Outdoor Retailer Show: Day 2 Recap

Day 2 at the Outdoor Retailer show. I spent part of the day in meetings and did a big book signing at the FalconGuide booth. My books this time around were the Rocky Mountain National Park Pocket Guide, a new interpretative book with cool pop-out maps at the front and back, and Best Easy Day Hikes Phoenix, which I am currently revising for a new second edition. My buddy Eric Hörst was at the next table over autographing his new book Conditioning for Climbing and talking training tips with climbers.

Otherwise I visited a few booths down in the climbing area. At Yates Mountaineering, John Yates showed me some new harnesses and gear he’s been designing and making for the U.S. Military, stuff you use to rappel out of helicopters or use for mountain assaults in Afghanistan. He also noted that with the increase in gasoline that petroleum-based products like nylon and spectra webbing are going up in price. John said if you’re going buy ropes or webbing like daisy chains and slings, then you should buy it before the end of the year because by January the price of nylon will go up 10% while spectra will jump 20% and climbers will see corresponding price increases.

I heard about yet another new climbing magazine trying to jump into an already saturated market. There’s already Rock & Ice, which is probably the flagship climbing mag available now, and Climbing and Urban Climbing. These three are already competing for the limited ad budgets of climbing gear and soft goods as well as a limited number of readers. Trying to bust into the trinity is Dead Point Magazine with its first issue slated for November. The magazine, to be published six times a year out of Fayatteville, West Virginia, will be free, supported by advertising, and shipped for distribution in climbing gyms and shops. It’s an ambitious business plan that’s fraught with danger since advertising revenue is fickle, particularly in the current economy, and free distribution is not as easy and free as it might seem. I wish them luck.

At lunch Eric Horst and I sat at the FalconGuide booth and chatted with Hans Florine, one of the world’s best speed climbers and, of course, the current holder with Yuji Hiriyama of the speed climbing record on El Capitan in Yosemite. Hans said Yuji and he planned to have another go at smashing the 2 hours and 43 minutes they did earlier in the summer later in the autumn after he get back from a trip to New Guinea. Eric asked Hans how much time could be shaved off the record. “We’re thinking 15 minutes off,” said Hans. “We have to do that to discourage others from trying. But we can save about five minutes on some technical stuff and another ten minutes by climbing it fresh.” In the summer, they didn’t break the record until their third attempt in a week, so the pair was operating at a lower level than if they did it first try. Hans also said they’re going light by drilling out the cams even more than before and carrying only the bare essentials. Stay tuned this fall to see if they pull it off again.

Photo above: Eric Hörst and Hans Florine yuk it up at the Outdoor Retailer Show.
Photograph © Stewart M. Green