Wednesday, December 17, 2008

The Life and Times of Hypno AR

The Ditto tote bag is on sale right now and that got me thinking that we never posted about the fairly incredible journey the bag took to make it to store shelves. Most people aren't sure if reincarnation exists, but here is definitive proof.

In 2004, NEMO hooked up with Team Nike to create the fastest and lightest adventure racing tent. It was called Hypno AR.


It was NEMO's first production run and there were a lot of lessons learned. Those lessons have shaped the way we currently make our airbeam tents; those lessons also left us with many boxes of tents that did not meet our strict quality standards. Although there were several attempts to repurpose the tents, this summer we still found ourselves with many boxes of tents that could not be donated.

As we learned more about the environmental impact of plastic shopping bags and began to hear of cities and countries banning the use of them, we saw an opportunity to recycle our patient Hypnos and change consumer habits.

Suzanne and I spent a long night cutting up the first Hypno tent to make two awesome bags and prove the idea worthy. With prospects of many more long nights ahead, we decided to enlist some help.

The first step was to cut the tent into big pieces and remove all the hardware. With help from our local Easter Seals chapter, the tents were disassembled in our studio and the hardware was recycled into our prototyping lab.

The next challenge was to maximize the number of bags that could be made from one tent. Using engineering powers that be (i.e. math), we designed a pattern that gave us 12 bags from one Hypno tent.



To keep the environmental footprint small, we teamed up with a local sewing house in New Hampshire to help cut patterns and sew the bags. Cam and I spent a back-breaking day at the sewers figuring out how to cut the slippery and oddly shaped tent pieces.




With nothing added but a NEMO label and a little bit of edge binding, Hypno AR was reincarnated into the Ditto tote bag. We took great care in trying to preserve the fun details (zippers, webbing, guyout loops, velcro, screened logos, mesh, etc.) of the original tent.


As a result, every bag is unique.


-Connie

Holds for the Holidays

Climbing holds came in today! We made mini-Morphos to adorn retail shop and climbing gym walls. Cam got a pretty cool surface texture on it by playing with different textured paints. I think they came out awesome and I'm excited to try to dyno off a tent.




-Suzanne

Monday, December 15, 2008

Better than some fashion models

One of our customers, Przemek Skrzypek (currently living near the Adriatic east cost of Italy), sent us a great email this morning about a recent trip to the Apennine Mountains with his Gogo tent.

In particular, he says, "Gogo is so gorgeous! Better than some fashion models." We here at NEMO agree, though I'm sure there are certain fashion models that might give the tent a run for its money.



Check out his blog here for more beautiful photos of his trips.

-Connie

Friday, December 12, 2008

Ice Storm Cometh

I knew when I got home last night we were in for it. As I turned on my Christmas lights, I noticed a slight buildup of ice on the bulbs and wires. It was misting, and the temp was dropping. I rubbed my hands together and imagined waking up to a world of crystallized ice trees. I checked my camera battery, poured a glass of water, when all of the sudden, snap! The power went out. Left in darkness, I lit a candle and headed for bed. Throughout the night I was awakened many times to the sound of snapping branches. Finally a weak, dreary, morning glow revealed the power of a little mist and cold temperatures....alas, my world of ice was before me begging to get its picture taken. I was happy.


Thankfully MY white Toyota did not meet the same fate as my neighbors.


-Bill

Monday, December 8, 2008

57 lbs of Trash and 1 Fishing Spear


57 lbs. That’s what we hauled off in garbage during December’s Jenness Beach cleanup. What makes up those 57 lbs. you ask?

Rope, lots of rope
Aluminum cans
Toys
Gloves
Bottle caps
Plastic containers
Balloons
A sneaker
An intact fishing spear – seriously

While most everything else was pretty typical of what we find at our monthly cleanups, the fishing spear was a first. John instructed us on proper technique and after that, spears were flying. I think we'd all go hungry if came down to the spear.

There was no surfing to be had as the air was brisk and the waves were flat, but we did encounter some dogs and their owners, as well as a group of students from Emerson College making a film about local surf spots and their surfers. The afternoon ended as usual, at Joe’s Meat Shoppe in North Hampton.

