Monday's are for headlines here on THE ROCK FIGHT! Today Colin & Justin dig into some of the more notable stories to come out of the outdoor industry and community over the past week.
On the docket this week:
A new report lists the top 10 fastest growing brands at specialty outdoor retailers. Can Justin name them all? (04:29)
New data reported by The Inertia shows a 50% jump in ER visits from California skiers and snowboarders. (13:04)
Backpacker ran a story this week about Carson City, NV officials who want to pay hikers to hike a new trail from the city all the way Canada via the PCT. (17:50)
Sunny Stroeer becomes the first woman to complete the Iditarod Trail Invitational (the world's longest winter ultramarathon) on skis. (23:04)
All this plus America's favorite podcast segment What Is Justin Doing This Weekend presented by Long Weekend Coffee (01:05)!
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Episode Transcript
Colin (00:08):
Welcome to the Rock Fight where we speak our truth, slay sacred cows, and sometimes agree to disagree. This is an outdoor podcast that aims for the head. I'm Colin. True and joining me today, he's still hoping to make the roster for the La King's playoff push. It's Justin Hausman. Should
Justin (00:25):
Probably learn how to ice skate first, but
Colin (00:27):
Oh, haven't done that part
Justin (00:28):
Yet. Heard yet? I mean, that seems like the least important. Not really, actually. That's the kind of the coolest part about watching hockey, to be honest.
Colin (00:36):
As an ice hockey, I guess I could still call myself a ice hockey player, even though I'm not currently playing ice hockey. There's a huge contingent of folks our age who start playing at our age. So just put that in your back of your head for later in life. You can start to play ice hockey.
Justin (00:49):
That's a mate really? They'd start in their
Colin (00:51):
Forties. Yeah, I know a lot of people who started playing ice hockey at 40 years old. A lot of learned to play leagues and stuff like
Justin (00:55):
That around. That's cool. I mean, what a fun looking sport.
Colin (00:58):
Today we're going to run through some of the more notable or exciting headlines that come out of the outdoor industry over the past week and the outdoor community of the past week. But before we get to that, we're recording this. It's Friday, April 5th. You're hearing it on Monday, April 8th. And that means that in between we had ourselves a weekend. Oh, I left last week's joke there. I can't read that. But that also means it's time for America's favorite podcast segment. What is Justin doing this weekend? Presented by Long Weekend Coffee. So Justin, what are you doing this weekend?
Justin (01:29):
Well, I was supposed to hang out with you remember?
Colin (01:33):
Was this the weekend?
Justin (01:34):
Yeah, this is the weekend you were supposed to come up.
Colin (01:36):
Oh, I was taking my daughter to Santa Cruz. Yeah, that is locked in the 21st. I will see you if you're available on the 21st. Our tour is now the 22nd.
Justin (01:47):
Well, yeah, I mean that my would be a big plan. I might still do it, I guess. Go down, go surf Santa Cruz on Sunday.
Colin (01:53):
Oh, right on.
Justin (01:54):
I'm thinking about just making it like a driving weekend. It's spring. Everywhere is green and gorgeous. The weather's not great. It's kind of cold. But yeah, actually this afternoon I might drive up to Mendocino just to do it. It's been a while since I've been up there.
Colin (02:08):
Get a sandwich or something. Yeah,
Justin (02:10):
Just like cruise. Just put some good music on. It's such a beautiful drive. It's insanely gorgeous. So yeah, I think it might be a driving weekend this weekend. I got the little one with me tomorrow, the two and a half year old. It's just her and I can't remember why. So that'll be an absolute, well, I dunno what it'll be. It'll be fun. I
Colin (02:28):
Think you need to do an update of your adventure toddler column column now that she's like two and a half.
Justin (02:33):
Yeah, that's actually a good point. Good idea. Yeah, I don't take her in the backpack anymore. She walks, right. So yeah, that could be kind of fun. Yeah, maybe take her off.
Colin (02:41):
Did drive you crazy when you see people with larger children and strollers and backpacks?
Justin (02:45):
No, because they walk so damn slow and you're like, oh, let's go get dinner downtown. And you're like, oh, it'll take an hour if we just regularly walk. Or we could put in the stroller and it'll take five seconds. So now don't, it doesn't make me mad. It did before I had kids, but now I'm like, oh, I get it. There's probably a reason.
Colin (03:00):
I don't know. Sometimes you see the kid and their knees are up past their ears and I'm like, come on
Justin (03:04):
Man, let's go. Every once in a while, the soon to be 5-year-old will get in the stroller and she kind of looks like that, but she's just playing around. No, but
Colin (03:12):
You have the 2-year-old to balance out.
Justin (03:14):
You can sort of tell when there's a kid who's riding a stroller who's too big for it, who does it every day and they still use the stroller. I think that's what you're talking about.
Colin (03:21):
There you go.
