Long Treks on Skate Decks Episode 11: Adult Decision

Welcome to Episode 11 of the Peru y Boliva long distance longboarding trip. Almost being seen by airport security, Adam, Paul, and Aaron decide to make the adult decision and not run across the Cusco International Airport. Getting out of Cusco proves to be hard and muddy but it is done and conquered. The crew pushes through strong headwinds and summits one of their highest passes of the trip 14,222 ft to be greeted by a alpaca convention at the top. The next day the team reaches the Alto Plano and is surrounded by beautiful rainstorms and rainbows.



(If you're looking for a cliffnotes version of the video, see below)
2:42 - road ends
3:00 - road ends, again
5:41 - gratuitous tent shot
7:42 - most amazing hat in the world?
10:57 - double rainbow

-Adam

From World Champion Freeskier to Farmer

NEMO ambassador Alison Gannett never stops. Whether she's rippin' it up on the slopes and teaching other women how to do the same or teaching members of Congress how to save money and energy while reducing the Nation's carbon footprint, Alison is always moving and learning. Recently, she left her home in Crested Butte to try her hand at farming in Paonia, CO. The Denver Post covered the story here.

2011 Sneak Peek: Isopod 300

We looked up the word behemoth and found a picture of Isopod 300 under the definition.

-Connie

Working Hard

All business, right before NEMO's holiday party.

-Connie

Inside Footage from KGB

The boys over at KGB continue to put out some quality footage from their upcoming movie, Wyoming Triumph, slated to be released Fall 2011. This segment is from the Big Horn Mountains that stretch from northern WY to southern MT. While not your typical ski destination, the Big Horns offer beautiful rock formations, deep canyons, wild horses, and yes, big horn sheep.



If you've ever wondered what goes in to shooting a ski flick, check out KGB's Sandbagged series on ESPN. It's a behind the scenes series showing the trials and tribulations of filming in the backcountry.



Santa delivered my Marker Baron's a little early, should be on the new set up by Christmas!

~Kate

NEMO Makes its TV Debut

In another random twist of fate, NEMO will have a cameo appearance in the CBS drama NCIS tomorrow night. Titled 'False Witness', The NCIS team investigates the disappearance of a Navy petty officer who is the sole witness in an upcoming murder trial. Apparently, he's out doing a little camping and hunting.



You just never know where you're going to find a NEMO tent.

~Kate

DIY Timelapse

NEMO ambassador Adam C. has put together an awesome little primer for folks that want to get into timelapse photography. Here's the cliffnotes version (full version here):

STEP 1: Buy an intervalometer off Amazon.com.
STEP 2: Take your intervalometer and have at it.
STEP 3: Find what you want to timelapse and have fun.
STEP 4: Math.
STEP 5: Create the Timelapse (this part is super easy).

As a sampler, he put together this video to give some ideas and show some of the cool things that you can shoot. My favorite parts are the airport night scenes around 1:30.



-Connie

Moki, Coming to a Video Game Near You

It's funny sometimes, the random places you find a NEMO tent....


A friend found this while buying a Christmas gift for his nephew. I tried my hand at the game, but that darn dino is speedy.

~Kate

Get Your Reality On

If you don't already have plans for April 2011, you might want to consider entering a team of 3 for the reality show Expedition Impossible.

In Expedition Impossible, teams of three will solve problems while racing across deserts, over mountains and through rivers. Each week a new stage of the expedition will be revealed. After ten stunning legs of competition, one team will cross the finish line first to claim victory.

Executive Producer Mark Burnett is the man behind Survivor, The Apprentice, and Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader, if that is any indication of the quality of programming that is to come. Maybe we can expect to build a canoe out of PVC pipes, rubber bands, and toothpaste, take the said watercraft down class 5 glacier melt rapids, retrieve a cryptogram puzzle by diving underneath the water surface, anagram the solution which will lead the team to another location... sounds like just the event to enter a NEMO team.

To apply, email David Polanzak at dpo.casting(at)gmail.com. Your email must include the following:
• Name, age, location and contact info for all three (3) team members
• Recent photo of all 3 team members
• Level of individual and team's experience with competitions/races, etc.
• Brief description of why your team is great for this competition and why you will win
• Anything else that makes your team memorable and unique

-Connie

Carter Route, Hallett Peak, Rocky Mountain NP, CO....At Least What's Left of It!

Mark & Janelle Smiley report on their latest adventure:


Adventure Climbing up Hallett Peak from Mark Smiley on Vimeo.

We had been climbing for five months straight. After reading countless route descriptions and trip reports for all these climbs we were kinda over it. People spraying about how scary the crux was, or how run-out the 5.7 section is, or the most popular one; how the guidebook was so wrong that the author must be an idiot or something!

On routes that intimidate me I do my homework by making laminated printouts of the description, taking more gear then they call for, and making sure it’s all ready to go the night before the climb. After climbing in Alaska and Canada, Hallett Peak is not intimidating. I don’t write this out of arrogance, but rather to justify our procrastination. The morning of the climb, while driving to Rocky Mountain NP from a friend's house in Ft Collins, I surfed through summitpost.com and mountainproject.com on my Smartphone, hastily looking for last minute route info. That is, until the nauseous feeling took over from looking at that stupid little screen while on a curvy road.

