It is finally summer in the Rockies.

Time to finally put away my indispensable Run Don’t Walk fleece. Got me thinking – what is it about certain pieces of clothing that make them so good? Why are some products stickier in terms of their appeal than others?

The Cloudveil Run Don’t Walk is a simple piece really. Great fit. Deep drop zipper for venting. Polartec Powerstretch 100 and named for a classic Teton climb – the Run Don’t Walk couloir on Mount Owen.

Also, kinda cool to be a play on words of the classic Ventures surf tune.

More than ever, brands should be considering the impact an engagement strategy can do for their bottom line. We are pushing all clients to begin monitoring and listening to the conversations surrounding their brands online, and begin to come up with an engagement strategy.

Blank is courtesy of the team at [22squared.com].

This month Good Magazine revamped the overused and overprinted “Best Bike Cities In the U.S.” story to include some not-so-obvious contenders. Who knew Pittsburgh would make the list? Not I. Check out which 2-wheelin’ metropolis may be giving Boulder a run for its money.

Read here:
http://www.good.is/post/sorry-portland/

While you’re there, check out this awesome story on how your phone technology may lead to better choices. Want to know if the store you are in front of is hiring or where you can pick up the closest Zipcar to your current location, and all you have to do is point your phone?? Sounds crazy.. but so did velcro once.
Check it out here. http://www.good.is/post/better-choices-through-technology/

Here at Backbone, we help out a lot of our clients with their company blogs. Sometimes, writing those blogs can take us to the deepest, darkest corners of the internet where you can discover true gems like the video below AND find a way to work them into your blog post. That’s good livin’ on a Monday morning.

(Ok, apparently I can’t embed this video, but it’s well worth clicking through to YouTube to watch it).

We’re celebrating JLD’s 40th birthday party at the Belly Up in Aspen where Matisyahu is playing tonight. I trust we’ll see lots of the running man.

Being a PR Account Manager has its downside.. sometimes you have to write a million press releases in one day, sometimes your products just barely get cut from a huge magazine. Sometimes you have writers block with a pitch. Sometimes life is hard.

But other times, like our most recent trip to the Big Apple, we spent all day meeting fantastic editors, and then we jumped in a limo and headed to one of New York’s most famous jazz clubs, the Birdland, in high style. Yeah, we don’t do anything half-assed around here.

Oh, did I mention we are hiring… (hunting enthusiast preferred).

Cloudveil and the TheAdventureLife.org have paired up for a little interactive iphone fun. Between now and July 13th, download the free iphone application for Ski Jump and start practicing. If you log the longest jump, you could win a free Cloudveil ski jacket worth up to $450 bucks. Warning: This game is highly addictive and Cloudveil takes no responsibility for the decreased work productivity that may result from downloading this app.

Fore more details go to www.theadventurelife.org.

Some of you may know or have heard of Randy Rackliff. Others may not.

Chained

Randy is a skilled alpine climber. He builds cult Cold Cold World backpacks and also spends time cutting rad woodblock prints. The prints are all limited editions. They’ve accompanied musings by Mark Twight and were featured in Jon Krakauer’s limited edition of Into Thin Air.

Hillary Step

Randy’s wife, Ruthann Brown sent along a few of Randy’s new mythological themed comps recently. With the OR Season fast approaching I found the Sisyphus image somehow appropriate…

Sisyphus

if you are interested in learning more or purchasing have at it!

Let’s see, last week Backbone was in Beantown, Boulder, Richmond, City of Rocks and Chicago.

No trip to Chi-Town is complete without a trip to the Wrigley Bleachers

Friday afternoon saw a flurry of action here at the Carbondale HQ as Lance and Levi stopped by to warm up for the local time trial. Meanwhile, our team in Jackson Hole is out looking for a larger office space to accommodate growth there.

Lance spinning while Greg offers Sage advice on the front steps at Backbone

This week? Ride the Rockies is in town. Greg, Mavis, Ian, Sarah, and Dax are in NYC hosting an event with Kristan Clarke’s Rendezvous Event Management agency .

Cloudveil, SmartWool, Newton Running, POC, Brunton, Gerber, and Boa will all be there!

I was honored to be featured in Ron Spomer’s latest Gun Dogs column in the June issue of American Hunter Magazine.  Ron is a prolific outdoor writer, photographer, avid hunter and gun dog enthusiast from Boise, ID.  We hit it off a couple years back after we met and started talking dogs.

The article is called, “The Training Timetable.”   While training my pup Elsie and her litter mates over the last two years I was struck by the different stages at which puppies advance.  The pups all had almost identical life experiences, yet they were individuals with different needs.  Spomer draws on my observations and experiences to illustrate how patience, timing and individual attention are of utmost importance when training any pup.

Photo credit goes to Glenn Melus.  Thank you Glenn.  Download AmericanHunter article here.

Jonny, Micah and Wade

Words cannot express how we feel about your sudden departure.  There is a huge void right now.  We will miss you and look forward to the next time we adventure together.

See Renan Ozturk’s Video:  Huge Loss of Wade, Micah and Jonny in Sichuan Mountains of China