Justin (03:22):
Aspecific time. And you can kind tell
Colin (03:24):
This isn't the five-year-old jumping into the two-year-old stroller because whatever this is like No, no, no. The parents still want their kid in the stroller much more about the parents than the kid here. Yeah,
Justin (03:34):
Because walk down to the pizza place tonight probably. And yeah, I'll probably try to put the 2-year-old in the stroller. It's just like, dude, otherwise it's just like we're going to get a block from the house and she'll be like, I want to come up. And you're like, ah.
Colin (03:50):
What Justin is doing this weekend is presented by Long Weekend Coffee. If you want to start off your days and your adventures and all your weekends the right way, you head to Long Weekend Doc Coffee, you load up on a giant batch of beans, especially the secret handshake. Guys, I keep telling you to get the secret handshake. If none of you bought the secret handshake, I don't know what to say. I wish I could rate my listeners right now because you're not buying secret handshake. You're not helping out the rock fight. And so at checkout, enter the promo code Rock 10 and get 10% off your first order. Long weekend coffee more weekend please. Have
Justin (04:21):
We talked about what a great name Secret Handshake is probably
Colin (04:23):
Have you mentioned I think last week? I don't mind saying
Justin (04:25):
It again. It It's a good name. It's a really good name. It's just a
Colin (04:27):
Really good name. Well, this is kind of a headline, kind of kicked things off because yesterday the Daily is reported on data released by research firm, RCRC Rcna, I dunno how to pronounce it, but it's showing the top 10 brands that are the fastest growing brands at outdoor sports, specialty outdoor sports, specialty retailers. So today we're going to play a quick game to see how many of these Justin can guess because Justin is a journalist, he's a gear reviewer, but it's kind of great because you're not wired in the daily machinations of the industry, but you're still really in tune with brands and gear and apparel. So I want to see how many of these you can list. I think there's some obvious ones on here that I'll be surprised that you don't get. And then there's definitely some that I'd be like, oh really?
Justin (05:08):
Had you heard of all of them?
Colin (05:10):
Yes. There's not one on here that I was unfamiliar with. I'll give you one hit. The one I thought was almost entirely direct to consumer, so I was kind of surprised it was on here,
Justin (05:20):
But you'd heard of it.
Colin (05:22):
Oh yeah, no, that's probably the most notable one on here in terms of popular brands and culture
Justin (05:28):
Today. And this is top, the top, fastest growing,
Colin (05:31):
Fastest growing brands at Sports Specialty. And I'll say, I'll give you other hint I'll give you there is, there's hydration, there's footwear, there's apparel, accessories. I guess I'd call one without tipping it too much. Otherwise if I say more, you'll probably guess what it is.
Justin (05:48):
Alright, so here's what I got. I only wrote down eight, but hopefully by the time I get to eight, maybe two more will pop into my head. Ready? Okay, so I have Yeti, I have Solo Stove, I have on running, I have Hydro Flask, I have all trails.
Colin (06:07):
Wait, all trails? The
Justin (06:08):
App. The app. I dunno if that counts.
Colin (06:10):
You don't sell on an app at a retail store though.
Justin (06:13):
Alright. Yeah, good point. Okay, so that doesn't count. I have Rad Bikes. I have Rad,
Colin (06:18):
Rad
Justin (06:18):
Bikes like the E-Bikes, rad Power Bikes. Oh,
Colin (06:23):
Okay. You're saying like Rad Bikes in general?
Justin (06:24):
No, said Rad Bikes,
Colin (06:25):
Stick Bikes. They had rad bikes in that shop.
Justin (06:29):
I have Hoka and those were the eight that I listed, but let me try and pull a couple out. You said apparel. Oh, oh, oh, I have Fi Raven.
Colin (06:38):
Oh that's a good guess, but yep. I would guess to that one too. 2, 4, 6. That's eight.
Justin (06:45):
That's eight
Colin (06:46):
Because I had to take, well that's eight with all trails.
Justin (06:51):
I almost want to put, I dunno if this would count, but in an athleisure brand like Athleta. Athleta,
Colin (06:57):
Your athleisure brand is a good thing to
Justin (06:58):
Guess. Okay, so Athleta,
Colin (07:01):
I think they all do their own shit. Do they do Brick wholesale?
Justin (07:05):
I don't know.
Colin (07:06):
I would do maybe a sock brand.
Justin (07:08):
Really? Huh? It's not Fits.
Colin (07:13):
No,
Justin (07:13):
I don't think it's fits.
Colin (07:14):
I like fits so they make really good
Justin (07:16):
Products, they make good socks, but I don't think it's fits. We were just talking about them the other day. It's not going to be darn tough. I mean I guess it could be something like Smart Wool
Colin (07:25):
Smart is pretty established.
Justin (07:27):
Yeah, that's the hard part with these, but you never know. They go out of heater and all of a sudden be Yeah, that's true. They can't really be that big of a growing brand shit. I dunno. I'm stopped.
