Penn | The Verteblog

Run Don’t Walk or Walk Don’t Run?

July 2, 2009 9:49 pm \ Leave a Comment \ by Penn

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.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ11y7pYl-8]

Posted in: Design, Gratuitous Client Plug, Uncategorized

Climbing as Art

June 17, 2009 3:59 pm \ Leave a Comment \ by Penn

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!

Posted in: Design, Interesting Read, Musings, Uncategorized

Backbone Carbondale, Backbone JH, Backbone Big Apple

June 15, 2009 5:37 pm \ Leave a Comment \ by Penn

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 Backbone stoop

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!

Posted in: Backbone Adventures, Biking, Client News

Everyday is Monday

May 27, 2009 4:16 pm \ 1 Comment \ by Penn

The old adage of “if you want something done give it to a busy person” continues to prove itself as Backbone is entering the season where everyday is Monday.

Let’s see, pre-OR season deadlines and Sales Meetings are aligning perfectly, the Brunton Brewfire has been in the NY Times, POC CEO Jarka Duba was profiled in Entrepreneur on Backbone Highlights and new client Reusablebags.com lines up with the major trend of one-time use plastic bags being banned Seattle.

Anyone care to guess how many throw-away plastic bags are used in North America annually? Or how many sea turtles are killed by them? Answers here.

Kintzler was just through town prior to Gerber sponsored Rashad Evans UFC Championship fight. As the PR world changes – Backbone is too with the addition of Jonathan Georger who will work with our current team in building Backbone’s social media offerings. We also have some other cool stuff brewing…

As Kurt Vonnegut penned, “so it goes.”

Posted in: Uncategorized

Twitter vs. Blogs: Making sense of it all

May 12, 2009 2:43 pm \ 2 Comments \ by Penn

Much of the conversation regarding social media these days centers around the various modes of interaction – FB, Twitter, YouTube and blogs.

Here are two good articles – the first from Colorado Business that speaks to the value (or lack thereof) of Twitter – in Are you a Twitter Quitter?

Contrasting this is a piece on blogging vs. twitter – which discusses the value and differences of both formats.

19 Reasons you should Blog and Not just Tweet

Our take from a PR perspective is that all of these tools serve different purposes and each is valuable in terms of how it works. Thus, rather focus on one specific aspect one needs to understand how each is mutually reinforcing to deliver the strongest overall package.

Posted in: Interesting Read, Technology, Uncategorized

New Center of the Outdoor Universe?

May 11, 2009 8:06 pm \ 2 Comments \ by Penn

Carbondale is more than your average cowtown.

Boulder, CO? Jackson, WY? Ogden, UT? Asheville, NC?

With self-appointed beautiful people, hipster culture and scenic backdrops, the search for the next great outdoor mecca/center of the universe has ended. In a recent poll released this morning – Carbondale, CO edged out Everest Base Camp as the most happening outdoor spot on the planet.

Why?

Largely due to the 5 Point Film Festival little ole Carbondale, once known only for its roughneck miner bars and hippie festivals, has hit the big time. Visiting dignitaries Conrad Anker, Timmy O’Neill and Lynn Hill banded together with CO locals Chris Davenport, Brad Ludden and Ian’s better half Sari Anderson, to share rowdy surf, climbing, cycling and adventure film experiences.

The crowd ranged from Tyler Bradt – who just set a kayaking world record with a 186 waterfall drop, to Dr. Geoff Tabin of the Himalayan Cataract Project, Mark Godley of Big City Mountaineers and artist Jenny Lowe-Anker.

Over breakfast this morning with the New Belgium Brewery crew – who were visiting for 5 Point and National Bike to Work Week (on CNN ireport) – discussions ranged from the Glenwood surf wave to riding single track and spring climbing conditions in Rifle.

Real esatate in the Carbondale area is at a 5-year low….

