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Polartec Sponsors Mt. Washington Hill Climb (Yet Another Crazy Endurance Race)

Last week, we updated you on the Swiss North Face Ultra Trail Du Mont Blanc (UTMB), a rugged mountain running race, crossing through 3 countries, 166km, and 9500 meters of climbing. It takes the average competitor about 35 hours to complete, the fastest do it in 21.5. Well if you aren’t tired from just reading about it like me, we have more endurance updates for you.

This past weekend was the annual Mt. Washington Hill Climb bike race. Mt. Washington (just under 6300ft.) is the highest peak in the northeastern United States and the annual hill climb is known as one of the toughest in the world at 7.6 miles in length, with an average grade of 12% with extended sections of 18% and the last 50 yards is an oppressive 22%.

Polartec has sponsored the race for the past 10 years, donating Thermal Pro blankets to all of the riders. Due to the threat of hypothermia when finishing the race they are no longer allowed to even hold the race without these blankets. This year, John Brodie from the Polartec marketing department decided to give the race a shot.

“I finished at 1:31:04 at a 5mph average, which I was pleased with for a first time ride,” Brodie said in an email to the Polartec staff. “I wasn’t sure how the legs would hold over the length of the course so I kept an even steady pace, and had enough left to push the last 1/4 mile at about 10-12mph. The weather was perfect, actually a bit warm until getting above tree line. Views of the Presidential range were awesome, and there was a very large crowd at the summit.”

Congrats to John and all of the riders that attempted the Hill Climb! I was feeling pretty good about my 5 mile run this morning until just now.

Posted in In the Field, Polartec Events, Product Testing.

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By Sarah – August 31, 2010

North Face Athletes Win Trail Du Mont Blanc

Due to inclement weather, The North Face UTMB, which began on Friday in Chamonix, was cancelled, approximately 3 hours into the race. Organizers decided to adapt the original UTMB course, creating an alternative of approximately 100 km under the name of The North Face UTMB Restart. The new race went successfully and North Face athletes Jez Bragg (UK) and Lizzy Hawker (UK) took home first place finishes. Congrats guys! You can view the incredible video recap on The North Face Facebook page.

From the left – Women’s: 2nd place Néré Martinez Urruzola, 1st place Lizzy Hawker/Men’s: Jez Bragg 1st place, Mike Wolfe 2nd place, Zigor Iturrieta Ruiz 3rd place. (click to view larger)

You can also watch the winner’s press conference here on the North Face blog.

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By Sarah – August 30, 2010

Polartec Sponsors The North Face Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc

Polartec is proud to be an official partner of this week’s grueling North Face Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc. The race covers 166km and over 9,400 metres (30,839ft) in elevation gain over an estimated 46 hour completion time. This year’s race began yesterday in Chamonix.

The route, which circles Mont Blanc, begins in Chamonix, passes by Aiguille de Bionnassay and will cross the Col du Bonhomme. In the early morning, racers will cross Col de la Seigne into Italy and the Val Veni overlooked by Noire du Peuterey and the glaciers descending Mont Blanc. Later they will reach the Val Ferret, guarded by Dent du Géant and Grandes Jorasses before finally turning into Switzerland. They will then climb over Bovine and Les Tseppes. Then, with Aiguille Verte in front of them, under the vertical heights of the Drus and with Mont Blanc before them, they will dive down towards the finishing line in the heart of Chamonix. Alongside the UTMB, is the CCC, a 100km race in the same region. Polartec’s own David Gatti should be mid-way through this route right now, we wish him the best of luck.

You can see the virtual course here on the North Face website, and you can also follow the racers on this Live Trail site by typing in their bib number. Polartec’s David Gatti is #7276.

Check out this awesome footage of the starting line yesterday morning.

Posted in Athlete Advisory Board, In the Field, News, Polartec Events.

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By Sarah – August 27, 2010

APEX Giveaway #3-REI Lightweight MTS Baselayers

Over the next few months, we will be featuring new product giveaways with some of our APEX Award-winning brands. The Polartec APEX Awards are presented to the designers and companies that make the most outstanding Polartec based products. Garments and accessories are judged on innovation, style, fit, design, workmanship and functionality.