Colin (07:34):
Do you want to go with Darn tough?
Justin (07:36):
Okay, I'll go with Darn Tough.
Colin (07:37):
Okay. Is that ten two, four, six? Yeah, that's 10. Okay,
Justin (07:40):
Let's hear
Colin (07:41):
It. Alright. You did pretty well. Got 1, 2, 3, 3 and a couple that you could probably swap it out. So the ones you got were Hoka on and darn tough.
Justin (07:54):
Okay. Alright.
Colin (07:55):
The other ones on the list were ri
Justin (07:57):
Really? I almost said instead of Athleta.
Colin (07:59):
Yeah. Well it's so funny because Athleta I think is almost all their own owned by the Gap. I think they just either in their own stores or whatever. That's
Justin (08:06):
Right. That's right. Okay.
Colin (08:07):
But I didn't know that Ari was at Sports Specialty. I just kind of assumed they were like, I knew they had their own stores and that maybe they were counting their own stores in this list. I don't know. That one was surprising to me. Code Epoxy.
Justin (08:17):
Really? See, they're pretty established. I mean those, they, they're growing, but Okay, all right. I don't really,
Colin (08:21):
They gave them pot a couple weeks ago. They're growing really
Justin (08:24):
Well. Okay,
Colin (08:26):
Stanley.
Justin (08:27):
Oh duh.
Colin (08:29):
Yeah, then that's kind of like in that Yeti Hydro class
Justin (08:32):
That you had, but that also would've been around forever. So it's obviously just because of the stupid giant.
Colin (08:36):
I think next year I'm surprised that they're on this list next year, right?
Justin (08:39):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Colin (08:42):
Hellie Hansen.
Justin (08:43):
I almost said them.
Colin (08:45):
Really? Why? That was shocking. That feels just like
Justin (08:47):
That's old school outdoor. I see their stuff everywhere. It feels like I notice them a lot. If I'm watching a clip of something and it's not even outdoor related. It's like if it's someone's reviewing a car, there might be in a Heli Hanson. I just feel like I'm seeing them everywhere.
Colin (09:00):
That's incredible. First of all, I love that. I love when old brands poke their head up. Hold on. When was Heli Hanson? I think they've been around for, they've been around for a
Justin (09:09):
Really long time. So
Colin (09:10):
Long. It was 1877. Yeah.
Justin (09:13):
I should have stuck to my guns with that. That seemed like an obvious one in retrospect, just because I keep
Colin (09:17):
Seeing everywhere. That's funny. That's what I did not see coming at all. Yeah, it's my buddy Eric who I worked with at Timberland. He's done some time at Keen and some other places. He just took over Royal Robbins. So I'm going to see him at GOA and I'm very curious to what are you going to do with Royal Robbins? I mean there's a ton of heritage and authenticity there, but they've been like Eddie Bauer. It's like, oh, it's an outlet mall brand now. Obos.
Justin (09:43):
Really?
Colin (09:44):
Yeah. Obos coming on strong. Wow. They're going for who they take down Merrill, right? I mean that's that category, that kind of soft tiger category. Yeah. Should we do oboes on gear and beer?
Justin (09:55):
I mean, I haven't had a pair of oboes since it got bought.
Colin (09:58):
I've never had a pair of
Justin (09:59):
Obos. Oh. I really like the ones I have, but it's been, I don't know if they still make 'em. I don't know how different things are or not. They're owned by Catman. Do
Colin (10:05):
Take a look and then I'm going to save one for last. Cool. Was on the list. Oh, KUHL? Yeah, sure. Who I kind of took a random shot at on my, when I was talking with Wes Allen about Code Epoxy. I'm like, oh, I wouldn't do an episode about Cool. I was so kind of looking down my nose at Cool. But it's like Frank, I guess they're growing. I always liked cool, they make cool stuff, but I just don't think of them as sort of one of those brands.
Justin (10:30):
It's interesting if you go to, we have a really big independent hardware store in the next town over that has a pretty cool closed section. I mean they're like work clothes, but they have a huge cool section
Colin (10:38):
Like Dickies and Carhartts and stuff like that.
Justin (10:40):
Exactly. But they also have Cool. No kidding. So they might be, maybe they're like a work
Colin (10:45):
That makes sense moving into
Justin (10:46):
That workspace.
Colin (10:47):
Yeah, that makes a ton. Because I think of cool as almost like the Cotton outdoor brand. I think of plaid shirts and pants and stuff. Not necessarily technical stuff.
Justin (10:55):
I have some pants and some shorts in them. They're fantastic.
Colin (10:58):
And the last one, this one blew me away was 6 86.
Justin (11:01):
Oh yeah. Okay. Yeah. All right. Same deal. I've got some of their stuff and it's awesome.
