Happy Memorial Day Weekend! We’re hoping that you get out and play this weekend and appreciate some of your favorite wild places and the wildlife that live there.

We’re spending our Memorial Day weekend in our beautiful backyard — Telluride for Mountainfilm. Currently in its 32nd year, the Mountainfilm Festival is a four-day, six-senses experience of art, adventure, culture and the environment. It attracts filmmakers, photographers, conservationists, mountaineers and explorers from around the world. The theme for this year’s festival is “Extinction.” It’s amazing to get so many people that are so passionate about important causes together in one place and we’re excited to connect with amazing people and organizations like Chris Jordan, Tim DeChristopher, Timmy O’Neill, Sweetgrass Productions and iLCP

Read more…

Events, Osprey Athletes, Osprey Culture Colorado, Conservation, endangered, epicocity project, Events, extinction, inspiration, Majka Burhardt, mountainfilm, telluride, Timmy O'Neill

Craig Childs checking out the Neff Glacier in Patagonia, Chile

by Craig Childs

At night I lay in my tent listening to the thunder of collapsing seracs, multi-ton columns of ice breaking free and falling a thousand feet. Smack, crack, rumble, groan. In these deeply-cut canyons, echoes build and fade. The ice-bound head of the Rio Baker is not a stable or quiet place.

Timmy O'Neill walking the line on the Neff Glacier

Endangered Huemul Deer

Craig Childs watching a huge chunk of ice falling 20 stories down the Neff Glacier.

In the morning we walk along an exposed wall of the Neff Glacier. A thirteen-story slab breaks away, tilts in slow motion, bursts into powder and bergs. How do you not feel fragile in this landscape?

On the ice, crampons crunch across a surface darkened by wind blown dust. The sound of meltwater emerges from deep below

Craig Childs taking a handful of perfect glacier water - some of the cleanest in the world.

us, mumblings in the belly of the glacier. I peer down a hole where shadows within shadows lead into a blue Jules Verne landscape, journeying into the source of the Baker. Oxygen-rich ice near the surface is white. Below it, baby blue falls into a saturated indigo so deep and rich it seems perilous. Becoming aware of the depths, I feel dizzy.

Every hole and crack emits a sound. Some places are whispers, and some rumble like a ship engine below deck. Unseen rivers roar and hiss as one of the largest ice caps in the world melts under our feet. Jonathan Leidich, a local glacier expert whose knowledge comes from 15 years on the ice, takes us to a measurement station that he maintains in conjunction with CECS, Centro de Estudios Cientificos de Valdivia here in Chile. A PVC pipe sticks up from a hole. Leidich runs a tape measure, says that a month ago the surface of the glacier was six feet over our heads. That much has melted in 30 days across this entire expanse. Hearing this, I take in the scope around us, daggers and ridges of ice, holes shaped like giant’s navels. Ice stretches as far as I can see, rising up through the teeth of mountains where the Patagonia Ice Cap spills through from the other side. I can feel it all melting. This is how the river starts.

Osprey Athletes, Osprey Culture adventure, chile, glaciers, patagonia, rio baker, rios libres, Timmy O'Neill, travel

Events, Osprey Athletes, Osprey Culture, Outdoor Activities, Product, Southwest Colorado, Uncategorized Mutant 38, Osprey, Ouray Ice Festival, Timmy O'Neill, Variant, Variant 37

Climbing the frozen falls

Ready to demo packs and spread the love

The lucky Mutant winner gets the news

If you are not in Ouray now for the 15th Annual Ice Festival you need to get your axe in gear and get here soon to join Osprey Packs for North America’s premier ice climbing event which only runs through Sunday, January 10!

Today’s Osprey celebration festivities included a day at the beautiful Ouray Ice Park where we provided free pack demos, sizings , fittings and a display of all the best new technical packs 2010 has to offer this galaxy-or any other.

From the Ice Park it was on to the Ouray Community Center where the tribe gathered for food, drink and a great gear silent auction which featured several choice Osprey Packs and raised considerable funds for the Ice Park. Osprey Prophet of Passion, Timmy O’Neill joined in the festivities drawing a single name-in a style all his own-from the many attendees who threw down some hard earned cash in support of the Colorado Environmental Coalition (CEC), who have been Colorado’s voice for the environment since 1965.

Not ones to not fill the day, Osprey also sponsored Majka Burhardt’s Namibia Speaking Tour presentation at the Main Street Theater. If you missed it you have another chance to catch it Tuesday, January 12th, 6:30PM, at the Dolores Community Center, 400 Riverside Avenue in Dolores, Colorado. Highly recommended.

How can we top all of this on Saturday!? Not really sure we can but we will certainly try and make it worth your while to pay a visit to Osprey and the Ouray Ice Festival. The 2010 Ouray Ice Park Competition starts at 9AM and features some of the top climber’s in the world challenging themselves mentally and physically on a route designed to do just that. We will be in the Ice Park all day providing free pack demos, great giveaways, and another chance to win a pack if you donate some cash to benefit the not for profit efforts of the CEC. Osprey Athlete Majka Burhardt will lead a 12:30PM Easy Ice WI 3+ clinic that is not to be missed.

