Monthly Archive for September, 2008

New 13-pitch route in Madagascar

Got this update from Verdon Tomajko, who took part in an expedition in August and early September to Madagascar, where - with his friends Dusan Beranek and Richi Nyeki - they established a new route on the Tsaranoro Massif. ‘Old Master’ is 13 pitches and checks in around 5.12d.

Here’s what Verdon had to say, and he sent over these images of the climb and the trip, which was as much a cultural adventure as a climbing one.

I flew from JFK airport in New York on Aug. 23 and arrived in Paris the following morning. From there I met up with my climbing companions from Slovakia, and on to Madagascar.

After a 12 hour flight, we arrived in Antananarivo, the capital city of Madagascar (population 1.2 million). A small van was waiting at the airport to take us to the camp. We loaded our four large “pigs” (hauling bags), seven adults each with backpacks, and the driver and his helper (as required by law when renting a vehicle) into the van for another 12 hours of driving. Continue reading >>

Published
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Dave
 on September 29, 2008
 in Gregory Goes There and Sponsorships
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An inspired journey across Iceland

BestHike posted a little beta about a very cool and unique hiking trip. Hiking across Iceland. Which, if you’ve ever been to Iceland, would be an inspiring and pretty solitary journey.

Hiker Jonathan Ley talks a little about how he came up with the idea for the trip in an interiew. Apparently he cooked up the concept while hiking the CDT. An inspiring journey for sure. But even if you don’t have that kind of time, Iceland’s still a cool trip for hikers or backpackers.

Landmannalauger in the southern part of Iceland is one of the strangest (in a good way) landscapes anywhere, and also has a series of huts positioned so that you can do a pretty lightweight multi-day backpacking trip through this inspired country, not to mention excellent hot springs for soaking (a recent cover of Backpacker Magazine featured a couple soaking in one of the hot pools in Landmannalauger). And, if you fly Iceland Air to Europe, and plan an extra week stopover in Iceland the right time of year, you can make that trip part of a larger journey.

Just bring your rain gear. And your credit card. For cash-flow reasons, Iceland’s a good place to get the trailhead as quickly as possible.

Published
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Dave
 on September 25, 2008
 in Hiking resources
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Gregory heads to Nor’easter in NH

It’s hump day, so it’s officially OK to begin planning that weekend trip. On that note, Gregory will be headed this weekend to the Nor’easter, the new (and apparently fairly big) EMS festival at Tenney Mountain near Plymouth, N.H. George left last night on the redeye …

Part party, part outdoor recreation, part music festival, and part volunteer work, it should be a pretty good time. Folks from Gregory will be on hand staffing two booths, one at the camping/music area, and another up where the climbing clinics are at Tenney Mountain, showing the latest goods, helping people with packs questions, and generally getting involved in the fun.

Climbing competitions and clinics are one of the big recreational draws, and the names EMS has lined up are impressive: Dave Graham, Chris Sharma, Tommy Caldwell,  Lisa Rands, Heidi Wirtz, and Gregory athlete Joe Kinder, among others. Those folks will all be giving clinics (now that’s an opportunity to learn from the best).

Joe’s clinic will be called Sending. Ha ha. Although Joe did just send (nailed the 5.14d route Kryptonite in Colorado right before getting on the plane to head to the weekend event), his clinic is really called “Gym to Crag.” No offense, I think Sending is better.

Sign up early, because although the clinics are included in the cost, they’re limited to 12 people each. Something tells me they’re gonna fill up quick.

Seven or eight bands will be playing through the weekend, and Sunday’s dedicated to volunteer conservation work on the nearby national forest.

That’s a lot of stuff for an event that costs $175 a car load (apparently a car load is five people, so that’s $35 each).

One thing to remember: BYOB.

Published
by
Dave
 on September 24, 2008
 in Gregory Goes There and Joe's World
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Road show in the SE

During a recent trip down to the SE, our man George, of ‘Ask George’ fame, logged a little climbing time in North Carolina with one of Gregory’s sales reps based out of the Boone, NC, area, Tres Binkley.

Here’s a couple of shots from climbing a 5-pitch rock climb called The Daddy in the Linville Gorge, just south of Grandfather Mountain.  The first is just after Tres and George topped out, and the other gives you an idea of the scenery in the Gorge.

If you haven’t been there, western North Carolina’s got some pretty amazing scenery and recreation (hiking, rock climbing, skiing, mountain biking - the whole show), and with fall approaching, now’s a good time for a visit. The colors in this part of the world in October are incredible.

Published
by
Dave
 on September 23, 2008
 in Gregory Goes There
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What it’s all about

When it comes to being a backpack maker, one of the quintessential tests for our products is the Appalachian Trail. But more than a test of products, the Appalachian Trail is an experience of life-changing proportions.

Not too long back, our customer service guru George helped out a guy named Brandon, whose trail name is Trill. (Most thru-hikers take a trail name during their journey.) After helping out with a pack fix Trill needed not too far from the end of his trip, he was pretty grateful and told George he’d share some thoughts and photos from his journey with us once he finished up.