Colin (11:07):
But isn't it mostly, I just think of them as skate and snowboard inspired,
Justin (11:11):
But they also have a lot of Yeah, I guess. But what do I have from them? If I'm going to ride a bike in the rain, I wear these 6, 8, 6 pants I have. Interesting. And then they have some pretty nice joggers that I really like. So I think they're not moving at all into the athleisure space, but they make some kind of everyday stuff that's pretty cool. And their stuff, every time I've ever had any 6, 8, 6, I'm always like, this is really nice. So I'm not shocked.
Colin (11:38):
I just like this list because I mean the ho is in the ons and even the darn tops to a certain degree. It's kind of like, yeah, that makes sense. I think it's cool that you expected Heli Hansen to be there. I had not really thought about Heli Hansen much in a while. The Stanley. Yeah, that's really the one you're like whatever that's going to, and you easily could have thought of that instead of saying hydro flask too. Right. So it's an interesting list of brands. I mean 6 86 and Ri being on here, that's
Justin (12:01):
Kind of cool. Six is the most surprising to me. Ri they're still new enough to where I'm not that surprised and now I randomly get cataloged from them in the mail
Colin (12:09):
And they're kind of coming into that like, oh, I need a pair of workout shorts or something like that. I would probably go look at them. They'd be a brand I like, oh, I'll go check out what Ferri has. I know apparently they make decent stuff. But yeah. The other thing about this list was funny. A friend of mine actually who I can't name in the industry, but he sent me this article via Instagram and he commented that he finds it funny that the Daily is running a story like this and highlighting 10 growing brands, none of whom were attempting or attending their trade show this summer.
Justin (12:36):
Wow. I was like,
Colin (12:38):
It's a really good point.
Justin (12:40):
Yeah. Interesting. Why? I mean they don't need to, Stanley for sure doesn't need to.
Colin (12:47):
I dunno if we said it, but you and I are going to be at or this summer. That's right.
Justin (12:49):
Yeah.
Colin (12:50):
We're going to be doing a live show folks. So anyone listening to this who maybe is on the fence about going to Outdoor Retailer, you get to see the rock fight live at Outdoor Retailer this summer. Might be doing a little gear and beer, but we'll talk more about that as we get closer. But alright, well the next headline comes to us from the inertia who reported this week that according to data from the California Department of Healthcare access and Information ski related ER visits in California rose 50% between 2016 and 2022. However, the number of people hitting the slopes remained the same, mostly the same throughout that period. According to the LA Times, some 6,000 people went from the slopes to the emergency room in 20 22, 11,
Justin (13:29):
6,000.
Colin (13:30):
Yeah.
(13:32)So again, this is still reading from the article. What's the root of the problem here? Well, according to the LA Times and local TV news station, KTLA, it's all about the weed and alcohol fireball whiskey to be exact and selfie sticks running rampant on our slopes and also anecdotal conversations with skiers made mention that etiquette on the slopes was at an all time low. Very few instances of skiers passing each other with the customary on your left, on your right, coming up behind you. I didn't do any real, I'll be honest. I didn't go deep to see if this is happening anywhere else, if this is a California thing. But as someone who's sort of flirting with learning to ski,
Justin (14:06):
How does this sit with you? Good. Honestly
Colin (14:08):
Not good. Yeah. This is my biggest problem with ski resorts really is if you're paying to go a lot of money to go dodge human beings,
Justin (14:19):
The fireball whiskey in particular, why would they call them out?
Colin (14:22):
I think that may have been a little editorial by the
Justin (14:25):
Inertia folks writing. Okay,
Colin (14:27):
Got it. Or maybe someone commented on it from the, they interviewed, but
Justin (14:32):
Mean people always had booze on while skiing. That can't be a new thing. That can't be a new thing.
Colin (14:39):
It sounds like, I mean that does feel like there's a pandemic and I don't want to speak on the larger culture, but even going to movie theaters, there does seem to be etiquette coming out of pandemic that people have sort of forgotten. And I know I'm real close to old guy on the couch right here with this kind of thing. These kids just don't understand anymore or they don't do what, we never acted this way when we were kids. But I don't know, those are hard numbers to deny here.
Justin (15:07):
So I mean the same kind of thing is happening. I'd be curious if there's more injuries in the surf world too because surf etiquette's kind of out the window. I mean what's interesting is that if the numbers are the same, I wonder if there's a demographic shift where there's a lot of newer skiers because boomer skiers are kind of retiring, so the numbers are the same, but maybe the percentage of new skiers is higher
Colin (15:31):
And more right, because people learn to go outside during the pandemic, things
Justin (15:34):
Like that. Exactly. Yeah, that's got to be a lot of it. And you paddle a lot at a popular surf break now and they used to be crowded with good surf spots, used to be crowded with people who could surf. Now they're crowded with people who can't. And so maybe it's the same thing in the mountains. I mean every single time I go anywhere near, if I go tubing with my kids or whatever and we're like, oh, let's go get a beer and hang out at the bottom of the hill. I always see ski patrol bringing somebody down every single time. So I'm not surprised to hear that. But 6,000 people is a lot.