Posted in: Backbone Adventures, Colorado \ Tagged: 5 point film festival, Lynne Hill, Sari Anderson, Timmy O'Neil

Ironmongery

April 24, 2009 4:40 pm \ 1 Comment \ by Penn

This past January, I was at the OR Show walking media through Black Diamond’s new line for Winter ’09. One of the highlights was the new BD stainless-steel crampons – the Cyborg, Sabretooth and Serac. The advantages of stainless over chro-moly are numerous – significant weight savings, durability, no rust, less snow balling and bad-ass look. Through exhaustive research BD was able to offset the quandary of higher expense versus performance gain and in the end has a product that will be priced right while raising the competitive standard.

BD Sabretooth Pro

The Cyborg and Sabretooth particularly drew ohhs and ahhs from core ice climbers, design mag editors and business writers alike. With spring mountaineering season upon us, I was looking forward on getting out on a pair of protos until I got an email from my friend Jon about a new crampon he stumbled upon in Parker, CO. Turns out the guys who were testing his new diesel for emissions have been doing some R&D work themselves. rumor has it they may sell these designs to one of BD’s competitors… Check it out!

Burly

ABS technology

Secure

Posted in: Client News, Climbing, Design, Uncategorized

The Social behind the Media

April 20, 2009 10:01 pm \ Leave a Comment \ by Penn

Sitting down for our Monday morning huddle it quickly became apparent that there is a ton of authentic “social” behind our media. Before diving into best practices and this months emerging trends in SM, we shared a shakedown of the weekend’s activities.

Bday girl Lori Spence and Kaya the Wonder dog play in the powder

JLD, Mavis, Greg, Kara, Jess and Penn all skied deep pow in Highlands Bowl Saturday. JLD and Penn skied again Sunday, while the others opted for cycling. Meanwhile Jess D and Dax hit Winter Park and Teton Pass respectively. Nate got knackered fly fishing (a rarity) and Sue had a successful turkey shoot. Angus was coaching and competing in climbing comps and Lindsay juggled track meets and coaching the next generation of soccer stars.

Sue and her friend Tom

What about Sarah? She is sunning in Barbados.

As for the meeting this morning? Good progress lots to do and a few good links on how to use and NOT use twitter.

Posted in: Backbone Adventures, Colorado, Fishing, Hunting, Skiing

Mega -WHAT?

March 27, 2009 7:44 pm \ Leave a Comment \ by Penn

Traveling for work yesterday I got a series of text messages from a longtime friend and client based in Jackson, WY. A big storm was rolling in and I was working and he was going powder skiing. To be nice, and to protect his identity, we will call him Sulli.

You get the idea...

JH reported 21″ of new or something insane like that. Everyone knows folks from Jackson love to brag about how much snow they get (funny they don’t brag so much when they are skiing frozen ocean or have a 40 degree inversion) – but my friend Sulli was psyched. I was happy for him as well, as he has been buried at work and had been sitting on a new pair of BD Megawatts.

Different day, similar result

Anyway, here are the texts beginning Tuesday evening:

Sulli: Just talked to John Verdone – he skied 4 Pines at 4PM waist to chest deep. I won’t be in tomorrow until afternoon.

Me: Oh goody – have fun talk in the PM

Sulli: The Mega’s are locked and loaded

Me: Dood, they are gonna rock your world…have u skied them yet?

Sulli: Nope, can not wait.

Next morning while I am in a meeting:

Sulli: these skis are ridiculous

Me: Glad you like them. I am sitting in a meeting it is dumping outside

Sulli: Just bought myself 20 more fun powder years…top to bottoms all morning and my legs aren’t even sore. They are magic.

Me: Yup, secret weapons for old guys like us.

Have a great weekend!

Posted in: Uncategorized

It’s Not Everyday

March 23, 2009 10:25 pm \ Leave a Comment \ by Penn

Yes, we ski, climb, bike, run and fish. We also get our fair share of marathon sales and RnD meetings holed up in conference rooms.

So, at a recent BD RnD meeting – they sent us on a field trip. Lunch time Day 2 we hiked all the way past Design and Quality Assurance to check out the new Hot Forge, which is adjacent to the 50 ton press, which is next to the laser cutter.