I have been here in the South-East for over a month and a half now and I have surely realized the potential of the climbing here. Area upon area of so many different styles. INSANE really! There are roofs, boulders, cliffs and even deep water soloing. Chattanooga, Tennessee is in my opinion. THE place to live as a climber. The town is old, has a little history and basically every climbing area is less than an hour!!!! NUTS RIGHT???!!!!
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Monthly Archive for December, 2008
Wishing everyone lots of good backcountry time for 2009 - whatever form that may take! 
Going backpacking and keeping things lightweight so you can cover more miles is by no means a new trend. People have been espousing 
various philosophies on traveling light for years, even decades.
BackpackingLight, for instance, headquartered out of Bozeman, MT, runs a great site (note, you must be a member to access most of the content) with articles of all types surrounding the theme of traveling light in the backcountry.
At Gregory, we’re not necessarily an advocate of any one kind of backpacking. There’s a time and place for going heavy and taking all the luxuries. And there’s also a definite place for going light, covering more miles and more terrain because you’re not burdened by a heavy load. Most people are probably somewhere in between.
But one of the questions we do get here at Gregory is how do you effectively travel light? Whatever reason people have for trying to condense, and there are many (more demanding work schedules, parent responsibilities that make it difficult to take more than a night away, just don’t like carrying too much on your back, etc.), people are interested in getting out there in time efficient ways. Continue reading >>
Pardon the corporate horn-blowing, so to speak, but it’s not every month that you get two major media awards. This month, Gregory won a 2009 ‘Best of Adventure’ Award from National Geographic Adventure as well as a 2008 “Gear of the Year’ Award f
rom Men’s Journal.
We’re particularly psyched because, here at Gregory, it’s always been about suspension (we know, we know, you’re heard us say it before), and these two awards were bestowed in large part because of the two suspension systems (which are Gregory’s two newest) on the packs that won the awards.
In the case of Adventure, they gave the award to the Miwok, which is a new day pack that uses Gregory’s Bio-Sync Suspension, which is an ‘active’ design in that it help the pack mimic its wearer’s movements. Both suspension and the eight new packs that use it are new for 2009, and all are designed for higher aerobic activites ranging from day hiking to trail running and mountain biking. There are also some running-specific models.
And with regard to Men’s Journal, they were fans of the Z30, which uses Gregory’s Jet Stream DTS Suspension, another ‘active’ suspension. In this case, the suspension responds to what’s in the pack; it becomes more rigid and offers more support as more weight is loaded into the pack, all while allowing air flow across the back for ventilation.
Nice work, everyone. Now go get a glass of champagne.
Since Gregory moved to Sacramento closing in on a year ago, some of the staff (a few folks on the design team in particular) have been pretty jazzed about the p
roximity to backcountry skiing in the Sierra.
So it was cool to come across RealDeepSnow, a relatively new site run by Truckee-based artist and skier Chris Crossen. It’s a clearing house of sorts of snow- and ski-related info on the Sierras, a sort of TetonAT or WildSnow from the California perspective (not exactly the same thing, but in the vein of snowsports, blogging and good beta). Visitors will find links to avy info, posts on snow conditions and weather, trip reports, etc.
Check it out. I know there’s a few folks at Gregory who are, because … well … we’re close, but he’s closer.
Got an update from David Gilbert, one of the members of the expedition to the Aceh region of Sumatra that Gregory is sponsoring, along with some great pics he shot showing the places the team is traveling through.
Our team has been here in Aceh for month and a half now, just over half way through. Since we’ve been in the field we’ve spent time living and work
ing in several different villages along the Alas River in southwestern Aceh.
We began our field work in the small, traditional village of Kuta Tengah, just at the edge of the Leuser National Park. We accessed the river on motorized river canoes. We set off from a town downriver, where the entire town watched from the river banks as we loaded the canoe with our Gregory packs, duffels and a supply of food for the week. Continue reading >>
At Gregory, we’ve been encouraging people - via the Share Your Story program on our web site - to share their tales of using our gear with us. We like to hear about the experiences people enjoy with our packs, and the adventures they enable people to have.
It’s been great over the years that people have shared a lot of these stories unsolicited with us, but to increase the feedback we get, we’ve formalized things. And, as an incentive, for people whose stories we use on the blog or anywhere else in Gregory land, we’ll send them a day pack - a Z25 or Jade 25.
Of course we like to hear about people who climb the tallest peaks, go to the remotest places and so on, but it’s more rewarding to hear how our stuff helps everyday folks (like us) get out there and experience the great outdoors. And anyway, not everyone’s game for a 10-day backpacking trip. In that vein, here’s a story from Bob McGrath, who’s making a difference by getting involved with his son’s scout troop.
I wish I could say I had a really great story about how I climbed Everest or Anapurna or some other majestic mountain that inspires the sense of adventure in all of us. But alas I don’t. I bought a Gregory Palisades pack in early 2007 and used it for a 10-day Philmont backpacking trek. Philmont is the National (US) High Adventure center of the Boy Scouts of America. I was a scout myself and I accompanied my son Jim through Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts.
When our troop got a slot at Philmont in June of 2007, I volunteered to be the adult trek leader. In addition to starting a program of intensive physical training, logistical and mental preparation, I needed really good gear. I had always heard Colin Fletcher of (Complete Walker I,II,III, and IV fame) rave about Gregory packs so I tried several Gregory models (along with some of the competition) at my local REI store. I was very happy with my purchase which served me well on several training (preparation) hikes.
During the long Philmont trek, I felt supported (and at times almost held up) by my Palisades ‘guardian angel’. The pack was incredibly comfortable, functional and roomy. It helped this 51-year old man to keep up with 15-17 year olds. In the months since, I have missed my pack like an old friend. Several weeks ago, it was a joy to use it again on an overnighter hike.
In recent weeks, Gregory was nominated as a finalist in the Outdoorzy.com Gearzy Awards. The gear-mad folks over at Outdoorzy whittled down their favorite brands in a bunch of categories, including packs, and are now asking visitors to their outdoors-driven social networking site to vote on who their favorite brand is in each category. 
Soooooooo, go on over to the contest voting page and help out Team Gregory with a vote for the best suspension on the planet! Yeah, we’re Gregory fans here on GregoryGoesThere (as you’d expect), but that doesn’t change the fact that we do build the best-carrying packs anywhere. And definitely not afraid to say it.
And just to entice you a little more, in case you’re not sold by the persuasive argument above, you can also win a grab bag of swag for voting.
Winners will be announced in February.
Got a note today from the folks over at Bay Area Wilderness Training, one of the nonprofit groups we support here at Gregory. They’re just ramping up their Climbing for Kids Program for 2009. It’s a great way to bag one of North America’s great peak’s and do something good in one fell swoop. Doesn’t get 
much better than that!
Here’s the scoop from BATW:
Join Climbing For Kids and kill two birds with one stone. Climb one of the greatest peaks in North America and help give under-privileged youth the opportunity to experience the wilderness firsthand.
In 2009, climbers will have the experience of a lifetime when they ascend one of the five most sought-after peaks in the US and Mexico: Rainier, Whitney, Shasta, the Grand Teton, or Pico de Orizaba. On top of that, each climber will also receive $1,500 worth of FREE, brand-new, mountaineering gear. In return, climbers agree to fundraise on behalf of the Bay Area Wilderness Training (BAWT). This five-mountain benefit climb program is BAWT’s biggest fundraising event of the year and will raise more than $200,000. Continue reading >>
