The Osprey Brand Team, a group of ambassadors reporting from the field at consumer outdoor events across the country as well as reporting on adventures in their own neck of the woods, was in attendance at last weekend’s Green Festival – a joint project of Global Exchange and Green America. Check out this full wrap-up from brand team members Miriam Karpilow and Sarah Trejo…

We couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day. Well, we suppose we could have, but it wouldn’t have done any good, since this November morning was nothing but blue skies and t-shirt temperatures. In fact, had the round-trip distance to San Francisco not looked something like 165 miles, we probably would have ridden our bikes to the GreenFestival!

Your two faithful Osprey Brand Team’ers had to park a good 10-minute walk away from the expo hall, so we had an opportunity to soak in the sun and general ambiance as we wove our way among the hippies, hipsters, green-pinstripes and enthusiastic student-types. It was so encouraging to see that we were not the only ones carrying our own bags and reusable water bottles! Upon arrival at the entrance we were greeted by the Ritter Sport remote-controlled truck that was rolling around and passing out little squares of chocolates. These are no regular chocolates; they’re German chocolates! Miriam being half-German and having grown up loving Ritter Sport, promptly flipped out and started grabbing the bright little packages. Additionally, Ritter Sport was there interviewing people for a chance to win a year supply of chocolate – check out Sarah with the mic!

We finally bought our tickets and walked in to the hall. It was overwhelming! SO MUCH TO SEE! The map was useless; we just started wandering. There were booths galore – organic, sustainably produced clothing; free-trade chocolate; kombucha (ewww); phases of the moon calendar; elephant poop greeting cards; bags of all sizes made from repurposed kite sails, billboards, tires and a bunch of other stuff. There were also all sorts of magazines being represented and we admittedly found it odd that there would be so much paper at a Green Festival. That didn’t stop us from picking up some great rags on vegetarian cooking (can’t wait to try some of those recipes!), yoga, responsible global politics and so on.

Eagle-Eye Sarah pointed out interesting people and stuff for Miriam to capture and upload to Twitter. Some of the highlights include the “Bag Man.” This was a dude who was walking around under about 500 plastic shopping bags (like you get at the grocery store), roughly the amount one consumer uses in a year. Seeing the sheer volume of plastic at once really puts things in perspective. People! Bring your own bags to the store! And if you can help it, why not use Earth-friendly bags made from organic or recycled materials (perhaps you can grab your Osprey ReSource backpack and pedal your bike to the store)?

We also spotted a gentleman Tweeting old-skool style: on a typewriter! He had a sign advertising poems… we asked him to write one for us. While he typed away, we observed a group of guys – probably high school students – looking on, completely agog. The look on their faces was something between “what the heck is that?” and “wow, that is pretty cool!” Isn’t it interesting that this little human-powered machine that was so revolutionary during our grandparents’ and parent’s generation, has so quickly become antiquated due to quick advancements in technology? This might have been the first time these boys had actually seen a real, live typewriter! Oh, and our poem was… weird.

Speaking of antiquated technologies, how about all that elephant dung, recycled, seed-infused paper!  Miriam and Sarah, despite their recycling, composting, reusing tendencies, are two people who still love themselves a handwritten letter or note. Your gals bought some beautiful, plantable (as in: seeds IN the paper), recycled fiber paper for this very purpose. Hey – why don’t you pick up a pen and write a nice note to let someone and tell them how much you care about them, in writing?! Guaranteed, it’ll make their day!

Around lunch time, we plunked ourselves on the ground in the food section. Oh wow, so many yummy options! But we brought our own stuff AND our own utensils. Miriam being the Green person she is, always carries a supply of utensils (including chopsticks) and napkins in her glove box for exactly such moments. Ever notice how a jaunt to a (gasp) fast food place or sandwich shop or café always results in extra napkins and/or plastic sporks? Do you find yourself just tossing that stuff in the trash? Well again, we can thank Miriam’s responsible German side for collecting the goods for (re)use.  And how cool is it that, at this GreenFestival, there were closely monitored bins for trash, recycle and compost? Wouldn’t it be cool if that were the norm?

