Outdoor Retailer

This weekend my roommate Alex and I headed to the Outdoor Retailer Winter Market.  According to the website it is the "largest winter lifestyle and sports industry gathering in the world," and with 1000 companies and 20,000 attendees, I don't doubt that!  The trade show isn't open to the public because it is a professional event for buyers, distributors, and media, but we were lucky enough to get exhibitor guest badges so we packed up the car and set out for an epic weekend!  


Salt Lake City is about 850 miles from San Luis Obispo, so the drive took about 13 hours.  We left Thursday morning and arrived exhausted, later that night.  We checked into a motel (no car sleeping because Alex has pneumonia!  Crazy...), and tried to get a good night of rest for our big day.  We arrived at the Salt Palace Convention Center early Friday morning for the second day of the show.  We walked in and were instantly completely overwhelmed.  The show floor is ENORMOUS to say the least.  Each company sets up a booth, which actually resembles a small, very elaborate store in most cases.  Besides being overwhelmed by the physical atmosphere, there are people everywhere, and they are all very important, and all on a mission to take care of business.   


We had a few reasons for wanting to attend the show.  First, I will soon be graduating with a degree in Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Administration and I wanted to get a taste of one facet of the industry, and see what kind of opportunities are out there.  Second, Alex wanted to talk to the climbing company 5.10 to see about possible sponsorship.  I also wanted to check in with a few of my contacts for some research projects that I'm working on.  Lastly, one of the companies that was there has an internship posted that I am interested in so I wanted to see if I could meet some important people and get my name out there, or at least give them a face to go with my resume.

We took a few laps around the show floor (probably equivalent to walking several miles, haha!) and both felt nauseous and lightheaded from the whole situation!  Alex worked up a bunch of courage and made an appointment with 5.10.  Five minutes later he was talking to a rep, and 20 minutes later, he was a sponsored climber!  Needless to say, we were both beyond PSYCHED!  He has worked really hard on his climbing and his presence in the climbing community and he definitely deserves this.  


We wandered around the rest of the day and I got to see some of my favorite companies like Ruff Wear, which makes great dog products.  We also got to see a winter clothing fashion show, which was pretty cool.  After awhile we were both wiped out and needed a nap.  After a rest, we headed to the Outdoor Inspiration Awards put on by Adidas and hosted by Sasha DiGiulian and Reinhold Messner.  It was SO, so neat to hear the two of them speak.  We got to watch the video of Sasha's ascent of Pure Imagination 5.14d which was amazing and very inspiring.  After the event, we headed for celebratory sushi and fill our bellies beyond their capacity.  


On our second day at the show, it was time for me to get down to business.  I relayed a message for a friend to a rep at Kleen Kanteen, which had a really cool booth.  I talked to Vertical Girl, a progressive clothing company that aims to inspire female climbers, about becoming a brand ambassador.  I looked for my main contact on my research project but he was out for the day, tried to talk to someone about the internship, but at the time that I was told to come back he was busy raffling off skis.  However, I made a great connection with Kevin Jorgeson about my research, which was great.  This project is going to be fun and super helpful to the industry which really motivates me to get after it.


The show floor gets pretty fun towards the end of the day when a lot of the booths have happy hours and give out drinks (mostly beer, though Arcteryx pretty much had an open bar, and Osprey was making White Russians), there are raffles, aaaaand on this day Chris Sharma and Daila were signing posters.  Woo hoo!  After this full day, we were super wiped out, and left the show.  We were surprised to find that it had snowed!  Finally, it feels like winter.  We got in the car and set off to knock a few hours of the drive.



Unfortunately, soon after we left, we encountered a pretty fierce snowstorm.  Fortunately though, there weren't many people on the road so we just drove in the middle of the snow covered road (snow accumulated pretty fast), and watched the snow blow past our windshield.  We stopped for the night, got up this morning, and gunned it the rest of the way home.  What a great weekend!


I learned a TON this weekend.  It was great to get such an intense view of the industry, meet a lot of cool people, network, and learn that I still have a lot to learn, which is always a good thing.  As my advisor always says, "you should always strive to be the least smart person in the room" that way you can always learn something new.

It finally feels like winter!

My Return

After a four-month hiatus, I have made my return to climbing.

Kind of.

Sort of.

Well… I’m working on it.

Star was cold so she put my vest on

If you’ve wondered where I’ve been between Squamish (August) and now, (aka prime Fall climbing season…) the answer is that I made a foray into the working world.  Yes, I, Laura Patton, got a job.  Not just any job, but a real, big girl job, that required me to dress nicely and work for eight hours at a time.  Aside from allowing me to go into the grocery store on a semi-regular basis and pick out the food I really wanted rather than getting whatever was the cheapest, all it did was reaffirm that the working world is not for me.  Between working 30 hours a week, going to school full time, and writing my senior project, the only free time I had left was 20 minutes before bed each night when I would sit on the couch and despair about the dismal turn my life had taken.  When I was applying for jobs I told myself that I could sacrifice climbing for six months in order to save money, but it quickly became apparent that that wasn’t true.  Sacrificing climbing was like sacrificing happiness, and that is for sure, one thing that I can’t live without. 

