike, when you crest a hill and zip along a winding path through a grove of trees. It's like the lines between you; your bike and the world become blurred, less defined. Some of my fondest moments have come on some wind-swept trail high on some hill far from home. So there again I found myself, late at night in some foreign town, at the local supermarket, buying firewood, water and a ridiculous amount of Kettle chips and Gatorade. This time it was the Coolest 24 Hour race against Cancer held in Cool California.

By Robin Avery

Summer is fast approaching and the days have began to grow longer, and to me, that means more time doing what I love; slackline. Recently I've started to highline. Highlining is similar to slackline except for one important detail: you're high above the ground! Highlining is much different from slackline in respect to the equipment challenge and the mental training it takes to fool your mind into stepping out above a gorge, or a sheer cliff, or a ravine...basically a long long fall.

Firstly, there's no messing around when it comes to high lining. All your equipment has to be solid! There are no taking chances when it comes to highlining. Everything needs redundancies. If something snaps or breaks, you have to have another way to equalize the tremendous amounts of tension required to keep the line taut.

Warm weather drove two friends and me to setup a highline one late afternoon. We drove up to Grizzly Peak Boulevard somewhere between Berkeley and Richmond, California. My friend Damian had this spot already staked out and knew it was perfect for my first highline. 84 feet across! We unloaded all of our gear from the back of our car and lugged it up to Wildcat Canyon...which we will be walking across.

By Tony Farley

My project was to create a video podcast named BeautifulPlaces.tv where I would go to the most beautiful places on earth and videotape my experience. My first episode, where I climb Yosemite Falls, is now available on iTunes! Please take a look. I plan on hiking and backpacking once a week this Summer and releasing a new episode every other week.

Watch my first podcast here!

By Daniel Abar

Hello from the Top of the East Coast... My buddy Jay and I are avid climbers and mountaineers, and like any outdoor enthusiast we jump at any opportunity to test our gear. What better place to test gear than the summit of Mount Washington in the middle of January. The mountain presented us with perfectly disastrous weather for a bid for the summit of the 6,288 foot peak. The summit conditions challenged us with a temperature of 15 degrees Fahrenheit, 50 mph winds, and about 10 feet of visibility. It was awesome! Jay tested the Mountain Hardwear Torch Softshell, while I tested the new GTX 2.5. The jackets allowed for excellent range of motion, super warmth, and remained impenetrable by the wind. There is no doubt we wouldn't have made it without our Mountain Hardwear gear.

The first step is admitting you have a problem...
Within days of returning home from racing 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo we started plotting our next race. We were all hooked, obsessed with racing again, doing better. Maybe we love riding are bikes, the personal challenge or the endorphins. Regardless, the next race would be at Bogg's Mountain Demonstration Forest which can be found a few hours north of San Francisco. Myself, Jonas and Pat will be a 3 man team since Gavin will be racing the Arizona 300. In my previous entry, I mentioned that Gavin was the biggest Junkie of all of us, known to ride Mt. Tamalpais all night; well he upped the ante by committing to do 300 mile unsupported mountain bike race across the mountains of southeast Arizona. Needless to say he will be occupied.