Go out and do something good this week. Whether it’s for your community, the place you play, or somewhere distant, it’ll make you feel good. Now that’s what I call killing two birds with one stone.

Happy Holidays,
Kate

Monday, December 1, 2008

Beach Cleanup with NEMO this Friday

Come join us for NEMO's monthly beach cleanup at Jenness Beach this Friday, December 5. We expect to be there at low tide (around 11:30 am), but please email journey@nemoequipment.com if you're interested in coming. Hot chocolate and hot cider are in the works with the cold weather.

Dogs and lots of helping hands are welcome!

-Connie

Monday, November 24, 2008

The 411 on Earth911

I came across this useful tool for spring cleaning (anytime). Earth911.com finds the most convenient way to recycle, well, pretty much anything. I just found a location 2 minutes away from home to recycle my dead motorcycle battery. All I needed to enter was my zipcode and product category.


Looks like they also have a website for water quality monitoring at local beaches... useful to check in with before trying out a new surf break.

-Suzanne

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

If you thought your shelters were good...

Shelters come in all shapes and sizes, but it's not often that you get to see one designed by ants. Granted the narrator is no David Attenborough, but try NOT to be amazed when you see the results of excavating the 10 tons of concrete scientists poured into a leafcutter ant colony. For those impatient types, it starts getting good after 4:00.



The ant colony covers an area of 538 square feet, much bigger than any tent we produce. (via www.kottke.org)

-Connie

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Thank You Mr. Muir!

Fellow designer Suzanne and I managed to score a large chunk of time off from NEMO in the late summer to do some ‘gear-testing’. While prospects of sitting on a beach sipping umbrella-decorated drinks sounded good (sun shades need to be tested too!), we decided that this would be an ever better time to hike the John Muir Trail. Below is a short day-by-day summary of our 19 day trip beginning in Yosemite Valley and terminating 211 miles later at the top of Mt. Whitney.

Day 0: It turned out that Yosemite issues “day of” hiking permits up to a day in advance — a good thing to know! Since no more permits to leave Happy Isles trailhead were available for the day, we found ourselves with some extra time to explore Yosemite and boulder around Camp 4.


Day 1: The next morning we left Happy Isles with heavy packs. The sign at the trailhead noted ‘211 miles to Mt. Whitney’. Strangely, the next sign 4 miles later at the top of the Mist Trail noted ‘218 miles to Mt. Whitney’...


Day 2: The highlight of this day was our camping site on Cathedral Lake. Perched on a smooth granite slab just above the water’s edge, we had the best seats in the house to watch the hour-long sunset. Earlier in the day we had seen a lot of marmot ‘activity’ (aka poop), so Suzanne slept intermittently that night as she dreamed about the furry rodents chewing through her hiking pole straps, backpack, and pretty much everything else.



Day 3: It was a hot day and we couldn’t resist the many swimming holes around Tuolumne Meadows. As we wandered in to our campsite at dusk, we heard some bear-like noises (they sound like regular noises if you were wondering). Suzanne went to investigate the situation and instead found a man washing his feet in a nearby river. He was a former Sierra guide who had never hiked the JMT in the summer but had hiked the whole trail in the winter. He had to cache nearly all his food and arrange for two helicopter supply drops. In the end, it took him over 3 months to thru-hike the JMT. We felt pretty warm and lucky as we settled in for the night.

Day 4: Donahue Pass was a day of firsts: first mountain pass, first sight of snow and glaciers, first king-sized Snickers to celebrate the end of a climb, and first entrance into a new park (Ansel Adams Wilderness). We were passed by Lonn, Elgar, and Mike on the long descent after the pass and camped along a pond with an incredible view of Banner Peak.


Day 5: The day’s hike in and around Thousand Islands Lake, Emerald Lake, Ruby Lake, and Garnet Lake was as beautiful as advertised. We ran into Lonn, Elgar, and Mike again, who snapped our picture before heading onward.