Colin (16:03):
That's a lot of people. Like I said, I'd be curious if this is happening in other places, but man, my whole thing about ski resorts when I could say it's not an outdoor activity because it's an activity that takes place outdoors, right. Because it's like this is not, it's so much money to go skiing now. So much money. Think about it, if you, your family of four, there's a grand just to show up. Yeah. Wow. You probably don't even have rentals yet and there's a grand to show up and then you got to stand in line and deal with this. I mean the last time I went skiing was up at Big Bear and yeah, there was someone just came ripping into the base area and yelling at some kind of tripod that was could barely stand. And I'm like, man, even if that person should have gotten out of your way, slow down, man. You're coming into the pace area. It just makes it not fun.
Justin (16:54):
Yeah, I think that's it. It's got to be the newcomer thing. I wouldn't know anything about etiquette for that sort of stuff. I mean other than just common sense.
Colin (17:02):
But couldn't you figure it out? I mean I think you would know between from biking and from surfing, anything else be like
Justin (17:07):
Common sense. But when I talk to people who are like, Hey, you want to learn how to ski? Are you going to go take lessons? And I always say I was, but I realized how much it's going to cost. I've decided not to like, oh, you'd just be fine. Just go up to the greens, you'll be fine. It's like that's probably happening all the time where people are just showing up and I don't know and kind of drifting across the run and getting someone comes down full speed, hits them and just tomahawks their way down to the bottom mean, I'm sure that's happening all the time.
Colin (17:31):
Yeah, well if anyone out there is in a ski state or lives in a ski town or whatever, and if this is a California only thing, maybe that's just a problem here, but I kind of have to feel like it's probably happening in other places too. Reach out my rock fight@gmail.com. We'd love to hear from anybody else on this topic. For sure. The next headline I pulled from backpacker.com, Carson City is looking to pay two hikers, $5,000 each to walk from the capital of Nevada, which is Carson City to Canada, to tell the tale of the new Capital two Tahoe Trail. So it's a new trail that they finished just this past fall that connects over to the PCT Trail, actually, sorry, it connects to the Tahoe Rim trail and then to the PCT. So you get to go leave the capital city of Nevada Carson City and hike 1600 miles to the Canadian border and they want to pay people to do this. Looking for two hikers. Basically it becomes down to $3 a mile. I dunno, man, you ready to pack it in and get paid to go hike for the rest of the summer?
Justin (18:30):
I was trying to think about whether that would be worth it. Obviously if you want to do that anyway, why wouldn't you? But $5,000 isn't a huge amount of money for how much time that is going to take. It's not quitting your job money over it. What's interesting just
Colin (18:45):
Depends how fast you hike.
Justin (18:46):
True. What's interesting about it is that I think the section of a trail they built is only 15 miles long,
Colin (18:55):
So just linking up with the established
Justin (18:57):
Trails, a connector trail.
Colin (19:00):
So what's the point? Why do they want to bring a tattoo
Justin (19:03):
Dude everywhere? I mean, it's a big story. Everybody wants to go to Carson. I mean everyone's like, you probably googled Carson City and you're like, oh, where can I stay? Maybe I'll go there anyway. I mean, it's a good marketing thing. It's
Colin (19:14):
A really good market city. Is Carson City just too well known for brothels that they need to find ways to bring a more wholesome content to it? I don't know if
Justin (19:20):
I've, Carson, I'm not even sure if I've ever been to Carson City.
Colin (19:23):
No, I definitely have never been to Carson City, so maybe that's what they're going for here. Where is it trying to bring the hikers here? It's like south of Reno, I feel like
Justin (19:29):
Way south. Oh, Carson Pass. Must go to Carson City.
Colin (19:32):
No. Yeah, I think if I drive to Reno, I would go through Carson City on the way up. So maybe
Justin (19:37):
I probably have been through it or something like that. I mean, it's funny, that shouldn't be a detracting statement, that it's a short connector hike because it's like, it's funny, I remember reading this in a surf magazine so long ago and it was some little offhand joke that one of the writers made about how they had gotten, I think they had driven from California to New York or something like that. And they got pulled over and they were getting a ticket somewhere and the cop was surprised they had a surfboard and was grilling him about it and the writer said something like, Hey man, how crazy is it that I could just leave my front door and Southern California and drive right here? The roads took me right here all this way. Isn't that wild? And I know that sounds kind of dumb, but it is kind of crazy to think about how every road leads to another road that leads to where you want to go. It's pretty wild. And so it's pretty cool. It's kind of neat with the trail too, right? It's like, yeah, it's just a little connector trail, but it's pretty cool that they built something like that. I was thinking about this when I first saw the story. I wonder if I could hike to the PCT from here.