After lunch, Sarah steered your faithful Osprey reps down the dessert aisle, where many amazing chocolates were sampled. When you learn more about the details of the chocolate industry, you will be happy to pay a premium for organic, free-trade chocolate.

We wandered around a bit more, all the while chatting people up about Osprey bags and handing out coupons for a cool promotion at local Lombardi Sports (buy an Osprey bag, get a steel water bottle for free!). That was, after all, one of the reasons were at the GreenFestival to begin with: to inform eco-conscious consumers that there are some pretty awesome eco-conscious and rugged bags available for all your carrying needs. The ReSource bags, folks. They rock!

Peace and sunshine to you from Northern California,
Miriam and Sarah

Brand Team posts, Events, Product Green America, Green Festival, Osprey ReSource

The Osprey Brand Team, a group of 10 ambassadors reporting from the field at consumer outdoor events across the country as well as reporting on adventures in their own neck of the woods, checks in with Erie, Colorado resident Joey Thompson. Joe is a ski patrol member at Boulder’s local hill Eldora and an AMGA Certified Rock Guide. Here he tests his early-season ice climbing skills…

My friends and I wear really psyched for ice climbing after all of the recent snow fall here in Boulder. We took a chance to scout out some early ice conditions. What I knew was that some areas are more likely to have ice that others. I was looking for cooler temps and shaded aspects with higher elevation for forming ice. Also considering the hike in and a recon misson, I thought that Lincolon Falls would be a great venue to check out. Little did we know what was to be in store.

The drive to the parking area was a great time to confirm there would be good ice. Once we saw the main gully in a mild blue hue I knew that there was potential for some climbing.

The 1st pitch was a little more wet on the right side with H2O rushing down the ice fall. Over all there was pretty deep ice. The ice fall took screws and swings.

The second pitch was a bit more interesting. With chandlers and steeper terrain I was paying closer attention to where my placements went. During early season one must try to tread lightly on this forming ice. Ice that is not ready to lead must really be avoided for later-in-the-season climbing.

We found great mixed top roping with out bashing the ice pack that was still forming.

Working together we were able to come up with a plan. As mountain guides we are trained to be conscious of the resources and lead by example.

When the early season has you pumped to climb remember to think about preservation and the future of the season for you and especially others.

Joey Thompson
Colorado Mountain School Mountain Guide

For more information about the Osprey Variant 37 please click here.

For more information please see Joey’s bio page here.

Brand Team posts

Our brand team is putting the finishing touches on a full recap of this weekend’s Green Festival in San Francisco…but in the meantime check out some of the fun Miriam and Sarah had while roaming the event on our Osprey TwitPic page.

Full report to follow!

Brand Team posts, Events #greenfest, Green Festival

The Osprey Brand Team, a group of ambassadors reporting from the field at consumer outdoor events across the country as well as reporting on adventures in their own neck of the woods, will be in attendance at tomorrow’s Green Festival – a joint project of Global Exchange and Green America. Check out information about the festival and come back Monday for a wrap-up from brand team members Miriam Karpilow and Sarah Trejo…

For those of you who follow @ospreypacks on Twitter, our brand team will be tweet-tweeting away tomorrow during the Green Fest. Twitter users have already created the hash-tag to classify GF tweets – #greenfest – so look out tomorrow for interesting comments about speakers, presentations, and random happenings at the fest.

Besides giving you the scoop via Twitter, Miriam and Sarah will be giving out Osprey hats, stickers, and beer coozies…so if you’re there in person be sure to say hello and pick up some cool bird gear.

As a bonus, Osprey is teaming up with Lombardi Sports in San Francisco to provide a free Osprey stainless steel water bottle with each purchase from Nov. 13 through Nov. 27. Miriam and Sarah will be handing out the coupons at the event so make your next Osprey purchase one that hydrates, too.