In the hypothermic haze following the bone-chillingly short swim at Garnet Lake, we went briefly off-trail before finding the JMT again.

Day 6: A short hike from the campsite brought us to Devil’s Postpile National Monument which piqued the interest of our nerdy engineering sides. Apparently, it’s not magic; science says the hexagonal columns are caused by the contraction during the cooling process of certain lava types. The most efficient way to release stress is at 120 degree angles, which causes the hexagons to form.


After a resupply stop at Red’s Meadows (Hot spring fed showers! Flush toilets! Double cheeseburgers!), we continue onwards and upwards. Progress is visibly slowed by the first (and only) appearance of spiny gooseberries – deadly on the outside but delicious on the inside.


Day 7: Apparently this section of the JMT is often referred to as the most boring part of the trail. We were not disappointed. Fortunately, we had a stunning Lake Virginia all to ourselves that night.


Day 8: There was a weather scare as the sky blackened in the late afternoon. We managed to make it into camp without any rain falling, but ended up needing to put all our clothes on in order to stay warm with the 20 degree temperature drop. The riverside campsite, which came highly recommended by a couple we had passed going the opposite direction earlier in the day, was a welcome sight as it came fully equipped with a fire ring (our first of the trip).

Day 9: We saw a lot of traffic from folks who had recently picked up food at Vermillion Valley Resort (another possible resupply point). All the stories of hikers getting their first beer free were true! After a swim in a nearby watering hole (see picture below), we headed up to Marie Lakes.


Despite the bitter cold, the lake water was glassy and probably gave us the best reflections of the whole trip.


Day 10: Our final food pickup was at Muir Trail Ranch. Since this is the half way point of the trail, MTR is an extremely popular place to send food buckets (they are carried into the ranch by mules from the post office). They supposedly get over 600 buckets every year from hikers. The ranch puts out extra buckets of food and supplies that hikers leave behind for others to rummage through. We pretty much felt like we had won the lottery at this point on the JMT, as we were the only hikers at the ranch. After carefully sorting through the buckets, we picked up some much needed toilet paper, a 10 inch sausage log, hot chocolate, pasta, dried blueberries, and instant oatmeal (listed in order of importance). Across the river from the ranch, we soaked ourselves in the bubbling hot springs. We could have easily stayed here another week.


Day 11: It’s always hard to motivate after a resupply day. With our packs at their peak weight, we finally started up the endless but gentle climb of Evolution Valley. This day was our introduction to a new regimen of eating as our bear canisters held the same volume of food, but now had to last ten days instead of five. We reached McClure Meadow just in time to set up our tent and sit down to catch the moon rise over the towering Evolution Peaks in a spectacular fashion.


This was followed shortly by an unrivaled sunset aided by the smoke from nearby forest fires that had been burning for several months.


Day 12: Up, up, up to Muir Pass, which was our first peek at the how the hiking goes during the southern half of the trip. While the first half of the JMT wound along rivers, skirted mountains, climbed to alpine lakes, and tunneled into dense forests, it was very clear what would happen every day during the second half of the trip – we would wake up, climb up and over a windy talus pass, and back down into a valley to sleep. Wake up, rinse, and repeat. Muir Pass was especially fun because there was a “bad weather” hut at the top which provided both a warm place to eat a snickers and a entertaining object to climb (that's me on top).


Day 13: We spent the majority of this day in search of the 'abundant' wild blueberries, as described by our guidebook. Unfortunately not many were to be found along the trail and even those were nothing compared to the sweet explosions of wild Maine blueberries. We walked through the stark landscape of a recent forest fire (a few years ago) that was also an avalanche zone. At our camp in the valley we were well below the required 10,000 feet and enjoyed a nice campfire as the sun and temperature dropped.

Day 14: The Golden Staircase was neither gold nor a staircase. It was, however, unrelentingly uphill. Its hard to think of Mather Pass without wanting to shake my fist at it. The talus slopes, sleeting skies, and endless switchbacks were draining; it was the only truly bad weather of the entire trip.