Colin (20:41):
Do you have a long trail in you?
Justin (20:43):
I've thought about it before. I mean if I did, it would. Well also depends on what you mean. I don't think I would do one of the big ones. I don't really have a lot of interest.
Colin (20:51):
I guess that's kind of what I mean. I mean, I think you could do the JMT for three weeks. That seems pretty a pro attainable.
Justin (20:58):
I think that's what I would do. I have very little interest in the Appalachian Trail. That's a West coast bias and I feel bad about it. Sure. If I went there I would love it. But that to me doesn't seem that interesting. See,
Colin (21:12):
I think if you were going to do it, that would be the one to do so different than anything else you've experienced. Well,
Justin (21:16):
That's true. That's a good point. So maybe that would make it more worth doing and make it more interesting. I don't have any interest in PCT. I'd rather pick that off in sections. I don't think I need six months of being on trail. I think that would get to me.
Colin (21:29):
That's what I mean. I flirted with that man. It'd be kind of cool just to punch out and go do the six month thing and meet people and get a trail name and be that guy for a while. I don't think I'd really end up doing it. I think that it wouldn't be like a, oh, I can't do this. I can't physically overcome it or whatever. I just think eventually I'd be bored and not want to be doing it anymore. That's
Justin (21:49):
Exactly it. Yeah. I think especially because a lot of that, well, I mean really once you get out of the desert, I mean a lot of it's going to be pretty similar.
Colin (21:55):
What about the CDT? That's a little more wild, right? Fewer people do it. Is that one that is that
Justin (22:02):
Almost that would pique my interest more than the Pacific Crest Jail for whatever reason,
Colin (22:05):
Just because it is that a little more, you actually have route that you can choose your own adventure a little bit more on the CDT versus the other ones.
Justin (22:13):
I just think it would be, it's funny you mind that you mentioned it. I'm thinking, God, the Appalachian Trail will be interesting. It'd be so different for me and the CDT would be too, I haven't been everywhere to the Sierra, but I'm pretty well versed in the Sierra Plus.
Colin (22:26):
You're a history guy. The ATS got, there's a lot of
Justin (22:29):
History going on. Yeah, that's true. I also like the idea that you can just pop in and get dinner somewhere randomly. That seems cool. I just feel like every picture I see of 90% of the trail, it's all in the same. It's just in a really dense forest with not great views. That's probably true to me. That would get to me too. I mean it's all a moot point. I'm not going to do any of 'em. I mean, not me either. I would like to do the JMT that has some relevance to me. I'm pretty in love with the Sierra and there's sections there I won't have seen and it seems pretty something I could do without it being terribly life disrupting.
Colin (23:04):
Alright, so our last story, while Jasmine Paris was on the course at the Barkley, another female first record was happening at Alaska where Sonny Stroller completed the Iditarod Trail Invitational on skis. She was the first female to accomplish his feet in the race's. 24 year history. The Iditarod Trail Invitational is the world's longest winter ultra marathon and stroller started in Anchorage, skied 950 miles over 29 days, 22 hours in six minutes. She finished Tuesday, March 26 in Nome and had and face temperatures as low as negative 45 degrees Fahrenheit. God. So I was thinking about this when I was reading this. This actually came, I read this. This is a press release from Loa who was her boot sponsor and the Iditarod SLU dog race has been around since 1973. This has been around for 24 years and we throw these hyperbole around the ultra running scene. You and I just did it last week talking about Jasmine Paris at the Barclay and it's deserved. I mean, it's not to say these aren't incredibly hard things, but whether it's that or the tour of France or whatever, I just kind feel like the Iditarod is just sitting there when you're talking about these things, being with their hand up being like, Hey, don't forget about me. Yeah,
Justin (24:14):
No, you're totally right. Yeah.
Colin (24:16):
Why don't we talk about the Iditarod, either the sled dog race or this, it's incredible.
Justin (24:21):
Well, there's also so many different ways you can do it. I mean, I didn't know that there was a ski version, but of course there is Kurt Steiner again, he did it on a bike longtime Adventure Journal contributor Mike AK is a deadro like fat bike legend and he's done it. But then of course the dog one is weird. It captures everybody's attention in the national media. We almost never really talk about it at Adventure Journal for some reason. Why is that? I don't know.
Colin (24:53):
Because what is more badass than that?
Justin (24:56):
I don't know because it's incredible. I did a little story maybe a month ago or so on, and I can't pronounce her name. I'm not even going to try. But this Inuit trans woman who just completed it and she completed it a few times, the sled dog race and does really well every time she does it. But obviously the stories, it's a video and it's a really pretty, really well done little short film about her and it's kind of what you think it's showing the difficulties of the race, but also the difficulties of her making this transition. But it's really just more about the sled dog race and it's one of the most real videos I've seen of it in the sense of the monotony, but also the beauty. And I just can't, can't imagine doing a sled dog race like that. I can imagine skiing it. I can imagine riding a bike on it, just kind of you doing your thing, but having to manage all the dogs and having to manage their what if they get hurt? Just feeling responsible for 10, 12 other beings seems like a big commitment too. So anyway, I just don't know why we don't spend more time with it. It is a pretty spectacular event.
