Icelantic Shaman Skis at Next Ascent Outdoor and Sport:

The Turtle is the most ancient of any vertebrate animal and represents the portal between the earth and sky.

With its unique diamond shaped shovel and tapered tail design, The Shaman optimizes the skier’s center of gravity, allowing for an aggressive, powerful powder turn unlike anything you’ve ever experienced. The Shamans 160 mm tip rivals the biggest powder skis in floatation and stability but don’t be fooled this tool rips the groomers thanks to its aggressive sidecut and unrivaled torsional rigidity. This powder ski will leave trenches on the hard-pack. Seriously.

When a turtle appears, it’s an indication to retreat within, to connect with your most primal essence. The turtle reminds us that all we need, for all we do, is available for us, if we allow it in.

We think the Shaman is pretty much all you need, but that’s for you to decide.

We stock this skis in a 184cm version and a 173 cm version

http://l.yimg.com/pb/webplayer/0.9.18/flash/swfproxy.swf

Icelantic Oracle Skis at Next Ascent Outdoor and Sport:

With an uncanny ability to move swiftly and silently across varying, rugged terrain, the Lynx is at home in uncertain situations.

The Oracle is designed for women who are tired of women’s skis. Integrating Icelantic’s new “Fly-weight” core into our same quality lay-up, makes The Oracle equal in strength, but slightly lighter for a women’s frame. The Oracle has an early rise tip for maximum flotation and charge, with a traditional, scooped tail. The design is slightly tapered allowing the skier to maintain a forward, aggressive stance in any condition.

When the Lynx appears in your life, you are most likely seeing or experiencing things and people you never have before. New Worlds are opening up, and they will be rich.

Can you see it? Cat skiing in Canada? We can…

We will be adding more and more content to this so please keep checking back to it.  If you are an employer you can post a job here and be seen by thousands of qualified candidates.
Find hunting and fishing jobs in Texas, Ski Patrol jobs in Colorado, Travel Consultant careers almojst anywhere.
These are not just outdoor related jobs either.

Job search by Simply Hired

Post a Job! $15 for 30 days

Silverton PowCat Monoskier with Next Ascent Sticker

This organization is always looking for donations and volunteers.  This group is both inspirational and gritty.  If this group doesn’t inspire you to get off of the couch this week, then maybe nothing will.

Brunton Solaris 26 in use on Tent during the TASP Alaska trip

Where is your next outdoor summit going to be??

You think this trip was tough??  How about 3 days of arm-biking during Moab Mania in September??  These dudes are beasts and are awesome for getting us a shot with the Next Ascent Outdoor banner.

Moab Mania Team For Next Ascent

We will continue to update everyone on the TASP trips and continue to offer our support in any way we can.  Please go and check out their website at http://www.tellurideadaptivesports.org

But just as entertaining are the videos on their YouTube channel

Now, maybe that hike this weekend won’t seem so imposing.  Get Outdoors!!

I did my own random research project to show exactly what I am talking about.  If you are the reader of the current Denver Post, and maybe even the old Rocky Mountain News, you were probably spoiled by the writing of former outdoor writer Charlie Meyers who was one of the very best there was and is.  Charlie recently passed away, and with his passing also came the passing of anything meaningful from an outdoor perspective in the newspaper.  With all due respect to the current outdoor writers at the paper, they have huge shoes to fill.  But Charlies inspired people to get outdoors and he wrote with passion about many subjects including fly fishing, hunting, skiing, and many others.  It seems we are relegated to stories now that include excerpts about forgetting a fly rod on a trip to a group of 15 or so unknown open water swimmers at Chatfield reservoir.

So what I decided to do was to take 7 straight days of the sports section of the Denver Post and see how much was written about local outdoor opportunities, outdoor stories, and maybe even something about the 100′s, if not 1000′s of Colorado based outdoor companies.  By accident, I even picked an off week for the Broncos .  It was also an opening weekend for skiing at A-Basin and Loveland, hunting is entering its prime season, fly fisherman everywhere are clamoring for stream spots right now in what is generally considered prime fly fishing time in Colorado, and tourists from every part of the planet are still coming to enjoy the recreational opportunities that Colorado provides.  Surely my hypothesis of lack of outdoor writing was in peril.  Here is what I discovered from 7 days of sports sections:

Each page of the Denver Post consists of 220 square inches of printable area, including the sports section

* For the 7 days I included which was last Saturday, Oct. 15 thru today, Oct. 21st, there was a total of 88 pages of sports.  That is a total of 19,360 square inches of printable space, or 134.4 square feet.