So, true to his word, he sent us a blog post on finishing up his trail season. You can only imagine what kind of emotional journey hiking more than 2,000 miles in one trip is, and – wow – this captures a lot of it.

Dunno if this is your typical blog post (certainly longer than your normal one), but it’s well worth a read. Some real inspiration for why it’s rewarding to get out there and make it happen.

Well I’ve been home for a couple of days and have enjoyed the rest. Getting home was a little wild. Four hitches and three flights later I made it home last Tuesday night. I was greeted by my family and it was wonderful to see everyone.

The most common question I get back home is asking how the end was. I will do my best to try and explain to you how I felt and the way things were. The easiest thing to start with is the details.

The 100 Mile Wilderness leads up to the final push. I would have liked to taken as much time as possible in my final days but I didn’t really have the time and didn’t want to carry eight days of food so I pushed myself a little. I miscalculated my food but was able to get some off people carrying too much and hike about 20 miles a day for 5 days. Continue reading >>

Published
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Dave
 on September 19, 2008
 in Hiking and backpacking
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Are there only 50?

Via the Adventure Blog, a frequently updated blog on anything and everything related to outdoor adventure (and a fun read if you like following news from the adventure world), here’s a link to something that people these days love - a list of top things. In this case, a list of the world’s 50 best walks, as compiled by London’s Sunday Times.

Are they truly the world’s best 50 walks? Probably not (after all, where’s Italy’s Cinque Terre or the route around the Firehole in Yellowstone). But nonetheless, it’s a fun read with a lot of worthy additions to the life list for those of us who like experience cool parts of the world under our own power.

Capped with searching for yetis on the snowy passes of Bhutan (the list is ranked from easiest to hardest), it includes places like Tanzania’s Ngorongoro Crater (full of wildlife), the the 125-mile Waitukubuli Trail in Dominica, the Postman’s Path, a panoramic mule track through olive groves and orange orchards in Mallorca, and, of course, New York City.

New York City? Oh yeah. Hiking is definitely the best way to see the world’s best urban landscape.

Read, and take notes.

Published
by
Dave
 on September 18, 2008
 in Hiking and backpacking
. 2 Comments

Here I come again!!!

WOW…lots has happened in the last month and a LOT more will happen in the next.  DANG.First off…I have been on the steady-climbing-KILL-tip.  Along with my good friends and crew Dave Graham and Daniel Woods we put up a STELLAR line in Rifle canyon called Girl Talk and it checks in around 5.14c.  It is a great “high end” addition to the canyon as well as the country.  Here are some photos.gt1.png gab3.jpg Continue reading >>

Published
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JoeKindKid
 on September 17, 2008
 in Athletes and Joe's World
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Update from the world of adventure racing

Got an update from Cyril Jay-Rayon, founder and captain of Team DART-nuun, the adventure racing team that, among lots of other great gear, uses Gregory packs. (And, by the way, provides us some invaluable feedback. Cyril’s been part of a focus group that helped provide feedback on the new Active Trail series and its Bio-Sync Suspension, which will be out around the first of the year.) 

Anyway, these guys continue to kill it on the adventure racing scene, both in the 24-hour-style races and lengthier multi-day ones.

Here’s what Cyril had to say:

The team is on a roll and this past weekend was no exception. We won our third National Series 24 hour race in as many tries. With this win, we are in a good position for top honors that will be decided at the end of the month in Moab (a three-day expedition race ) against the other top contenders.

Team DART-nuun overview 2008: 

o Won the North American World Championship qualifier in March – 5 day expedition race in Baja (Baja Travesia)
o Won Arizona’s premier 24 hour race (Desert Winds) in April– part of the National 24 hour Series
o Finished 4th at Primal Quest in June-July – the biggest and toughest expedition race in America, if not the world
o Won the Gorge Games 24 adventure race in July – part of the National 24 hour Series
o Won the Kit Carson ( part of the Big Blue Adventures series) 24 hour race in CA/NV – part of the National 24 hour Series

What’s on the menu for the rest of the year: 

o Team will compete in 2 more National Series race in an effort to win the series
o Team will compete in the National 24hour Championships in November in Georgia
o Team will compete at the World Championships (this is an expedition race 5-10 days long) at the end of October in Brazil

Published
by
Dave
 on September 16, 2008
 in Gregory Goes There and Sponsorships
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Z30 in action in San Rafael Swell

Upper Black Box, San Rafael Swell, Utah, recently.

Published
by
Dave
 on September 15, 2008
 in Gregory Goes There
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Don’t Forget!!!

dddddd1.png .The Nor’Easter is coming up.  The biggest event for climbing, music, conservation, entertainment, with LOTS of CLIMBING!!!  September 26th-28th.  An elite competition with climbers like Chris Sharma, Dave Graham, Tommy Caldwell, Emily Harrington, Daniel Woods, MYSELF!!!!!  Its going to be insane!  If you get a chance, make it on out, come enjoy the festivities and climbing.  CAN’T WAIT!!!!!     forgre.tif-Joe Kinder 

Published
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JoeKindKid
 on September 9, 2008
 in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments