Saturday’s snowshoe events at Dac Rowe Field include a guided tour at 10 a.m., kids’ snowshoe races at 11 a.m., and self-guided snowshoeing from 10-2 p.m.  The kids’ snowshoe races are open to children from ages 4 to 4th grade.  Donated prizes include kids socks from Darn Tough Vermont for the winners of each age bracket.   In addition to having a great time, kids will get to learn about the growing sport of snowshoe racing.  American snowshoe makers Crescent Moon and MSR have generously donated use of a variety of demo snowshoes for this event.  Free use  of demo snowshoe will be available from 10 – 2 p.m. on a first come, first serve basis.  “Folks can come learn about snowshoeing and the benefits of different types of snowshoes” notes McCracken.

Another Winter Festival snowshoe event on January 19th is the Mountain Challenge put on by the Vermont National Guard.  Starting at noon, participants will have the chance to test their mettle on a specially designed obstacle course comprised of natural and man-made features while on snowshoes carrying a weighted pack.  Members of the public can race the clock or venture through the course on their own snowshoes or try out the National Guard’s standard military issue shoes by MSR.  SSR Andy Courville and other members of the VT National Guard will be on hand to offer snowshoe instruction throughout the day.

Saturday’s events provide a great opportunity for first timers to come out and learn the basics of snowshoeing, while experienced users can also join in the fun.  All events are free and open to the public.  For more information contact:  info@ccoutdoorstore or andrew.courville@us.army.mil.

Being based near the mountains overlooking Monterey Bay, the next logical progression was developing lighting systems for mountain biking. 1997, Light & Motion developed its first night riding system, the Apex 730D. While bulky and underpowered by today’s standards, this lighting system was ahead of its time. With the onset of 24-hour racing, Light & Motion continued to further refine their lighting systems to make them more efficient. Today, Light & Motion offers several rechargeable light systems in the Performance, Crossover, and Commuter categories.

All of Light & Motion products are 100% made in the USA. Light and Motion has been recognized for its leadership in reducing waste and emissions by recycling and utilizing alterative transportation.

Learn more about Light & Motion and their great line of lighting systems at http://www.lightandmotion.com/

Therm-A-Rest Prototype

It all started out with the desire for a good night’s sleep in the outdoors and evolved into a mission to design and manufacture functional, high quality outdoor equipment locally. John Burroughs, Cascade Design CEO, has always had a love for the outdoors.  Living in Seattle, John enjoyed escaping to the mountains to explore all that nature had to offer.  It was in the early 70s, that John and two of his fellow aerospace engineer friends Jim Lea and Neal Anderson discovered a solution for a peaceful night’s sleep.  While gardening, Jim had an epiphany while shifting his weight on foam ground cushion.  He realized that open cell foam had memory.  He went to work on a design to preserve this memory in an airtight chamber which would not only ensure a comfortable night’s sleep but would also thermally insulate the user.  After a year of rigorous field testing, Therm-a-Rest and Cascade Designs was born.

The Therm-a-Rest was the beginning of a philosophy to design and manufacture solution driven hardware for the outdoors.  Since Burroughs and Lea were engineers, it was only natural for them to develop products that required an analytical approach.  The engineering-first methodology ensures that all products have the longest possible useful life.

The Cascade Designs philosophy envelops local manufacturing, sustainability, and service. From the very beginning, Burroughs believes that when you manufacture locally you have better control over quality, can quickly respond to demand, and reduce your carbon footprint.  Most of the products Cascade Designs are manufactured in their Seattle, WA or Cork, Ireland facility

Over the last few decades, Cascade Designs has expanded its portfolio of brands to include MSR, Seal Line, Platypus, PackTowl, Sweetwater, and Tracks.  All of which embrace the Cascade Designs idealogy of solution driven products for the outdoors.

It is the love of design and manufacturing of hardware that continues to spur the innovations in all of the Cascade Design brands.  Read the entire Cascade Designs story at cascadedesigns.com

The Beauty of Winter Hiking

As she prepares for her first GoRuck event, physical challenge is nothing new for Amy Parulis. She has been an athlete ever since she can remember.  She began playing organized sports at the age of 5 and knew in 2^nd grade she wanted to attend the University of North Carolina because her idol Mia Hamm went to school there. After a basketball injury put her out of commission for a short period of time, Amy joined track, specifically javelin and hammer throw, and made it to the HS Nationals competition, which eventually led to a scholarship to the school of her dreams – UNC. At UNC,  Amy was a Division 1 athlete competing in the Hammer Throw and Javelin.  In 2004, She was the ACC Champion in the hammer throw.

The outdoors has always been a passion for Amy and when she returned to New England she and her father summited all of the New Hampshire 4000ft mountains. Amy enjoys hiking as it allows her to use the body like she used to in track.  Her favorite time of the year for hiking is winter; because the views are incredibly special this time of the year and sky is at its bluest. She is a member of the AMC and AHS.  Amy also partakes in Paddleboard, Kayaking, Mountain Biking, Road Biking, and Rock Climbing.

In the last year, Amy has participated in four Tough Mudders competitions.  These types of competitions allow Amy to combine her love for the outdoors with her competitive spirit.  On the day of competition, she visualizes her performance and channels all of her adrenaline to increase her speed, power and strength.  Amy is looking forward to the Go Ruck Challenge in October as it poses a new challenge – carrying 6 bricks throughout the competition in backpack as you face the obstacles of the course.   Amy selects the Tough Mudder and Go Ruck competitions because the proceeds go to a great cause.

Amy’s other passion is social media. She writes blogs about my experiences in the outdoors, gear reviews, and customer spotlights for the EMS (Amy’s works part time at EMS in Waterford) blog – http://www.emsexploration.com/wordpress/author/aparulis/.  Her enthusiasm for social media is driven not only by her passion for the outdoors, it is also the number of people that she can reach through this media channel.  “Blogging about something you love is easy.  The places, the gear, the people – what’s not to love!”

We wish Amy the best of luck at GoRuck!

Calling all hikers to join Pinnacle Outdoor Group and Vasque at the 12^th Annual Seek the Peak Event at Mount Washington on July 21^st.  Seek the Peak is the largest event to raise money for the Mount Washington Observatory.  This all day event includes a kick-off party, tours of our famous mountaintop weather station, and a huge after party with live music, great food, and prizes.  Pinncale will be raffling off pairs of the Vasque Breeze GTX boots.   Hal Ellms will be at the Vasque booth from noon to 7pm conducting boot demos and giving away free samples of Sturdiwheat Pancake Mix by RedWing.

This annual event has raised nearly $1,000,000 to help maintain its famous weather station on the summit of Mount Washington and continue its important work collecting weather data, performing research, and educating the public about the science of climate and weather.

Visit Seek The Peak website for full details and schedule.  Come out, enjoy the day and support a great cause!

We are excited to have Tracy part of the team as she can facilitate communication with dealers and work with vendors to promote the brands we represent.

“Since MSR’s inception in 1969, we’ve been committed to quality, local manufacturing and innovation. The WhisperLite Universal is the result of years of hard work and, at long last, easily powers globe-trotting expeditions by working with numerous types of fuel” said Drew Keegan, Division Director, Stoves and Cookware for Cascade Designs.

Click here to read more of the SNEWS article about MSR’s WhisperLite Universal being named Backpacker’s Editors Choice.

Pinnacle Outdoor Group is excited to announce our new alliance with Vere Sandal Company of Geneva, NY. This brand new company is headed up by  industry veterans, John Eades and Mike Ferreri, both natives of Geneva.

The Vere mantra is “Made here. Made better”. Eades explains “We based it on the idea that if you make it easy on people, they’ll do the right thing. Give them an option and don’t ask them to sacrifice quality or price, and they’d rather buy the domestic product.”

Not only are we talking about  better quality, domestically made product, we are talking about a more environmentally friendly product as well. Eades again “Our goal is to eliminate as much waste in the production process as possible. We do that by buying EVA cut to size and by shape, and then our EVA supplier recycles scraps and puts that into future materials. The woven straps are made from recycled nylon. Our leathers are chrome free leathers so we can grind up any waste and give to local farmers who can use it in fertilizer. Our goal is to have no trash in our production process; we’re going to be pretty close.”

At Pinnacle Outdoor Group, the majority of our agency revenue is derived from American made products. We are proud of this fact, and it sets us apart from our industry peers.

The Vere guys know it isn’t enough just to be made in the US though,  you also have to be made to a higher standard.

Made here. Made better. I like it.

Thanks for reading,

Hal