*There was 1977 square inches of advertisements, or 10.2% of total space.

*There was 2174 square inches of Bronco articles, or 11.2% of total space

*There was 477 square inches of Outdoor related articles, or 2.5% of total space allotted.

So, there was 4.5 times as much space allotted to the Broncos as opposed to Colorado Outdoors, even on a week that the Broncos didn’t even play.  And even that number would be more skewed as I generously included 2 articles written by the Associated Press about pro skiing.  There was one article about Elk hunting, one article about open water swimmers swimming in a gravel pond at Chatfield Reservoir, and one article about skateboarders in Golden.  The outdoor business related article for the outdoors was a small blurb about snowboard bindings branded by beer company Pabst Blue Ribbon, based in Seattle, and sold by a company out of Utah.  Not a word about any Colorado based company?  Nope.

I am not a newspaper reporter and I do not know the economics of newspapers, and news is news, but really, you can’t give props to the people and companies right here in Colorado who create jobs, provide sales tax to the state that pays for our government, and allow us to go into the mountains where we spend our money with other businesses?  Nada.

If you have read the small column that Penny Parker does in the business section of the Post, she is always talking about local restaurants, chefs, hotels, small businesses, and fashion shows that raise money for charity.  I applaud her for her undying support for local businesses and the people who bust their butt to keep them afloat for all of us.  That exposure truly helps all of us and probably even creates a small number of jobs.

In the outdoors, there is almost nothing written about the 100′s of small cycling shops in Denver alone, 20+ ski resorts (sans Vail Resorts which gets their support from the Post), the few of us who have started outdoor gear shops in a down economy, all the fly fishing outfitters, and the state and national parks here in Colorado.  I will say, there is usually a token article written about a few ski manufacturers, a local outfitter, and a picture of someone with a trophy animal or fish in their grasp which I do appreciate.  I saved a picture of a guy holding a huge trout he caught on the Taylor River in June.  It was nice!  With the picture, the writer said to email pictures of big fish caught or animals harvested and that they would post on a weekly basis in the paper.  That never did happen and no explanation was given as to why it never happened.

Here are some more stats to put my research into perspective.  Some are close estimates.  Remember, the off-week Broncos got 11.2% of the space, and the outdoors got 2.5%:

-The Denver Broncos bring an estimated $300 million to the local economy

-The new Mile High Stadium cost $401 million, 75% of which was paid by the people in the form of sales tax hikes

-599,000 people saw the Broncos live in person

-2011 Pro Cycling Classic brought in $83.5 million to the Colorado economy in less than a week

-An estimated 1 million people saw the Pro Cycling Classic in person

-Cycling is a $1 billion industry in Colorado alone

-1.2 million cyclists in Colorado

-In Denver, cycling commuters increased 22% from ’09 to ’10.  2.2% of Denver commuted to work in 2010

-People in Colorado spent an estimated 20 million days fishing in lakes and streams in 2009

-There are 168 miles of Gold Medal trout waters in Colorado

-1.4 million people visited Colorado ski resorts last year

-293,000 people hunted either deer or elk in 2010 in Colorado (Division of Wildlife)

-1.8 million people camp in Colorado

-Nationally, Outdoor retail sales were double that of Pharmaceutical sales

-Nationally, more people owe their jobs to snow based recreation than all the physicians and surgeons combined (Outdoorindustry.org)

-1 in 20 owe their jobs to the outdoor recreation industry

So whats my point to all this?  I cannot be the only one who loves to read the morning paper with a cup of coffee to see whats going on the world.  But I also cannot be the only one whose life does not revolve around the Denver Broncos and Tim Tebow and finds articles about Colorado Outdoors interesting, appealing, and also inspiring.  As a retailer and a consumer, I also more apt to buy products from those people busting their hump trying to start a business, invent new products, and give us all new reasons to explore the Colorado outdoors whether it’s in my backyard or hiking a 14-er.  Colorado is not only the fittest state in the nation, but also the slimmest.  My hunch is that we didn’t get way sitting in front of a TV swilling Coors beer, pounding chicken wings and nachos watching the Broncos. A little secret…best time to fish, ski, camp, hike, and bike in Colorado is on Sundays during football season.  And I am a fan of football too.  C’mon Denver Post, give us more than Tebow and Elway, PBR Snowboard Bindings and erectile dysfunction advertisements.

