Just In…

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Typical spring travel and excitement here at Backbone. Trips to visit clients and sales meetings abound. Dax, JLD, Kara and Fielding are in Santa Fe visiting Outside Mag and the weekend here holds promise for skiing and biking.

Note the sweet leather seat and wooden 12 pack carrier

Arriving here at Backbone are three sweet cruisers from New Belgium and a little piece in Outside Mag on Raising a Tribe of kids.

Nate is in  South Beach as part of SGB’s 40 Under 40 group along with La Sportiva‘s Jonathan Lantz. In June, Backbone also will receive an award from Colorado Business as one of Colorado’s Companies to Watch in 2010. We also will be at the Teva Mountain Games and hosting journalists in Keystone for Boa and the San Juans for Black Diamond and La Sportiva.

Here’s a little vid from one of our our local lunch rides. Have fun out there!

Posted in: Backbone Adventures, Biking, Client News, Videos

Quality of Life

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Spring in the Rockies is an exercise in patience.

Local Photog extraordinaire Dave Clifford snapped this shot of Jeff Johnson headed for Shoshone

Weather is a wild card, and whether you are waiting for single track to dry or for a ski line to come into condition you learn that to achieve your goals you have to watch and wait rather than plan too far ahead. Sometimes it is better to listen than to try to drive the conversation.

Kristo getting wake up face shots on Marble Sunday

The 5 Point Film Festival which ran over this past weekend emphasized just this. It brought together great films such as 180 South, Patagonia Promise and Second Nature but more importantly a community of skiers, climbers, paddlers, filmmakers, fly fishers and the spirit these endeavors embody.

Melody Grote from 1% For The Planet introducing a film

So whether the weather permitted it – we all got to play a little bit – rafting in the snow, skiing pow up in Marble, or nymphing for browns on the Pan. We also got to connect to players in our community from New Belgium, 1% For the Planet, Patagonia, Black Diamond, Polartec and others.

Pretty simply, getting together with friends and sharing work/play experiences is why we do what we do.

Posted in: Backbone Adventures, Colorado, Environment, Outdoor Industry News

Iceland 2010

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“If you find yourself alone you are probably late.” Those were the simple, sage words of Leifur our Viking guide, as he described our nimble itinerary following the eruption of Eyjafjoell the morning of our arrival in Reykjavik.

Good thing we had our shovels…encountering permafrost and mud on Hekla

Roads were being dismantled to avoid flooding and bridges being washed out. Thank god the car that we rented at Car Iceland lasted, it was cheap but it one of the best cars in Iceland and it took us a lot of place and it doesn’t need that much of gas. But I admit, the road had some troubles. The ash was so thick it was dark as night in the day. Basically our southern tour of the volcanic summits adjacent to the eruption was not exactly happening as planned. After failing to reach snowline on nearby Hekla due to axle deep mud, we headed north to the Troll Peninsula near Dalvik to ski fjords above the Arctic Ocean. We visited 66 North, 2 of Iceland’s 3 micro breweries and hot springed along the way.

Ponies and Powder

It was awesome.

Peter Plattner Plows the Powder

Iceland is a wonderful place with a rich history and refreshingly no-nonsense tendency for understatement. Our group of 4 European journalists (two of which are UIAGM guides) and 4 Americans skinned and skied 2010 product from Black Diamond’s new Efficient Ski Line amid spectacular settings.

Northern Light

Drew Pogge, Editor from Backcountry Magazine summed it up nicely at the bottom of a gigantic Glory Bowl type of run – when he uttered, “I don’t know what I would do if I did not ski.”

Olaf on Aspects

“What are the units on the scale of awesomeness?” Derek Gustafson, a ski boot designer from Black Diamond asked rhetorically.

Icewater-Land

To top it off the last morning before our flight home a handful of us braved 4 degree centigrade water to snorkel along the joint of the North American  and the Eurasian  continental plates. To see more photos check out Boris’ blog. See you out there!