Promptly after leaving my job, Eric and I packed up the car and headed for Bishop.  It immediately become clear that not climbing/doing any physical activity for four months doesn’t do wonders for your climbing skills.  Fortunately, I was able to push all my old projects out of my head, and focus on trying climbs at my current ability (aka everyone’s warm-ups).  I really did enjoy going back to a bunch of classic V1’s, 2’s, and 3’s, trying hard, and sending them.  At night, when I got into the tent under a beautiful night sky full of bright stars, surrounded by the Eastern Sierras, I thought to myself, “this is where I belong,” and drifted peacefully off to sleep.

Can't beat that psych!

On the opposite end of the spectrum from me and my re-attained noob status, lies my roommate Alex.  In the last year, he has experienced a meteoric rise to boulder crusher extraordinaire.  Psych leaks from his pores and permeates everything around him.  On this same trip to Bishop, he sent his first V12 (SECOND ascent of Rastaman Vibration… very epic, look it up!), then his second V12, Aquarium, and ticked off several 11’s including Xavier’s Roof, a classic 10, Center Direct, and countless other problems.  Props!  Eric was also feeling the psych and during our pre and post Christmas Bishop trips he sent several longtime projects including Cholos V9, Fall Guy V9, and Sharma Scoop V8. Solid work guys!

Fall Guy V9

 So, back to my return to climbing.  So far in this post, I’ve gone on two climbing trips (Bishop before Christmas and again after).  I wouldn’t say I climbed a ton, but I did get back out there and try some problems, which felt great.  After that, winter break was over.  Fortunately, my rigorous academic schedule this quarter includes four hours of class on Tuesday and another four on Thursday.  And that’s all.  After my first “week” back at school we headed to Joshua Tree. 

So much for winter weather

Sharma Scoop V8 by headlamp

J-Tree is traditionally one of my FAVORITE places to climb.  I love single pitch trad climbing for its accessibility and simplicity.  We arrived after dark on a Friday night and the whole campground was lit up by an almost full moon.  I jumped out of the car, grabbed my harness and said, “let’s go climbing!”  Eric didn’t take much convincing and we had a fun moonlight guided climb up Toe Jam.  We filled the rest of the weekend with classic moderates like Sail Away, Illusion Dweller, Double Cross, Overhang Bypass and Rib Pinch.  The wind picked up and it got cold, but it felt so good to place gear, and even better to feel solid hand jams.  Such a delight!

Apparently this is the only picture I took in Joshua Tree

 That brings us to three climbing trips in three consecutive weeks.  Sounds like I’m back to my old self, at least statistically speaking.  Still, I know that I’m not quite there yet.  It still doesn’t feel quite right.

Yup, planking on Chacos

I think about previous breaks I’ve taken from climbing and my subsequent returns to the sport.  The first big break I took was about a year after I started climbing when I went to Honduras for six weeks.  Terrified of forgetting my newly acquired skills, I tied little figure 8’s out of twine while I swung in the hammock.  In the mornings I would do planks and push-ups on the concrete floor of my little room, where the crickets and scorpions crawled.  My roommate, Isa, would join me, and our host family would look in inquisitively, wondering what on earth we could be doing. 

Upon returning to the states, my climbing partner, Kelsey, who had just spent eight weeks in Nicaragua, and I tentatively took to the gym.  It was hilarious how awkward we felt on the wall.  We even began climbing at 6 AM before school started so we didn’t have to be embarrassed by a gym full of onlookers who kept asking, “what happened to you guys?”  Soon enough however, we returned to our old selves, climbing after school for four, five, or six hours at a time, doing laps in the lead cave, and eating doughnuts between burns.  We were definitely back. 

Keeping after it in Peru

My second long break came after another trip to Latin America, this time nine weeks in Peru, Chile, and Argentina.  On this trip, I didn’t worry too much, buildered occasionally, told myself breaks were good and that they made you stronger in the long run.  After that trip, Chelsea and I took our climbing into high gear, going out essentially every weekend of the next three quarters, alternating between Yosemite, Joshua Tree, Tahoe, and Bishop.  Immediately following school, we moved to Tahoe, climbed everyday, and then took fall quarter off from school, moved into the car, and either drove somewhere awesome or climbed everyday for the next three and a half months.  No question about it, we were back.

Based on these previous experiences, I have faith that soon I shall be back at it in full force, both physically and mentally.  And I can’t wait! (Although it looks like winter might actually be ready to start soon.)  Now to work up enough psych to go the gym…