Where:
San Francisco Concourse Exhibition Center
635 8th St (at Brannan St)
San Francisco, CA 94103

When: November 13-15, 2009
Friday 12pm – 7pm
Saturday 10am – 7pm
Sunday 11am – 6pm

Lombardi Sports:
1600 Jackson Street (at Polk Street)
San Francisco, CA 94109

Brand Team posts, Events #greenfest, @ospreypacks, Green America, Green Festival, Osprey ReSource

The Osprey Brand Team, a group of ambassadors reporting from the field at consumer outdoor events across the country as well as reporting on adventures in their own neck of the woods, will be in attendance at this Saturday’s Green Festival – a joint project of Global Exchange and Green America. Check out information about the festival and come back Monday for a wrap-up from brand team members Miriam Karpilow and Sarah Trejo…

Here are all the details, check out the show if you’re in the Bay Area! Say hi to Miriam and Sarah…they’ll be the ladies decked out with packs from Osprey’s ReSource series – these are packs made almost entirely of recycled materials. Sarah and Miriam will be toting the Float, React, Slipstream convertible wheeled pack.

These brand team’ers will be giving out loads of cool Osprey hats, stickers, and beer coozies. As fitting for this unique green/eco event, Osprey’s ReSource line is our first pack series built almost entirely from recycled materials. Each style includes the exact percentage of recycled materials by content. ReSource represents the next logical green step in our commitment to true sustainability.

As a bonus, Osprey is teaming up with Lombardi Sports in San Francisco to provide a free Osprey stainless steel water bottle with each purchase from Nov. 13 through Nov. 27. Miriam and Sarah will be handing out the coupons at the event so make your next Osprey purchase one that hydrates, too.

Where:
San Francisco Concourse Exhibition Center
635 8th St (at Brannan St)
San Francisco, CA 94103

When: November 13-15, 2009
Friday 12pm – 7pm
Saturday 10am – 7pm
Sunday 11am – 6pm

Lombardi Sports:
1600 Jackson Street (at Polk Street)
San Francisco, CA 94109

Brand Team posts, Events Green America, Green Festival, Lombardi Sports

Backpacker + 2010 Osprey Brand Team UPDATE:

On Halloween we officially closed out the Backpacker magazine/Osprey contest – after tallying the numbers we received nearly 2,000 entries! With all of the fantastic “why should you be a part of our next Brand Team?” responses, we have our work cut for us in determining who will comprise the 2010 team.

From all of your entries will will also pick a winner for the Exos 46 pack. Look for that announcement this Friday right here on the blog, and on our Facebook and Twitter pages.

Stay tuned and thanks again!

Brand Team posts, Osprey Culture

The Osprey Brand Team, a group of ambassadors reporting from the field at consumer outdoor events across the country as well as reporting on adventures in their own neck of the woods, delivers the latest from new team member Aimee Cebulski who is on a 6-month world travel adventure. She’s taking an Osprey Sojourn 28 with her (from our new Travel Collection). This is her sixth (and final) update coming to you from Egypt…

One of the top things we both wanted to do during our time in the Middle East/North Africa was to camp somewhere in the desert under the stars…Until we got to Dahab and heard about the Camel Diving Safaris, we hadn’t even thought about combining the desert camp with diving and an ocean view!

Like Baja California, Most of the Sinai is desert right up to the water. As a result, you have several small Bedouin (local) villages set up just along the shore. Buildings are no more than huts with no real walls or roofs to speak of. Since it rains maybe one day a year in the Sinai for about 15 minutes, this isn’t a problem.

Many of the villages (especially those close to interesting dive sites) welcome visitors to stay overnight in one of the many available huts and even cook you dinner and breakfast for a small fee. We decided to do a Camel Dive Safari out to Ras Abu Galum, an almost untouched dive site with far fewer visitors than other parts of the Sinai.

Ras Abu is only accessible via boat or camel – No roads. Many dive shops organize Camel Dive Safaris where you hire a local guide and local camels to take you and all the necessary dive gear out to Ras Abu. You can choose to do an out and back day trip (leaving early in the morning) or an overnight stay, leaving later in the day and doing most of your diving the next morning. We elected the overnight stay to be able to camp under the stars.

On our way to the location to meet the camels we stopped for a midday dive at Rick’s Reef, another less frequented location and had a nice quiet dive with just us and our guide April (who was my course instructor – she’s awesome as both a guide and instructor!).