Wearing every piece of our clothing (including socks on our hands) we persevered and found ourselves standing atop the pass (actually crouching behind a rock for wind protection) sharing our king size Snickers of achievement. The hike down into the valley was cake after the agonizing climb.

Day 15: The sound of bells on wandering mules kept us awake for a good bit of the night. It was a bit eerie to hear them nearby, clanging in the dark. When we woke in the morning it started settling in just how little food we had. Our rationed snacks got us up the mountain like dangling carrots. In no time we were up and over Pinchot Pass, which seemed like a breeze in the sunshine even though it was even taller than Mather Pass. We made our way down to Woods Creek which had large campsites equipped with bear boxes, fire rings and a good bit of firewood. All were happy.

Day 16:The further south we hiked, the bigger the passes were. Glenn Pass had by far the most rewarding views to distract us from the steady climb. The Rae Lakes were clear, blue, and reflective – giving us a double view of the towering mountains all around.


On top of the pass, while admiring long and clear views both to the north and south, (and of course eating our king size Snickers) we ran into the couple who had apparently donated our salami log back at Muir Trail Ranch. The day ended on the edge of Vidette Meadow with a perfect view of the impressive East Vidette Mountain across the meadow. It was especially beautiful in the evening light.


Day 17:We’d been hearing warnings of Forrester Pass from the beginning of our trip. For the northbound hikers we had met this first pass may have felt like a beast, but, as it was our last pass, it felt like a stroll in the (very large) park. It was the first time we surfaced above 13,000 ft and you could almost smell the cheeseburgers at Whitney Portal in the air.

Day 18: We had been moving a bit faster than expected, and with an extra day or two to fill before our flight home, we decided to slow down and smell the alpine roses. A relatively short mileage day let us stop, play a few hands of cards, and admire the view from Bighorn Plateau before heading to Crabtree Meadow.



We picked up our Wag Bags just outside the ranger station and crossed our fingers that we wouldn’t have to trek too far with it filled.
"Our non-toxic Poo Powder waste treatment treats up to 32 ounces of liquid and solid waste allowing for multiple use. It turns liquid waste to a solid for hygenic and spillproof transport."
Poo Powder. Nice.

Day 19: The hike from Crabtree Meadow up to the Whitney summit junction was surprisingly devoid of people until we started on the short 2 mile hike to the summit and ran into the crush of day hikers/overnighters making the same trip.


On the windy summit we enjoyed a king-size Snickers (each!) that we had been carrying in our packs for the past two weeks (that’s 7.4 ounces of caramel peanut nougaty goodness that we were hefting around every day).


After a long day, the 100+ switchback descent from Whitney trail junction to Trail Camp was endless.



Day 20: The unfortunate part of a trail ending at the summit of a mountain is that you still need to make your way down to the trail head. We spent the final day descending the last six miles from trail camp back to Whitney Portal. All the excitement about cheeseburgers to come meant that we didn’t even look twice at the blue M&M and red gummy bear that someone had dropped on the ground two miles from the trailhead. Many thanks to Faisal and Farzana who gave us dirty hikers a lift back to L.A. from Lone Pine. And to Joyce in L.A. who let us take hour long showers to start the process of finally getting clean.


-Connie

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

October Beach Cleanup

With November fast approaching (and the waves pumping at our local break), it was clearly time for a beach cleanup. Every month, NEMO picks up trash around a quarter mile stretch of Jenness Beach through the Blue Ocean Society. Fall is a spectacular time in New England -- the summer beach crowds are gone, leaves are every color imaginable, and the water's not lethally cold...yet (good luck next week with that).

Although the morning's post-sunrise session was rough, it was nowhere as brutal as the previous evening. Suzanne's right fin box from her red fish bore the brunt of those waves and is now at the doctor's office for repairs. My board managed to escape unscathed.


Jenness usually looks pristine (see below, pre-cleanup) but it's amazing what kind of stuff you can pull out of the seaweed. Today's haul totaled about 50 lbs, including notable finds of a cellphone, two pairs of glasses, and one broken surfboard fin (not Suzanne's).


