Archive for the 'Sponsorships' Category

Team heads to Madagascar in search of new route on 2,400-foot wall

Gregory’s headed to Madagascar.

Starting Aug. 23, we’ll be sponsoring a group from Slovakia looking to put up a new route on the Tsaranoro Massif in the Central part of the country. Not a place you think of generally for climbing – unless you’re Lynn Hill, Beth Rodden, Hari Berger or a few other big names from the climbing world who’ve taken part in expeditions there. But that definitely speaks to the international appeal of the rock.

The names here aren’t quite as well-known in the U.S. climbing scene, but they’ve got the resumes to walk the talk on their goal of putting up a new route on the remote 2,400 vertical-foot granite wall.

The group includes Slovakian Dusan Beranek, Slovakia’s best-known big-wall climber and veteran of expeditions to Greenland, Chile, Peru and hard climbs in the Italian Dolomites, Yosemite and Crotia, Richi Nyeki, Beranek’s partner on many of those climbs, and Verdon Tomajko, a native of Slovakia who now lives in the U.S. and has climbed all around the world.

Along with establishing a new climb, over the four weeks they’ll be there, the group will also be filming the trip for a documentary to submit to some of the many international mountain film festivals around the world. When the film hits, keep your eyes peeled for an Alpinisto or a Z30.

Published
by
Dave
 on August 14, 2008
 in Sponsorships
. 2 Comments

DART-nuun looks back on Primal Quest … and ahead to the world championships

It’s been a month since Team DART-nuun finished Primal Quest, North America’s toughest adventure race, in fourth place. So team members are probably just about recovered now …

Which makes it a good time to get a little perspective on the race. As they say, time is the greatest healer.

For a little perspective on who these folks are, DART-nuun, which is sponsored in the backpack arena by Gregory, has 10 team members and is heading into their sixth years as a team. They actually break the group into two different teams, one that focuses on big, long adventure races (like Primal Quest), and another that focuses more on 24-hour-style races and North America more specifically, though there are people who cross over and compete on both teams. Continue reading >>

Published
by
Dave
 on July 29, 2008
 in Sponsorships
. 0 Comments

Nanga Parbat team headed up the peak

Chris Warner’s at it again. The man who led last year’s successful climb of K2 - the subject of a Emmy-nominated documentary on NBC - is off with a team to attempt Nanga Parbat, a mountain he tried to climb (and almost did, within 100 meters of the summit) in 2004.

As it was last year on the K2 expedition, Gregory Packs is a sponsor of the trip, which this week saw the team start making their way into more serious and technical terrain above camp 1.

The crew has a great web site to which they’re posting regular dispatches, so it’ll be easy to check out their progress over coming weeks.

Published
by
Dave
 on July 14, 2008
 in Gregory Goes There and Sponsorships
. 0 Comments

Across the finish line and into fourth place - one week later

We’ve got a good idea what Team DART-nuun is doing right about now. Sleeping.

This accomplished crew of adventure racers crossed the line finish last night at 10:42 p.m. at 2008 Primal Quest, North America’s biggest adventure race, an impressive fourth-place finish. For that, the team, which is sponsored in the pack department by Gregory, wins $12,000, but probably more importantly, a serious sense of accomplishment.

For some perspective, that’s - as near as we can figure - 157 hours and some minutes after leaving the start line. With minimal sleeping. More than 100,000 vertical feet of elevation gain. And a mix of mountain biking, trekking, kayaking, riverboarding, and - above all - navigating a previously unfamiliar course.

Held in southern Montana close to the boundaries of Yellowstone National Park, the race is still going on. Only four teams out of 47 still in the race (there were 53 at the start) have crossed the finish line. The race official goes on until July 2, so any teams looking to finish the race - a goal in and of itself for many who enter - have to cross the line by Wednesday.

These folks can really look forward to relaxing on the Fourth …

Look for a little post-race perspective in a future post.

Published
by
Dave
 on June 30, 2008
 in Athletes and Sponsorships
. 0 Comments

Pack testing the endurance way

When it comes to gear testing, it’s good to get a variety of perspectives - from recreational users to folks who put stuff through the wringer in instense situations. Right now, Gregory’s packs are undergoing an extended test up at Primal Quest in and around Big Sky, Mont.

For the last seven years, Primal Quest has been one of the bigger events in adventure racing, and the biggest such endurance race in North America. Gregory has been the pack sponsor for Team DART-nuun for a number of years, thanks to Gregory northwest sales rep Dave Egan and his team, who recognized a talented team of racers a few years back and worked to get Gregory packs on the teams’ backs.

Continue reading >>

Published
by
Dave
 on June 24, 2008
 in Sponsorships
. 0 Comments

Learning how others are living green

There’s no shortage of people trying to be green these days. Sometimes one wonders when some relatively new and small effort is touted as making a company “green.” And sometimes, it pays to take a cue from what others are doing.