We met the camels in the mid afternoon and watched the Bedouin locals load up all the camel bags with our gear (regulators, BCDs, masks, fins, overnight equipment, sleeping bags, food, even the air tanks for all our dives). These animals are amazing creatures, quiet and steady, workhorses that are the transportation backbone for this region.

This was my first time on a camel and let’s just say it’s quite bumpy and my butt was quite sore after just a short time. After a short ride on the camel I hopped off and walked the rest of the way – Ras Abu is about 4 miles from Dahab. It was a beautiful, breezy night and the walk right on the coast was spectacular.

We arrived at camp just as the sun was setting and we were treated to gorgeous colors in the sky, along with a few local children and women trying to sell us bracelets and scarves (of course). As the sun went down, we ate dinner by candlelight and took in the millions of stars.

Jeff & I elected to take our sleeping bags outside and just sleep under the stars. We did see a few remnant shooting stars from the Orionoids shower and fell asleep to the sound of the water. However, the sand was quite hard and even with a sleeping bag and pad, neither of us got a full night sleep. Oh well! The view was totally worth it.

We woke up with the sunlight coming over the back of Saudi Arabia (across the Gulf of Aqaba) and geared up for an early morning dive. The conditions, the reef and quality of marine life were out of this world! No one was out there but us and we saw tons and tons of fish (some really big ones) and amazing colors of coral.

We got out of the water, had breakfast, and then went in for our second dive, going in the opposite direction of the reef. We were greeted by a sea turtle, an octopus and a school of barracuda. Super cool!

After the second dive and cleaning up, packing the gear, it was almost noon and time to head back to Dahab. Unfortunately, the hike back was not nearly as fun as the way over with blazing sun, no clouds and 90+ degree temps. We all rode the camels for a while since we were tired, but it’s actually hotter and slower up there, so we got off and hoofed it back.

Jeff & I checked into our new place, the Dahab Coachouse, which is a lovely small B&B run by a Danish couple, took massive showers, wolfed a big dinner of the local meatloaf surprise cheeseburgers and promptly crashed! Today we are taking it easy; I might do yoga tonight again here at a local class. Tomorrow is our last full day in Dahab before making the trek to Petra, Jordan.

Dahab has been the perfect stopover after the craziness of Cairo and Sharm El Sheikh and the fast pace of the European leg of the trip. Super excited to see Petra and then move on to Eastern Africa when we touch down in Nairobi on November 1.

Sojourn 28

Features of the Sojourn 28 wheeled convertible pack: Our StraightJacket™ compression system has always been well-suited to the rigors of travel. Add the High Road™ Chassis to the mix and you’ve got the Sojourn. For those who want to reduce the hoist component of their haul time it can’t be beat. When you do need to carry the Sojourn our superb zip-away suspension is on the ready. You’ll also find foam sidewalls for keeping the load secure, while handy mesh pockets, clothing straps and front panel daisy chains maintain your organization. Colors available: Earth, Charcoal, Pepper. Click here for more information – Sojourn Series.

For more information about Aimee, check out her bio page here.

Brand Team posts, Outdoor Activities, Product Camel Diving Safaris, Egypt, Osprey Sojourn 28

The Osprey Brand Team, a group of 10 ambassadors reporting from the field at consumer outdoor events across the country as well as reporting on adventures in their own neck of the woods, checks in with bike racer and brand team member, James Whitesides. Here James describes the enormously active (and slightly contentious!) Pacific Northwest cyclocross scene…

Come to Seattle because good fun is being had by everyone in the PNWCX scene! If you don’t know what that is don’t worry; Scotty came up with it last month for our beer cozies. Rivalries have been restarted, racing has been fast (and big), and we are just about to get some real rain. After spending the better part of four days in Las Vegas at Interbike it has been great to be home and enjoying our trails and racing. Lots of people are sure that the Northwest is rainy and nasty in the winter but being from the MItten I find it to be much more enjoyable than everyone lets on. As the days get shorter out come the lights and the knobbies and everyone gets their lube on nice and thick.

Nick and I started sampling the joys of fall and winter riding here in the northwest last week at Tiger Mountain State Forest. Logging constantly disrupts our use of the trails, and we are forced onto about 1/16^th of the parks trail system to stop “erosion” caused by mountain bikes. I find it a little hard to swallow some of the vitriol that greets us every time we run into hikers on trails that are designated multi use when they have just walked through a massive clear-cut to get to the trail we are riding in the trees.