Colin (26:15):
Do you think we can wrap our head around The barley is brutal, but you can wrap your head around it, right? A hundred mile ultramarathon. You can sort of wrap your head around and be like, oh my God, I'd never do that. Even the tour to France. It's these daily stages. It's on tv, you can kind of get it, but then you talk about the Great Divide race and these other, or the Iditarod, these things that take a month to do. Yeah, I mean this is truly the intersection of endurance and adventure, not just endurance, right? No, you and I could volunteer at a hundred Mile Ultra Marathon and be like the guy's running the tent handing out food to everybody, but that's like 12 hours of our life and then it's over. These are just huge undertakings, but I think that makes 'em even that much more impressive.
Justin (26:56):
What's the longest you've been outside
Colin (27:00):
Without going inside? Yeah, I mean no more than three days probably at the end of the day. Maybe four. Yeah. Oh no, it's been over four except probably somewhere between four and five. You
Justin (27:15):
At least 10, but potentially
Colin (27:18):
The archeology days.
Justin (27:19):
Yeah, potentially more. But I think I was probably up there for maybe, I'm sure I was up there for two or three weeks without
Colin (27:25):
Coming out. Yeah, mine was doing river trips for that long, I think. But both those things are kind of, I don't know the idea of being out for 29 days skiing every single day for 950 miles in the middle of winter to Alaska.
Justin (27:37):
I would just have, I personally would've a problem with monotony would be, other than take fitness and stuff out of the equation, I think for a while that would be tough.
Colin (27:48):
But just back to the feat itself. So the last week I've seen Jasmine Paris everywhere. I've seen her on podcast, I've seen videos about it. Everything's on in our world here has been about Jasmine Paris at the Parkley. Cole Brower definitely had a week where she was the dominant story of finishing that race. Like I said, the only thing I've seen about Sonny is a LOA press release that probably spent more time talking about the boots she was wearing than her herself. No offense Loa, but I get why you did it. Why is no one talking about this? This is a crazy huge accomplishment.
Justin (28:17):
So men have done it, obviously. Right, right. I mean that could be it I guess. But I
Colin (28:22):
Men finished the Barkley.
Justin (28:23):
Yeah, you're right. I don't know why that Barkley thing. I mean honestly, if she didn't have those incredible photos of her collapsed over that railing, I'm not sure
Colin (28:32):
To good point. If she'd finished with an hour spare, I was like, Hey,
Justin (28:34):
I just kind of came through the slapping fives. I'm not sure, but it's one of those iconic, what was that? There was that show in the eighties and nineties, the sports show where the thrill victory, the agony of defeat. What was that show? Do you remember that show? I don't know. Was the opening was always a free ski jumper falling off the edge of the end of the ramp. You don't remember this.
Colin (28:58):
I probably
Justin (28:58):
Saw, I don't why W sports Jasmine Paris's face at the end of that race seemed like something you would have if there was going to be a wide wol of sports. Now her face would be in there, but also just the strangeness of that race is very newsworthy. Skiing 950 miles in Alaska probably isn't as much. I mean even though I would think that's a much more difficult thing to do
Colin (29:24):
29 days,
Justin (29:25):
It's also different. I mean, Jasmine had to finish that whole race in a timeframe and 60 hours. So I don't know. But
Colin (29:33):
So even if it's crass to ask the question, which feeds more impressive?
Justin (29:38):
I don't know. That's actually an interesting question. I mean, I guess on the surface I would say the Iditarod, I mean it's just so much further.
Colin (29:46):
And what could she mean? There's wolves and bears. I mean all sorts of stuff out there that she probably would've could encountered
Justin (29:51):
That. That's the crazy thing when you see, to me, it's funny when we talked about what's the most badass thing you could do? I did polar exploration Ever enter our chat
Colin (30:02):
And shame on us. Right?
Justin (30:03):
I mean, because one of the fascinating things to me about, so I don't dunno if I've talked about it that much on this podcast, but I've covered Ralph Place did in the place of expedition a ton of times, and he's the guy that led the group of random snowmobile just dads up to the North Pole in 19 68, 9.