In the process of moving into its new headquarters in Sacramento recently, Gregory tried to incorporate some sustainable elements in the design, things like using recycling office furniture and furnishings, and LEED standards for natural light. So it made the folks at Gregory think when - around the same time - Rob Holmes, founder of the Green Living Project, came knocking, looking for partners for his effort. Gregory signed on, and Holmes and his team are about to roll out some of the work they’ve done.

Continue reading >>

Published
by
Dave
 on June 18, 2008
 in Sponsorships and sustainable
. 0 Comments

Second try’s the charm

Portland, OR-based climber Brian Oestrike reached the top of Lhotse, the world’s fouth-tallest summit, yesterday at 7 a.m. Sponsored in part by Gregory on this trip, Brian summited yesterday on his second attempt, having turned around once 250 meters shy of the summit after listening to his body and turning around.

After resting up for a few days at lower camp, he pushed out from his high camp, climbing six hours to the summit, and then the enduro descent 11,000 feet the same day back to base . And probably a sizable meal, if one were to guess …

Not a lot of details at the moment, but look for updates in coming days on Brian’s site.

Published
by
Dave
 on May 27, 2008
 in Gregory Goes There and Sponsorships
. 0 Comments

Climbing for Kids kicks off for the 2008 season

Bay Area Wilderness TrainingWith Wayne Gregory’s background in scouting and other youth-oriented causes, helping kids get outdoors has always been a passion at Gregory. Because of that, Gregory will be a fixture on a couple of upcoming climbs of California’s Mount Whitney, organized by the Bay Area Wilderness Training’s Climbing for Kids program. Gregory recently donated 20 of its new Baltoro 70 packs for the upcoming climbs, and has donated many packs over recent years for BAWT’s gear loaner program for youth groups.

If you’re not familiar with Climbing for Kids, it’s a fundraiser through which participants who take part in climbs of Whitney and five other North American summits raise money for Bay Area Wilderness Training. BAWT, in turn, uses that money to get underprivileged and at-risk kids from more urban parts of the Bay Areas outdoors, helping them learn new skills and learn about themselves in the process.

Continue reading >>

Published
by
Dave
 on May 22, 2008
 in Gregory Goes There and Sponsorships
. 0 Comments

Jet Stream in its element at 120 F°

Where’s Gregory’s new Jet Stream suspension at home? The Sahara Desert, for one.

A couple of Canadian athletes, Meagan McGrath and Adwin “OJ” Gallant, recently got back from the Marathon Des Sables - or Marathon of the Sand - which bills itself as the toughest footrace on earth. What with all the endurance sufferfests out there today, one does wonder if there isn’t something out there that tops it in difficulty, though I’ll be the first to concede that 151 miles in sand over six days with temperatures up to 120 degrees F° is certainly no holiday. Appropriately, they have a web site entitled crazy-canuck-trekkers.com.

McGrath and Gallant used Gregory Z30 packs to carry all the gear they’d need over the race, ideal because of their back panel ventilation system, Jet Stream suspension, which not only allows air flow across your back so sweat can evaporate, but will carry more substantial weights (like 25 pounds) exceptionally well for a minimalist and lightweight suspension.

In a race where dropping out isn’t infrequent - this year 53 people out of a field of 800 called it quits in the heat - McGrath and and Gallant did what they came to do, finishing the race 287th and 504th respectively. That after McGrath - also an Everest summiter - admitted that her training hadn’t been quite up to par. If you’re interested, check out a report on their adventure here on the Candian Forces web site, where they both have a day job.

Published
by
Dave
 on May 15, 2008
 in Gregory Goes There and Sponsorships
. 1 Comment

30 days on Lhotse

Heard of hypoxic training? It basically means simulating being at altitude to improve athletic performance – exercising or sleeping in a chamber that contains oxygen-reduced air, like you’re high in the mountains.

Lots of mainstream athletes take advantage of it for training – Lance Armstrong to Dean Karnazes to David Beckham. Gregory-sponsored climber Brian Oestrike hopes to put hypoxic training to use in the very place where the idea came from. He’s trying to climb Lhotse, the fourth highest mountain in the world, in less than 30 days (most people spent two months or more for such a climb), and show that pre-acclimatizing with hypoxic training beforeBrian Oestrike on Aconcagua expeditions can reduce the amount of time climbers spend sitting around in camp waiting to acclimatize.

 Brian already put his theory to a slightly lesser test on 22,841-foot Aconcagua in South America in December, where he pre-acclimatizing before his trip and reached the summit in 63 hours, versus 12 to 18 days for most people who haven’t been at altitude and need to carefully acclimatize.

Brian’s in base camp for Lhotse this week, after facing difficulties on his intended climb (as are lots of climbers), the result of closures resulting from the Chinese effort to carry the Olympic torch to the top of neighboring Mt. Everest. Since the Chinese succeeded in getting atop Everest yesterday, Brian’s amongst many climbers in the area hoping that restrictions will allow him to move forward in coming days. He may be packing up his Z55 right now. When he’s able to get a link out, he’s posting updates on his site.

Published
by
Dave
 on May 9, 2008
 in Gregory Goes There and Sponsorships
. 1 Comment