2009 Gear of the Year
Outside Honors BD With Consecutive “Gear of the Year” Honors
Outside Magazine honored Black Diamond Equipment with a 2009 winter “Gear of the Year” award. This marks the second straight year that Outside has presented a GOY to Black Diamond. Taking top honors, the Bandit AvaLung is a lightweight, minimalist avy-tools pack for out-of-gate resort skiing/riding and feature’s Black Diamond’ own proprietary AvaLung technology.
Also new for 2009 and definitely worth mentioning are Black Diamond’s new Factor Freeride Boots. Outside editors are quoted as saying, “If we had GOY honors for boots, the Factor would win.”
Black Diamond won a 2008 Outside GOY for their Verdict Ski. With its dimensions at 134-102-120 (180cm), this ski is guilty of carving trenches on hardpack while retaining innocence in the deep POW.
Interns Needed at Backpacker
From the Backpacker Magazine intern job description:
“Must be willing to wear a bear suit and get pelted with rocks and sticks by editor Shannon Davis, on camera.”
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Everyday is an Adventure
This morning I woke up, caught my Eggo mid air from the toaster..sweet, and headed to work. Checked a few emails and then started J-keying through my Google Reader.
Three things I found that made my morning, and reminded me how much the world fascinates me.
First, Recycle a Bicycle, an NYC non-profit that takes in stray bikes, refurbishes them and sends them back out into the community. Every mountain town needs one of these.
Second, if you haven’t heard about the Google Project 10^100 contest, you need to get out of your cave. Google is giving away $10 million dollars for an invention that has a global reach. The deadline is Oct. 20th so get moving.
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Third, and my personal favorite, the all-powerful Facebook, or My Face Place as I like to call it has reached an all time level of power for me. MI6, the British Secret Service, has created a Facebook page to recruit new spies. Oh yes, you can be Bond afterall. Take the test and see if you are made to be shaken and stirred. Check out the info on MASHABLE.
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Alice in Wonder-gnar-land
Here in the mountain oasis of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, we are all just big kids. Its like Alice in Wonderland for outdoorsy adults with time on their hands. We are all just big kids who crash monster bikes and escape huge avalanches, rip on skis 9ft tall, wrangle alligator-sized trout and drink beers the size of small children.
Oh wait, sorry that was just a dream I had last night.
However, I do happen to share an office with a man who seems to make big kid dreams come true.
If you are a dude, and you live in Jackson, and you like two-wheelin’, there is no doubt about it… your big kid dream is definitely a backyard bike park. And at five-o’oclock, Michael Massie of Multeye Medium clocks out of our office and clocks in to his own self-made fantastical world of crazy spirals and oversized teeter totters and mini tractors and huge jumps and….and…and…(you are feeling veeeeery sleepy).
WAKE UP! You fell asleep there for a second…. go get some coffee and GET BACK TO WORK.