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Last week, Backbone Media partners Black Diamond and La Sportiva played host to a group of 6 journalists for some product testing in the heart of the San Juan Mountain Range, in southwestern Colorado.  While the underlying premise of the trip centered around introducing the journalists to the new S11 Pack Line from Black Diamond and the S10 FC ECO Series from La Sportiva, we were lucky enough to receive additional product support from other Backbone partners and friends including:  Honey Stinger, Hydrapak, Outdoor Research, Polartec® and SmartWool®.  Thanks to all the manufacturers for your support as it really made for a great trip for everyone!

Warning:  The photos you are about to see include images of highly skilled “chossaneers”  performing their passions with top secret product to debut at this summer’s Outdoor Retailer in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Please do not attempt to repeat any of these stunts without the guidance of Clint, Bean and Cory at the San Juan Mountain Guides, based out of Ouray, Colorado. And of course, without getting a great night’s sleep at one of Ouray’s finest lodges, the Box Canyon Lodge.

Some “motley” members of the testing team preparing for duty.

On the way up the Queen of the San Juans, the 14,150-foot Mt Sneffels.

The climbing was interesting near the summit of the SW Ridge of Mount Sneffels.

The obligatory summit pose…with cardboard sign that we borrowed from another peak bagger.

The clouds were rolling in as we descended into the valley below.

Day two included an ascent of the 14,017-foot Wilson Peak.  Entering the land of the choss!

And another meeting on the summit about to begin…

Being a PR person is tough. Living in Jackson is also tough. But, Penn and Nate always tell us that sometimes we HAVE to tear ourselves away from the office and test some of that great gear that we promote. So this weekend my arm was really twisted and I was dragged kicking and screaming to Jackson Lake to do some tough manual labor (like grilling, wood-collecting, and hammock-hanging) and it was the worst and longest weekend of my life. As you can see, it was horrible. I am so glad to be back in town.
Boats are so boring, and loading all that gear was a pain. This is where the anguish began.

The bad news continued to flow in as I found out this was my campsite. I mean, horrible view, no water in sight, and I even had to bring all the gear up from the boat which was parked about 30 WHOLE FEET away. I was not a happy camper.

Oh, and there was canoeing. It was torture.

Then I was forced to meet up with, Don Watkins, PR pro with Terra PR here in Jackson for some wakeboarding. It was way too hot and way too sunny, I much prefer the rainy and cold weather of March and April. I was also dying of thirst the entire time and all they had was beer. Ugh. It was hell. Obviously this was the worst part of the entire trip. At this point, I was really counting down till the moment that I could get back in the car and head back to town to hang out with all the tourists that are swamping Jackson these days.I’m so much happier doing that. The amount of sacrificing and mind-numbing torture that I go through for Backbone is incredible. But as they say, its a tough job, but somebody’s gotta do it, right?