Archive

Gregory launches new suspension that mimics body movements

At its core, Gregory has always been about creating backpacks - and more precisely, backpack suspension - that lets you concentrate on what it is you’re doing outside rather than the weight that’s on your back.

Now, Gregory’s getting ready to raise the bar a couple of notches in lighter trail packs.

Usually retailers get first crack at seeing all the new technology at the Outdoor Retailer show, where the gear for the next season is debuted each summer and winter. This time, we thought we’d let the Gregory community have the first look as we head into the OR show here in a few days.

The suspension’s called Bio-sync, and what’s unique about it is that Gregory’s designers looked to bio-mimicry to design it, essentially studying the way human tendons work during activities like running, hiking and cycling to create a system that ebbs and flows more with the body’s movements.

So how’s it work? First off, it’s worth noting that this is a suspension designed specifically for smaller, lighter packs that are used in more active endeavors like trail running, day hiking, mountain biking, ultras, etc. Given that it’s for packs with smaller loads, this suspension is much more about having the pack mimic and move with your body than achieving load transfer through the spine and hips, as you want with bigger packs. Continue reading >>

Published
by
Dave
 on August 5, 2008
 in Backpack tech
. 2 Comments

Hiker hell keeping a running tally on epics

Most everyone who enjoys the outdoors has a story or two about an epic. It’s part of the culture. And we’ve got many such tales amongst the crew here at Gregory. After all, you learn from your mistakes, eh?

Now, it appears, you can learn from others’ mistakes as well. And all in one place.

Via Dougald McDonald’s blog The Mountain World (an excellent read in itself if you’re interested in climbing news and dispatches from the climbing world), we learned about a new blog, Hiker Hell, which documents hiking and camping mishaps. Its tagline: “Learn from other hikers’ mistakes (and triumphs).”

It appears there’s no shortage of material out there, either. The blog’s only been around for two months, but in June and July alone its author has managed to document 220 cases of outdoor mishaps - falls,  rescues, survival stories, and, uh, mistakes where people paid the ultimate price.

If you’re looking for - or fascincated by - things not to do while you’re hiking or otherwise getting outdoors, there’s plenty to read. Continue reading >>

Published
by
Dave
 on July 31, 2008
 in Hiking and backpacking
. 4 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

Shared Summits team heads home

If you follow news from the high-altitude climbing world, you know it’s been a serious couple of weeks on Pakistan’s Nanga Parbet.

The Shared Summits Team that Gregory co-sponsored on their trip to Nanga Parbat found serious conditions and unforgiving weather on the mountain and took a more moderate course than some of the teams that were there. Expedition Leader Chris Warner says when it comes to climbing 8,000-meter peaks, success is coming home.

Now that the team has left the mountain, Warner has a few thoughts on what he saw over recent weeks, and what really matters when it comes to climbing big peaks.

Published
by
Dave
 on July 28, 2008
 in Gregory Goes There
. 0 Comments

Sometimes they let us out of the office

This past weekend, George and I traveled out to Buena Vista, CO for the 2008 Continental Divide Trail Alliance’s Trailfest event.  We ditched the car at the hotel and decided to stroll down the road to see what the town had to offer.  After a quick drop by The Trailhead - one of our retailers in town - we headed over to the Lariat Bar & Grill on E. Main Street for some lunch.  This place is awesome, and if you are ever in Buena Vista, or just traveling through, it’s worth a stop (and be sure to say what’s up to the bartender Ryan for us).   This bar is one of the oldest establishments in town and is still in the family.  And with all of the good people and fun stuff to do in there-pool, foosball, darts, running the dj booth for an hour-we guarentee you’ll have no trouble closing the place either.  Continue reading >>

Published
by
Steph
 on July 25, 2008
 in Gregory Goes There
. 1 Comment

Deep in AT season

It’s that time of year …

Published
by
Dave
 on July 24, 2008
 in Gregory Goes There
. 0 Comments

Where’s Gregory going? Geo-tag it, show us.

Thanks to skydivexxl, who submitted some photos of his recent climb of Mt. Shasta to Gregory Pack’s Flickr photo group.

What’s that all about?

Check out the link on the right side of the page here. We’re asking people to shoot and submit photos of themselves or friends using their Gregory packs for adventures of all sorts. Upload them to Flickr, and then scroll to the bottom and geo-tag the image on the map, which will show where a particular image was shot.

The idea is to have the wider Gregory community help us build a worldwide map of the places that people who use Gregory gear have traveled with their pack. We know what our sponsored athletes are doing with our gear, but we want to know what the larger Gregory community is out there doing. Help us out!

Published
by
Dave
 on July 23, 2008
 in Gregory Goes There
. 0 Comments

Backpacks helping control greenhouse gas emissions?

At Gregory, our designers have just about seen it all in the world of backpacks. Or at least they thought they had.

Come to find out backpacks are being used in the flight against global warming. Methane from cows, it seems, contributes to global warming.

 And not just a little. A lot.

So, in Argentina, where cow’s methane contributes to as much as 30 percent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, they got the idea to contain the gas in specially designed backpacks. Yes, cow packs.

All we can say is it’s a good thing methane is lighter than air, because, while they’re certainly doing some thinking about atmospheric science, it doesn’t look like they put a lot of thought into cow pack suspension.

That, and no smoking.

Published
by
Dave
 on July 22, 2008
 in Packs
. 1 Comment

Ask George: What’s the best way to pack a backpack?

At Gregory, since we’re a backpack company, we get a lot of questions about backpacks. Good ones.

One of the more common is, ‘what’s the best way to pack a backpack,’ or various variations thereof. That’s a great question, because there are a lot of opinions and theories on the matter. More often than not, Gregory customer service/jack of all trades guru George McCloskey (that’s him getting the faceshot) is the guy to take the phone call, e-mail or Facebook message.

So, in the vein of being of service, we thought we’d put George on the spot find out what he tells folks. Turns out, George just answered the question again recently, so here’s what he said (clearly he’s done a little thinking on the matter):

When it comes to packing your backpack, everyone seems to have their own way, and therefore we only ‘publish’ general guidelines.  That said, here are my own personal guidelines (and please feel free to ‘build’ your own):

I typically start with my sleeping bag in the bottom (sometimes with, sometimes without a stuff sack, but I don’t necessarily recommend if for the first timer, because not using one allows you to stuff out the corners really well, which can be tougher when in a stuff sack). And a key point here is that packing your backpack well, ie: using all the space effectively without having dead spots with nothing in them, is essential to achieving positive load transfer, which means transferring the weight effectively to your body, and that’s what you want if you want your pack to carry well. Continue reading >>

Published
by
Dave
 on July 17, 2008
 in Ask George and Backpack tech
. 6 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