Saturday evening wraps with the Guy Lacelle Super Hero Party (costumes encouraged!) with music and your Master of Ceremonies, Osprey Prophet of Passion, Timmy O’Neill-who rumor has it will be coming as himself!

In celebration of the Ice Festival, all Osprey Packs are on sale at Ouray Mountain Sports for incredible savings that will not come around again until 2011, so don’t just sit there reading this, get your axe in gear and join us now!

Events, Uncategorized Colorado Environmental Coalition, Majka Burhadt, Osprey Packs, Ouray Ice Festival, Ouray Mountain Sports, Timmy O'Neill

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 Craig Randall, our brand team member from Boulder, CO. Craig will be in the Great Salt Lake next week at Outdoor Retailer…

It’s been a little bit since our last brand team event but the next one’s a doozy – I’ll be attending the granddaddy of all retail trade shows – the one so strong even mother nature couldn’t stop it – Outdoor Retailer Summer Market 2009. It’s been a couple years since my last OR but my head’s still brimming with fond memories. Let’s recap shall we?

Highlights included:

• The every-afternoon-at-3 antics from GoPro Cameras and their wildly entertaining CEO. Camera giveaways, lots of shouting, much grumbling from surrounding vendors (…ugh, not HIM again!!), and quite possibly the most varied beer offerings at the show, made their exhibit a must-see.

• The person dressed as a salmon I encountered near the Osprey exhibit. Sorta freaked me out at the time…and sorta still does. Just sayin’. I’ll watch my back more closely this year should some stinky salmon be in the vicinity.

• One afternoon when I’d just finished my lunch and could think of nothing but procuring a quick dessert, I fortuitously stumbled on the spectacle that was the “smore station.” Some company (I forget who it was) one afternoon laid out a spread of smore ingredients: the marshmellows, the graham crackers – and because open fire is off limits in the trade hall (duh) – a three foot high fountain of magical, flowing chocolate! You grabbed your ‘mellow and graham crackers, put them on a skewer, and then dunked them in the chocolate. I felt like I was in a Willy Wonka dream world. It was pure magic and so I promptly went back for thirds.

• The last night I was in town, Timmy O’Neill MC’ed a benefit show headlined by indie musician Laura Veirs. This was the first time I’d experienced Timmy’s stage antics and I was floored by how talented and funny the guy was. Laura Veirs put on a fantastic solo show, as well, using a real time effects recorder to add ambiance to the set.

If this year’s show is anything like my Summer 2007 experience, I’ll be certain to gain several pounds and a host of new memories. Say hello if you bump into me and I’ll be posting a midweek blog to give you non-attendees all the show details. Check back with us, here!

Check out Osprey’s exhibit – booth #6027  – and follow #ORSM09 on Twitter for all the happenings!

Uncategorized #ORSM09, brand team, Laura Veirs, Osprey, Outdoor Retailer, Timmy O'Neill

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 Craig Randall, our brand team member from Boulder, CO. Craig made a trip up to Vail for the Teva Mountain Games to take in the racing and festivities. Check it out…

With a booth setup in Gear Town and me roaming the venue, Osprey has been well represented at the 2009 Teva Mountain Games. There is little chance for rest at this event as races and contests have been happening one after another since 9 AM this morning. I’ve been a spectator for everything from a professional XC mountain bike race, a climbing competition, a freestyle kayaking comp, a 3-lap fun run complete with ~100′ mud section, and finally a dog-leaping-into-water-after-toy challenge (a huuuuuge dog named “Balto” threatened to empty the pool with his extreme bellyflop!).

Competitors from all over the world took part in the climbing “problems” challenge with teams from France and Great Britain holding their own against their U.S. counterparts.

Professional riders Todd Wells (from Durango), Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski, reigning national champion Adam Craig, cyclocross star Katie Compton, and Luna rider Georgia Gould all battled it out on the 5-lap XC mountain bike course. I’m not sure who took the victory in the men’s race (had to be either Wells or JHK because they opened up a huge gap on the rest of the field) but I’m fairly certain Compton took the win in the womens race. She’s quite impressive to watch live, her strength in the womens field is astounding – she was even outpacing a few of the pro men.

Finally, the “X1 Mud Run” left runners a bit dirty from the nasty mud section they completed on each of three laps. As finishers came through the Teva tent they were handed fresh white towels and later a blast of water from the Vail fire department. Runners weren’t shy ablout flinging the brown stuff at us innocent spectators and Osprey-sponsored athlete and the event’s MC, Timmy O’Neill, instructed them to toss their mud at some of the more clean looking spectators. Thanks Timmy .

The fun is close to wrapping up for today but not before indie hip-hop artist Aceyalone takes to the stage at 6. Tomorrow will see the conclusion of the climbing comp and more end-of-weekend havoc. Thanks for checking in!

Brand Team posts, Events, Outdoor Activities Katie Compton, Teva Mountain Games, Timmy O'Neill, Todd Wells