No stop to the beach is complete without a visit to Joe's Meat Shoppe, our favorite post-cleanup/surf lunch spot. You've got to love any store that has a hand-lettered sign out front and still spells 'shoppe' with two p's. Need recommendations? Corn chowder, made from scratch the right way (starting with bacon), rare roast beef from the meat counter, and the ginger-lime marinated steak tips. Delicious.


-Connie

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Floodwood Pond Canoe Trip


Earlier this summer, I read a very small blurb in Backpacker about a canoe trip in the Adirondacks that sparked my interest. Growing up on the outskirts of the Daks, I didn’t spend enough time in this enormous playground that was essentially, my backyard. So, now that I’m back on the East Coast, I consciously look for different adventures in this beautiful park.

Backpacker described the trip like this; “Paddle your way to mountain peaks. From the top of 2,530-foot Long Pond Mountain, the St. Regis Canoe Wilderness unfolds in a breathtaking maze of interlocking waterways amid thick green forest. The trail to this rarely hiked peak is accessible only by paddling the Floodwood Pond Loop in the northern part of The Adirondack Park.”

I was intrigued and so the trip planning began. Mike, Charlotte and I stopped in to St. Regis Canoe Outfitters in Saranac Lake to get all the info. Dave Cilley, the owner, is an expert on this area and gave us great beta. He also wrote a guide book for the area that is very comprehensive.

The leaves are pretty much at their peak right now, so the scenery was amazing. We paddled across large ponds, down narrow, shallow channels, under bridges and even pushed our canoe through a culvert under the railroad tracks. I’m not a canoeist by any means. I take about one trip a year. But, it’s a great way to get away into the wilderness via an alternative method, a.k.a, not my legs. It allows you to cover more ground and to bring a few extra items with you. So, we didn’t skimp – we brought the bigger Losi 3P for the two of us and Charlotte, along with the Pawprint™ for the floor. We also splurged and brought more food, like afternoon appetizers, beers and dessert. Of course, when we were portaging almost a mile with the gear and canoe, I was considering leaving the extra food for the chipmunks.

Our camp spot on Long Pond had breathtaking views of forested islands, channels leading to other ponds and our destination for the next day, Long Pond Mountain. The nights were chilly with temps dipping in the low 40’s. Charlotte doesn’t have a very thick coat, so I shared my EMS down vest and in the mornings, she somehow made her way into my sleeping bag. I’m thinking we need to design a packable sleeping pad and bag for our four-legged camping companions.

I love fall in the East!
~Kate

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Camping In Woodstock



New sample tents arrived at the NEMO studio last week. That, coupled with the crisp fall air and turning leaves made the decision to do some ‘product testing’ easy. With cars loaded, six NEMO employees, 5 dogs and an adventuresome 2 ½ year old headed out to Plymouth, VT to camp around Woodward Reservoir.

As is typical of a NEMO outing, there was no shortage of good food or beer —VT has some great local brews. Excitement about the upcoming ski season and animated stories of season’s past flowed around the campfire. We talked about how good the surf was last weekend and how the Cape is expecting 11’ swells this weekend. And of course, ghost stories were told (Cam and Bill had some good ones).

John, Seamus and Finn made Asashi, our 4-person tent for 2009, their castle for the evening. Equipped with a Pawprint, Finn was able to snuggle up next to Sea and keep guard. I tested out the final sample of Nano OZ, NEMO’s recycled tent. With the bright orangy-yellow color and window on the integrated vestibule, it was a cheery morning with the sun streaming through.

Tom spent and enjoyable (although not quite long enough) night in Nano. This sample was made from a new type of fabric that is being considered for our 2010 line. Each of us also tested one of three different sleeping pads that we’ll be offering in 2009; Tuo Lite, Tuo Standard or Tuo Luxury. The double-layer made for a comfy and warm night’s rest while temperatures dipped into the 30’s. But bright and early Bill and Cam were shooting pics and getting us all up to enjoy the morning sun and cowboy coffee (wow, Bill makes a bad cup of coffee).
~Kate