Talon 5.5

Luckily, Nick and I only saw one other soul out there and he was cruising up to the top of the hill to ride the Preston Trail down and up (not the usual exit) thanks to a closure so we knew that there would be little to distract us from some great riding in the rain. I had the Talon packed with my camera and we played around with shooting a few poor quality movies just for the heck of it. Nothing like tight rooty single track in the wet! Only two and a half hours of riding and I was sore that night. I realized that I hadn’t ridden over an hour since the Rapha ride in the middle of September!

Despite a little mountain biking, Cyclocross (CX) has been dominating my riding schedule lately and I am finally having consistent races. As of today I am 4^th in the MFG Cat 3 field after three races and I think I might be able to get that top step with a little bit of luck. I raced the Cross Crusade race in Rainier, OR this weekend and I am more than impressed with what they bring to the table. If anyone doubts that Oregon is the heart of CX in the good ol’ US of A then they need to take a look at the result sheets.

Our biggest races in WA bring out 900 people for the day. Their average is around 1200 and they just held the biggest CX race ever with about 1450 racers. That’s a lot of people! Not only do they have a ton of racers but they also make it feel a lot more like Europe than anywhere else I have raced. However, we did steal the Grail de Grunge this weekend with a fine showing on Saturday in Seattle and a little bit of craziness on Sunday. There will be a lot of talk over the next week in the blogosphere about how crazy seven guys from Seattle are for stealing the cup from right under the noses of a guy with a sledgehammer. If you doubt my story go check out the pictures on the Cross Crusade site. I can only say that I acted in the heat of the moment and we are all lucky that no one really got hurt (except Brett but he only bled for ten minutes). People are keen to defend the honor of the their cross scenes! I hope that means we are going to see a more consolidated racing schedule over the next couple of years where SCX, MFG and the Cross Crusade work together for the betterment of each series.

Ed.’s note: Check out this story and video on Wend for a better idea of what James is describing!

Driving home from Seattle all of us were stoked to talk about some long rides this winter and we are all planning on doing some long races this winter. After seeing the new hydration pack online and the Flapjack at Interbike (Thanks Osprey for supporting Bike Hugger) I am really excited to test the new stuff and I am already dreaming up ways to abuse some packs!

For more information about James, see his profile page here.

Brand Team posts, Outdoor Activities, Product Bike Hugger, Cross Crusade, Grail de Grunge, Talon, Talon 5.5, Wend

The Osprey Brand Team, a group of ambassadors reporting from the field at consumer outdoor events across the country as well as reporting on adventures in their own neck of the woods, recently attended the Adventure Travel Expo in New York City. Brand team’er-for-a-day and photographer/outdoor sports enthusaist Rex Hunter roamed the trade hall with his Osprey Meridian 28 and a bunch of fun Osprey goodies including hats. Here’s the report!

I spent a day with the vendors at the The Jacob Javits Adventure Travel Show in NYC. The venders were the most interesting people to speak to. So many of them knew my favorite runs at Jackson Hole, understood what Ice Lodge Mt was, and were intrigued by Tele skiing. I met a lady from Costa Rica who loves the surf community and helps run a surf school. She was about 47 years old and had the passion of a 12 year just learning to ride a bike.

My biggest discovery was my encounter with the BC team from Mica and Powder Cowboy. These guys are the real deal. They offer heli skiing & cat trips in Canada for (on the low end) $ 2700 to upwards of $5000. It snows all the time. Since their opening they have had only 3 down days. This is amazing if you watch DVD’s of Alaska where it seems like waiting for snow is the norm.

Walking around I felt an odd need for community. I was looking for people who looked like they were part of the flock. People that wore gear that said I am part of the progression and loving it. I did not see that complete material structure of a human being that said I live it and love it.

Most people looked like they needed a bus to take them to the next tourist trap. The small percentage of people who looked like they were into the industry were the specialists (the vendors) and the few kids who went scuba diving in the indoor pool, tried the ropes course and the climbing wall.