Posted in: Backbone Adventures, Client News, Skiing, Trip Reports

Backbone News

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A bunch of stuff going on…

SmartWool, New Belgium and Aspen Skiing Company win Best Places to Work in Outside Magazine, for 3rd and 2nd times, respectively.

Skiing is wrapping up. Spring is here with good road riding in the RF valley in between snow storms and powder tours.

Backbone recently was named one of Colorado Companies to Watch by Colorado BIZ magazine. Backbone was one of 50 companies named out of a field of over 420. Additionally, Nate Simmons was voted one of Sporting Goods Business  40 under 40 – one of the most influential young industry professionals for his role as Global Director of Marketing for Polartec and partner here at Backbone.

On the fun side, Nate and Greg were up with Chugach Powder Guides with crew from New Belgium, Powder (thanks Kback!) and various film crews like MSP. Check out Adrian’s warm up video  below.

KBack, G-Dub and Nate

Backbone has always loved to bike. Now we are spinning with new clients Serotta Sports, Honey Stinger, Velogear and Jett MTB. Along with this, Backbone is proud to announce Mike McCormack joining our team. Many may know Mike from his Trek, Yeti or Breck Epic days. Mike is a cycling geek and has a 120 lb. dog named Boo – which easily outweighs both of his boys JJ and Tavish. Mike’s wife Emily is a PR powerhouse in her own right and runs Hula Communications.

To see all the official news you can go to our pitchengine newsroom or check it out on our site. Lastly, our good man Ian Anderson and his wife Sari recently added a new son Axel to their family. I realize we don’t “do” baby announcement blogs here so I’ll include that Ian  was recently  promoted to Director of PR here at Backbone doubling up his responsibilities.

Excuse my French but Axel will be a next generation bad ass

Posted in: Backbone Adventures, Client News, Colorado, Gratuitous Client Plug, Skiing, Videos

Stream of social/PR/media consciousness

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Backbone 2010 goes something like this so far:

Ski Day, conference calls, NYC, FAM trip, FB and mobile apps, Vail, Crested Butte, ice climbing, Steamboat, avy class, Beaver Creek, Fort Collins, 1% iTunes, Shot Show, Monarch Cat Skiing, truck crash (walk away), OR, Dawn Patrol, dog commute, SIA, Bluebird, On-Snow, Rando Race, ISPO, hut trip, Olympics, Clients in Town, 30″ new, pow ski, PowderWeek, ski tests, Birkebeiner, Telemakuri, Scufoneda, Aspen entertain, Big Lepowski.

if you have extra time to burn try reading above to this tune…REM End of the World As We Know It.

And we feel fine

Posted in: Backbone Adventures, Climbing, Colorado, Musings, Outdoor Industry News, Skiing

Let’s Do Lunch!

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Lunch times at Backbone are interesting affairs. Admittedly, we are a bit spoiled. The bike path is groomed for Nordic. The local rodeo grounds have been converted into an ice rink. Just up the road toward Redstone is some world class ice climbing.

G-Dub on the first pillar

Hearing that conditions are fat – Greg and I headed up there for lunch – which means a pick up at Fat Belly Burgers and then 3 pitches up Avocado Gulley a classic WI3+ route.

Testing the new Cloudveil Stettner insulated soft shell

Happy Holidays!

Posted in: Backbone Adventures, Climbing

Ask and You Shall Receive

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Last week Hillary posted a snow day Dr.’s note campaign and in her own clairvoyant way WHAM we got a full on snow day.

Jabba the Snowman

Jabba the Snowman

Yes, the snow is timely as Aspen Highlands and Buttermilk open this weekend. Yes, Backbone crew will be part of the Powder Posse tracking up, er, checking stability in Highlands Bowl. And yes, the Wednesday Morning Dawn Patrol celebrated their 18th year, wearing their Down Patrols – considered by all the warmest, best skiing puffy around –  this morning in cold pow at -4 below.

Get your game on get out there!

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