Arriving at the trailhead parking lot, we went to work. After doing this numerous times we had the dance down pat. Janelle preps food in the front of the van while I prep gear in the back. Then I take the mostly full packs to Janelle who then tops them off with the food and water. We button up the van, and are off.

I figured we would just take a standard adventure climbing* rack:

-BD cams

-#00-#3, double of #.4-#3

-light set of nuts (approx. 8)

-6 quickdraws

-7 runners w/a biner each

-3 lockers each

-ATC guide each

-one double length sling each

-one shared “cordellete”

-rescue gear (one prussik, one tibloc, small knife, bail biner)

-shoes, harness, helmet, chalk-bag

-5 pound SLR camera, extra card, charged battery
-headlamps

-Sterling 9.2 rope

-3 liters of water total

*adventure climbing: not knowing what you are getting yourself into due to poor preparation and planning. Hoping that you will have the minerals to pull it off.



We chatted with the rangers, glanced at the map at the trailhead (rounding out our route planning), and headed up the trail towards Bear Lake. The miles passed quickly with light packs and a relatively flat trail. Getting up to the base of the route, it was evident where the rock fall happened a few years ago. It wiped out the bottom two pitches of the climb, which severely downgrades the route's appeal. We roped up to the right (uphill) of the rock fall area. Looking up, there wasn’t a clear line or any visible initiators of previous climbers, at least not visible from the ground. To make matters worse, the clouds to the west were getting darker. Do we stay or do we go? “We have come this far, why not just finish it,” was my thought. Janelle was hesitant, but put me on belay anyway.

I tied in and “adventure climbed” (see above) up the first pitch. One hundred feet off the ground we felt the first drops of rain. Janelle wasn’t into it. Not wanting to be on an unestablished route (in the rain, on the cold shady side of a rock face) she suggested we come back another day.I yelled down, "maybe it'll just blow over." I hate bailing. I hate it more than being wet and cold. But reluctantly, grumpily, I made a quick anchor and rappelled to the ground.

Current Situational Equation: Janelle hates to epic + Mark hates bailing = Mark turns into a spoiled 2nd grader and puts on his grumpy pants and makes Janelle feel like a failure. I really wanted to get the route done that day. “Summit or plummet baby!”

Bailing turned out to be a good call because only an hour after we bailed the thunderstorm unleashed a cold blowing rain. It would have really sucked to be on the face at that time. My brother was getting married in Indiana and our flight left Denver the next day, so this climb would have to wait. "But what if even more of the route crumbles while we are gone?" I half-jokingly kidded Janelle. The wedding was a great rest from the mountains. Hanging out with friends and family and answering the much-asked question, “Why do you climb mountains anyway?” and “Your videos scare me, you be careful up there!”

One week later, with my brother on his honeymoon and a lot of concerned relatives telling me that we are in their prayers (for which we are thankful), we flew back to Colorado.

Things were going better during round two. We picked up where we left off. After traversing quite a bit to get back on the original route, it was smooth sailing from there. Aside from the fact that Janelle had picked up a yuk-bug in the Hoosier land making her nose a non-stop leaky faucet, and taking her normally superhuman strength down to a mere mortal level. So I was the “rope-gun” for the route (I led every pitch), which was fine as I truly enjoy guiding people up climbs.

Reaching the top of the route allowed us to get the full view of the pervasive forest fire smoke we had been smelling, and even tasting, since returning to Colorado. It was eerie knowing that through all the smoke people were losing everything they own to the wild fires. “70 homes burnt!” the headlines read. Although I was thrilled to have another route under our belt, it was sobering to think about the people that had lost all their material possessions. It made me think about just how insignificant climbing really is….

…but it is still so freakin’ fun, I can’t wait to get my hands on rock again!

~Mark

For Your Eyes Only

We have loyal readers and fans (yes, you know who you are), and don't get enough chances to thank them for their support. As a small token of our appreciation, use NWH_10 as a 40% off code at checkout for Espri, Losi, and Losi Storm series tents and accessories until December 24th. This isn't posted anywhere on our website, so keep it on the downlow lest all the stock runs out.

P.S. Also, our annual Garage Sale starts tomorrow morning (go to the website homepage tomorrow). First come, first served.

Long Treks on Skate Decks Episode 10: Abancay to Cusco

Welcome to Episode 10 of the Peru y Boliva long distance longboarding trip. After a night-long torrential downpour our fair friends wake up to a 15km ascent into Abancay. 3 mountain passes are conquered before Cuzco and some terribly dangerous downhills. Cuzco is a major landmark city in the journey, and in triumph they throw water balloons at anything that moves. Enjoy!



After our big climb the downhill part was awesome but pavement soon turned bad. It was pitch black we needed to set up camp so we talked to some farmers and they put us right in the mud. This is the morning of us packing up.

Still Climbing, 4th pass 13,120 ft. Now that is a pretty hairpin turn and guess what, we are not skating down it but up it.

I really like this picture. The emotion on Pauls face is of determination and exhaustion. Skating until dark, we made it to the top and did a gnarly downhill run in low light conditions.

Our 5th climb 12,105 ft. As you can see the climbs are not straight up the mountains--very windy and unpredictable you never know what is around the bend.

-Adam