Colin (30:22):
I think
Justin (30:23):
We've talked about this before, but
Colin (30:24):
It may have just been you and me. I can't remember if we said it on the podcast,
Justin (30:26):
I can't remember we talked about in the pop, but I've written about him for AJ a couple of times. It's a fascinating story actually. There's somewhere out there in the universe, there's a scripting written for a movie based on the article I wrote. Although I need to check in with those guys and see what's going on with it. But one of the things that I always have found fascinating about that story isn't necessarily just so much the weeks they spent on the ice and dealing with the snowmobiles and the questioning of themselves. And these are not expedition veterans at all that did this. They were just regular guys is just like, they would talk about it sometimes in their journals and stuff, but just the almost unbearable bleakness of the landscape because especially up there, it's not like Alaska where there's mountains. I mean you're just on ice for weeks and that's all you see. And that sense of isolation to me would be completely unbearable. I don't think I'd be able to deal with it. I agree with you. And so even in a place like Alaska where you're on solid ground, I still think that would be a really difficult thing for me to deal with. Just the constant snow, Jasmine Paris could have stopped running and just laid there and been okay. You can't just stop when it's minus 45 in the middle of nothing in
Colin (31:42):
Alaska. You have no choice.
Justin (31:43):
You have no choice. So there's something to me that is just vitally important about taking into account the landscape in a situation like that. So to me that's always going to be super freaking impressive and something frankly I know I'll never do. I mean, I've done hut trips on cross country skis and I don't think I've gone further than 12 miles in one stretch doing that. And even that's really hard. I mean it take a long time to build up, to be able to go 950 freaking miles. Pretty impressive. Well
Colin (32:14):
Sunny stroller, we will recognize you here on the rock fight, even if everyone else is kind of missing the boat on this one.
Justin (32:21):
Well done. Is it because the Iditarod is a funny word, funny name.
Colin (32:25):
What's the reason here? I like your observation, especially as someone in outdoor media who writes in outdoor media writes for a publication called Adventure Journal. This is kind of like, we don't really talk about the Iditarod much when it comes around every year and how, I mean, this year I texted you after it happened, there was a whole thing this year where the guy had to kill a moose and there's a rule about if you have to kill a moose, you have to dress the moose and he got to penalize because he apparently didn't do it properly or whatever happened in that scenario. That's a crazy story. That doesn't happen on most of the other stuff we talk about.
Justin (32:56):
Yeah, why?
Colin (32:59):
Yeah, that's a good question. Talk about a race with dogs and you have to carry guns. You might get charged by bears, wolves or moose. I mean that's kind of badass.
Justin (33:07):
I mean it's very badass and it's super adventury, but it doesn't quite, it's hard to explain. It doesn't quite, I think probably because it's super niche and very few people actually dog sled so it doesn't feel accessible. Well that's
Colin (33:20):
True. Western states will be here in a few months and that'll do a live show and they cover, even people report on Hard rock around the, these ultramarathons now are getting, they're trying to make them more of a thing where they're covered. You would cover the Tour de France, which I think is kind of silly. I don't get the appeal, but how many people run, everybody runs, no one rides a dog sled or drives a dog sled, I should say. So that's probably what it is still. Come on.
Justin (33:49):
Well I'm more right now, if I was just sitting here down and write an article, I'm more inclined to write one about Sonny than I am whoever won the actual dogsled race.
Colin (33:57):
That's true.
Justin (33:58):
That's true. Yeah.
Colin (34:00):
Anyway. Alright man, that's all I got. What do you got going on?
Justin (34:04):
What do I have going on? We're wrapping up. Well not really wrapping up. We're starting to get to the point where we're going to consider wrapping up AJ 33
Colin (34:12):
Really that far
Justin (34:13):
Along the summer issue. Well sort of. I have a couple more pieces to turn in, but stuff's coming in and we're trying to get a little ahead of it, so that's cool. Yeah, that'll be my focus. Still working on some surfer magazine stuff. I got a couple pieces there. But yeah, just same old raising the kids, raising the kids, enjoying the spring.
Colin (34:38):
I think we're going to run another rose colored hausman next week. Doco. I got
Justin (34:42):
To
Colin (34:43):
Get a few more of those from you. Yeah, you said you had dozens.
Justin (34:46):
No, I do. I'll grab some. I do have have hundreds. I'll grab some, I'll grab some today. I really will.
Colin (34:52):
Alright, before you move on to the next podcast, which if you haven't heard the latest gear and beer, it is up. It came out this past Friday. We talked about Hoka and what was it? Oh, and athletic brewing. It was great. We had a whole na beer. Justin and I both tasted a beer for the first time. We've never had his beer before. On Mike, you get to hear that. It was great. So head over to rock fight.co and listen to that. Also sign up for our newsletter and that's how I got, that's what we got for you today. So the rock fight, it's a production of rock. Fight LLC for Justin Hausman. I'm Colin True. Thanks for listening and here to take us out as Krista Makes with the Rock Fight Fight song. We'll see you next time. Rock fighters rock
Chris DeMakes (35:37):
Into the rock bike where we speak our truth, say sacred cows, and sometimes agree to disagree. We talk about human power, outdoor activities and pick bikes about topics that we find interesting. Black five, culture, music, the latest movie reviews and ideas in for the head. This is where we speak our truth. This is where we speak our truth. Welcome to the the.
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