Tents & Trails is 50 years old. God, NYC – can you believe it. Talk about a specialist. CBGB’s did not last that long! I spent most of my time speaking to them about Osprey bags and tele skiing.

The Osprey Meridian bag I have been using all week is always pulling fast ones on me! Just when I think it can’t do this, it does it. When I think no there’s no space, there’s more space. Truly, I under estimated this bag.

The guys at Tents & Trails love Osprey for backcountry skiing.  I’m looking forward to my next purchases.  I will be sure to include a Osprey bag with Black Diamond Tele Skis and Garmont Boots. Thanks from Rex in NYC!

Brand Team posts, Product Adventure Travel Expo, Osprey Meridian 28

The Osprey Brand Team, a group of ambassadors reporting from the field at consumer outdoor events across the country as well as reporting on adventures in their own neck of the woods, delivers the latest from new team member Aimee Cebulski who is on a 6-month world travel adventure. She’s taking an Osprey Sojourn 28 with her (from our new Travel Collection). This is her fifth update coming to you from Egypt…

Are we in Egypt or Las Vegas?  Sharm El Sheikh turned out to be much more of a resort town than we thought.  Once upon a time this was a diver’s haven, a little strip of land right on the Red Sea.  Now, it’s a super developed, all-inclusive style of resort town.  Not really our scene (but it does have a Casino!).

There are countless 5-star resorts and a sea of buffets (along with people stuffing their faces) – And diving is a big business here.  We almost fell over with sticker shock when shopping for a hotel.  We scored a sweet deal at the Iberotel Lido – which is actually a very nice property, right on Naama Bay, with a killer view.  We nabbed a rate of only $180/night – includes breakfast and dinner.  This is a steal here.  Needless to say, we dramatically changed our plan to spend only a few nights here and then move quickly out of the area.

We’ve enjoyed the hotel, relaxing on the pool deck and taking in some of the local seafood at restaurants here.  Our main purpose to come to the Red Sea was to do some scuba diving.  For the last 2 days, we’ve been heading out with Camel Dive Club, one of the oldest dive shops here.

It’s a well-oiled machine, extremely organized and also very focused on diver safety, which is excellent.  Jeff says it’s the most he’s ever paid for diving, so again, we are not staying here as long as we first planned.

We’ve done 2 dives each day over the last 2 days.  The water conditions are outstanding, warm, clear and blue.  Tons of fish, amazing coral (color, styles and variety) but not as much wildlife as we have seen in other spots (turtles, reef sharks, etc.).

A videographer accompanied our group on our dives today out in Ras Mohammed National Park and she produced a video for viewing before we were even back at shore!  You home video fans (dad!) would have been super impressed at the video quality underwater and the production value of the finished piece.  However, at 45 Euro (about $68) for a finished copy, purchasing one was just not in our budget!  We were shocked at the price.  At 45 Euro, no one bought one.  If she had priced them more like 10 Euro, she would have sold out!

We’re staying here until Friday (not diving tomorrow) and then heading to the coastal haven of Dahab.  This is much more of a backpacker’s place and more like the experience we are hoping to get out of the Red Sea.  We booked a cool little hotel called the Alaska Camp & Hotel (go figure) – Our 7 nights there will equal ONE night here.  Insane!

We haven’t taken too many pictures – but a few here of us and the Red Sea.

Signing off for now, hopefully will blog again in Dahab, our hotel is supposed to have free WiFi.

Features of the Sojourn 28 wheeled convertible pack: Our StraightJacket™ compression system has always been well-suited to the rigors of travel. Add the High Road™ Chassis to the mix and you’ve got the Sojourn. For those who want to reduce the hoist component of their haul time it can’t be beat. When you do need to carry the Sojourn our superb zip-away suspension is on the ready. You’ll also find foam sidewalls for keeping the load secure, while handy mesh pockets, clothing straps and front panel daisy chains maintain your organization. Colors available: Earth, Charcoal, Pepper. Sojourn Series.

For more information about Aimee, check out her bio page here.

Brand Team posts, Outdoor Activities, Product Egypt, Osprey Sojourn 28, World, world travel