We see a lot of great photos throughout the week. So, we thought it was high-time we started rounding up some of our faves each week and highlighting one each Friday on our blog to inspire our weekend adventures. We call it the Osprey Round Up.

We are fortunate to have Canyonlands National Park right in our backyard… so when David Taus posted this spring photo from Canyonlands National Park on our Facebook page, we knew we had to share. And we know the feeling of anticipation and excitement that comes with a trip to the canyons.

The Needles. My favorite and oldest Osprey Packs (the big green silhouette from ‘97!) One Alpacka Raft. One beaten up copy of Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitaire. Volker Neumann, Tim O’Shea, Peter Hoagland, Nick Novelli. Three weeks away.

Have a great time, David and friends! Happy Friday!

Friday Round-up, Outdoor Activities, Southwest Colorado backpacking, Canyonlands National Park, hike, Southern Utah, The Needles

The Red Rocks Rendezvous kicks off today at Red Rocks Conservation Area — Spring Mountain Ranch State Park to be exact.

Powered by Mountain Gear and sponsored by yours truly here at Osprey Packs, the Red Rocks Rendezvous is a funtastic outdoor extravaganza featuring a full slate of outdoor clinics focused on climbing, mountain biking, trail running and much more.

Read more…

Events, Osprey Athletes, Outdoor Activities, video Climbing, clinics, mountain biking, Red Rock National Conservation Area, Red Rock Rendevous, Trail Running

Group checking out ruins... no touching Youvonne!

I’ve lived in Southwest Colorado for four years now and it still amazes me all the places in my own backyard I still have not explored. Thankfully Osprey Packs gives its employees the opportunity to take a paid day off to explore the wilderness. This gives us here at Osprey extra time to play in the beautiful place we live in.

Read more…

Osprey Culture, Outdoor Activities, Southwest Colorado, photos canyons, Colorado, desert, Four Corners, hike, historic ruins, Hovenweep National Monument, Utah

Bike enthusiasts and photographers Stan Engelbrecht & Nic Grobler spent two years traveling in and around South Africa — capturing portraits of people and their beloved bikes along the way. The culmination of their project is a book, Bicycle Portraits, divided into three parts that encompass the portraits, stories and essays about the South African people they encountered during their journey. As stated on the home page of the Bicycle Portraits website, “Bicycle Portraits has turned into a portrait of a nation through the bicycles that they own and ride every day —revealing all manner of social, class, historical and cultural nuances never imagined.”

Read more over on the Osprey Bike Blog…

Bike, travel bicycles, bike Portraits, book, photos, South Africa, travel photos, video

We see a lot of great photos throughout the week. So, we thought it was high-time we started rounding up some of our faves each week and highlighting one each Friday on our blog to inspire our weekend adventures. We call it the Osprey Round Up.

Tyler Coplea posted this great shot on Twitter this week from his ride over the weekend: “Massive rain, mud, and wind was no match for my BMC TE29 or awesome OSPREY pack!” Definitely looks like those storm clouds were rolling in.

Now, who’s ready for some spring singletrack? Happy Friday!

Tyler Coplea is a bike racer for the US BMC Mountain Bike Team while also in search for the greatest espresso in the world.

Bike, Friday Round-up, photos Bike, Mountain Bike, photo, singletrack, Twitter

While a large portion of the world desperately seek clean drinking water, the United States and other countries spend billions on bottled water when perfectly clean drinking water is readily available.

Today is World Water Day, a day that people around the world are celebrating, building awareness and taking action to protect this vital resource. We need water. No ifs, ands or buts about it. Fresh water is absolutely crucial to every living thing on this planet, especially humans. Think about it: how much water have you used today? Brushing your teeth, making your morning coffee, the wheat that made the cereal that you at for breakfast was grown with water… we could go on. The point being that we are incredibly dependent on fresh, available water.

Now answer this question: do you drink bottled water? Now, is bottled water really that bad? As it turns out, yes. Yes, it is.

Read more…

Conservation, Events, Osprey Culture, causes 5gyres, bottled water, ditch the plastic, natural resources, plastic pollution, water, world water day

Less than a two-hour drive from Vancouver lies a mountain with plenty of epic steep ski lines. Towering over the ski runs on Mount Baker ski resort, Mount Shuksan is one of the most aesthetic faces anywhere.

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Osprey Athletes, Outdoor Activities, adventure backcountry, Mount Baker, Mount Shuksan, ski

One of the many benefits of our location here in Cortez, Colorado is year-round biking, hiking and backpacking. I can drive an hour and a half to test ski packs in Telluride or drive two hours and find myself in the canyons of southern Utah for a day hike or extended backpacking trip. The weekend before last, Osprey held a product testing trip. Eight sales reps from each region of the US were hosted by our CEO, Sales Director, Product Line Manager and myself.

Read more…

Outdoor Activities, Product, Southwest Colorado backpacking, new product, product testing

Osprey 2011 Backcountry Canyon Trip. Photo: Emily Nuchols

Believe it or not, today is the first day of spring. Our friends at Adventure Journal kicked it off with 5 Reasons to Celebrate Spring. Just a few reasons to count your blessings and celebrate the season…

Read more…

Events, Osprey Culture, Outdoor Activities, adventure, travel, video adventure journal, Climbing, desert, fitz cahall, james Q martin, mountain biking, Red Rock Rendezvous, spring

Deep thoughts in BC... Photo: Gareth Martins, Osprey marketing director via Instagram

Unless you’ve been living in a deep, dark cave… You may have noticed that there is a lot of cool stuff going on out there. So, we thought it was high-time we started rounding up some of our faves each week. We call it the Osprey Round Up.

Osprey’s marketing director, Gareth Martins, has spent the last week in British Columbia’s Selkirk Mountains with Evan Stevens. Between Facebook photos and video blog posts, the two have made it pretty clear that they’ve been finding plenty of powder despite the sketchy conditions. Thanks for rubbing it in, guys. Stay safe out there!

Photo: Ace Kvale, Elevation Outdoors

“It requires a rare vision, perhaps one bordering on delusion, to perceive the possibility of change in the monochromatic world of the hope-blind.” — Timmy O’Neill in Elevation Outdoors.

In another corner of the world, Osprey athlete Timmy O’Neill is in Kathmandu, Nepal for the next two months studying to be an ophthalmic tech at the Tilganga Eye Institute working on behalf of the Himalayan Cataract Project and Dr. Geoff Tabin. After his stint in Nepal, Timmy will travel with Dr. Tabin to Ethiopia to put his newly learned skills to work. Read more about what Timmy is doing with the Himalayan Cataract Project in his recent story in Elevation Outdoors.

Also exciting news this week a little closer to our own backyard, Polartec launched a contest giving away an all expenses paid trip to the 5Point Film Festival next month. Free airfare and travel, lodging at Avalanche Ranch Resort, $500 and Patagonia and Polartec gear… it doesn’t get much better than that. All you have to do is enter. Good luck, we hope to see you at 5Point!

Have a great weekend and happy Friday!

Events, Friday Round-up, Osprey Athletes, Osprey Culture, Outdoor Activities, contest, travel 5Point Film Festival, backcountry, British Columbia, Colorado, health, Himalayan Cataract Project, international, nepal, selkirk mountains, ski, Timmy O'Neill