Eric Graham, Small Business Owner and Outdoor Enthusiast

Informational Sources:

http://www.outdoorindustry.org/images/researchfiles/RecEconomypublic.pdf?26

http://football.ballparks.com/NFL/DenverBroncos/newindex.htm

http://www.bikesbelong.org/assets/documents/uploads/Stats2011.pdf

We think this says it all about not only Patagonia products in general, but especially for the new line of Merino 2 base layers for men and women.  And to single one item in particular, the Zip-Neck, which is our personal favorite new item for this Fall.

Here is a quick informational video from Patagonia about their line of Merino 2 apparel, new for Fall 2011:

There are many reasons to love Patagonia apparel, not the least of which is their steadfast commitment to the environment of which they have as many programs to help save our planet as some companies have products in stock.  We love them for this reason, but the main reason we love Patagonia is the quality of their products.  One of these products is one of our favorite items for fall of 2011-The Patagonia Merino 2 Zip Neck for both and women.

We love the fact that these are not 100% wool, but 80% Merino Wool and 20% Recycled Polyester which offers extra durability and moisture wicking.  These have also passed the extremely stringent Bluesign approval process given only to those manufacturers with the highest guidelines of environmental protection.

It also offers more odor protection if you need to wear these on extended trips like camping for several days.   I wore mine for 4 straight days while fly fishing in the mountains of Colorado on the Blue River this past month.  And when I say 4 straight days, I mean morning, noon, night, and sleep.  It never left me the entire time.  In that time it maintained its elasticity and my odor.  Although, there was a slight odor or campfire smoke which seems to be unavoidable no matter what you wear.

I would estimate I fished in this base layer for a total of 35 hours, slept in it for about 20 hours, ate in it for about 6 hours, and hung out and drank beer in it for yet another 20+ hours.  After washing it in cold water, and no fabric softener it still looks brand new and feels the same as it did when I broke it out of its packaging.  Although, not a requirement for Merino Wool laundry care, we don’t recommend using fabric softener when washing merino wool.  Sometimes the particles in the softener will actually attach themselves to the fibers of the wool and the fabric will actually lose some of its ability to properly regulate the release and wicking of moisture.  For even extra care, I would also recommend hand washing in cool water and hang drying, but according to Patagonia, a cold washing and a low tumble dry are okay.

 We have heard all the jokes about the cost of some Patagonia items and even earning the label of Pata-Gucci is some, uninformed circles, but you have to ask yourself…are you willing to pay for quality??  We checked several manufacturers of Merino wool zip Neck base layers, and actually Patagonia’s version falls near the bottom in terms of price.  What I do know is that I have Patagonia base layers that were purchased in the early 1990′s and they look now almost like they did when I bought them, but they certainly perform as good as they did nearly 20 years ago.  I have actually spoken to an ER doctor in Iowa City, IA who said he has Patagonia base layers that he purchased in the 1970′s that he still wears and they still perform like they did nearly 40 years ago.  This attention to quality certainly is not reserved solely for their base layers, but also in their jackets, socks, shirts and even their fishing waders.  I think I paid around $20 for my Patagonia Capilene 3 in about 1993 and I would venture to guess that I wear it about 40 days per year.  In 18 years that comes to about 720 uses and that equates to about 2.8 cents per use, but if it lasts another 18 years, that will be slightly more than a penny for each time it gets used.  How many items in today’s world will cost you 2 cents per day?  About 1 sip of a Starbucks Small coffee and  about 1/10 of one bite of a McDonald’s Hamburger.  I guarantee most of us have music CDs that haven’t been played 10 times and they cost $10 conservatively.  That’s $1 per use.  I can, without hesitation, guarantee you will get far enjoyment out of one use of a Patagonia base layer than you will from a single sip of any coffee in the world.

For all these reasons and certainly more we haven’t even thought of, we think this is one of our favorite items for Fall of 2011.  Be sure to put this on your Christmas list.  But if you have that tough to buy for person, there is no way they will not be disappointed with a Patagonia Merino Wool base layer which also comes in a crew neck and also the bottoms to keep your legs cozy all winter long

Buy Patagonia at Next Ascent Outdoor