This week’s giveaway is the REI Lightweight Polartec® Power Dry® MTS Baselayer. These baselayers won’t be released until later this fall so this is a chance to be the first to try them out! We are giving away one Men’s and one Women’s Top. Designers from Polartec worked closely with the team at REI to develop the unique line of Polartec Power Dry® fabrics in this baselayer system. The fabric has superior wicking and breathability to keep you comfortable and dry on active outdoor pursuits. The MTS system includes a full range of baselayer pieces with quarter-zip, crew neck and V-neck options. All pieces feature flat-seam sewing for next-to-skin comfort and patented Polartec bi-component, abrasion resistant, knit construction for quick-drying, all-day comfort. MSRP: $24.50 – 32.50

To WIN YOU MUST:1) Head to the Polartec Facebook Page and ‘Like’ us
2) Find this giveaway post
3) In a comment below the post, tell us your favorite non-traditional camping essential. Do you require a backcountry espresso machine, gourmet spices, or maybe a hammock? Let us know. We will choose a winner at random on Thursday August 26th at High Noon.

Big disclaimer: The giveaway sizes are Men’s Medium Crew in White and Women’s Medium V-Neck in Icicle Blue, and that’s all we’ve got. There are no exchanges or returns.

Thanks so much and good luck!

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By Sarah – August 23, 2010

Polartec Tapped By Vanity Fair


There are magazines, and then there is Vanity Fair. The world’s greatest photographers, feature stories so perfectly crafted that many feel they deserve a coveted spot on bookshelves for decades, preserved and respected. A who’s who of celebrities, public figures, the infamous and famous alike. Vanity Fair is a magazine you read, not skim. Thirty years ago, a book called The Official Preppy Handbook became an instant international bestseller. The same author, Lisa Birnbach, has recently completed the newest version, this time called True Prep. In this month’s Vanity Fair, they printed an excerpt from the book and in it, Birnbach has tapped Polarfleece as the biggest change in Prepdome in 30 years. We’ll take it, just as long as climbing in bowties doesn’t catch on.

Read the entire article- Vanity Fair’s “Official Preppy Reboot”

Excerpt from True Prep-
If, in 1980, you had whispered to friends that within the next few decades America would elect a thin, black, preppy, basketball-playing lawyer to be president, they would have laughed at you and exhaled in your face, inside the restaurant or club where you were sitting. And, if you predicted that one day all our children would have little portable phones stuck in their pockets so that they could not answer us when we called them from our little phones, we would have again exhaled in your face—indoors—and said you were talking science fiction.

Still, to our minds nothing is more sci-fi than the fact that preppies in the 21st century all wear the unnatural fibers we collectively refer to as “fleece.” We always thought our reliance on natural “guaranteed to wrinkle” fibers was our right and our trademark. If it’s hot or humid, we’d just roll up our all-cotton long-sleeved shirts. But now we wear polyester fleece, and its offspring, recycled water bottles.

The revolution began in 1981, at a company then called Malden Mills in Lawrence, Massachusetts, manufacturers of textiles including the wool for uniforms in World War II. A place like Malden Mills is populated by textile engineers who spitball, “mess around with fabrics,” and then refine, according to spokesman Nate Simmons. They work collaboratively with clothing manufacturers, as they did in this case with Patagonia. What came off the looms in the early 80s was pure synthetic, soft, quick-wicking, quick-drying, and machine-washable. It did not fade, and changed the wardrobes of athletes forever. Its Malden name was Polarfleece; its Patagonia name was Synchilla.

The new book also sites some new “Prep Careers for the New Millennium”, included in which is ‘Ski Bum’, a profession we are proud to associate with, alongside anyone working hard to support days off on rock, in rivers, on the slopes or anywhere else that requires a little less popped collar and a little more, “Where the hell are we?”


Yvon Chouinard product testing

Posted in Fabric Technology, Interesting Read, Media Coverage.

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By Sarah – August 19, 2010

Soldiers to the Summit Training

In late September, a team of 12 disabled veterans, 10 successful Everest climbers, along with Erik Weihenmayer, will attempt the summit of Lobuche (20,075), just miles from Mt. Everest in the Himalayas. We will be updating you on the progress of the team throughout the next few months, as they train in various locations throughout the U.S. Last week, they climbed St. Mary’s, a glacial snowfield near Denver, and most of the team got a chance to meet each other for the first time. Check out Erik Weihenmayer’s post from his blog, BlindVision below to check out the most recent photos from the training session.

Last week, our Soldiers To The Summit team (http://soldierstothesummit.org/) got everyone together for an amazing training session here in Colorado. Though we’ve all been in virtual contact for the past few months, this was the first opportunity for everyone on the expedition to meet in person. (The only climber missing was Luis Benitez. But since he was still heading home from an attempt on K2, we’ll cut him some slack!)

We started off by meeting at Bent Gate Mountaineering in Golden, which is a great outdoor retailer that has been helping us with their expertise on gear. This is where we distributed the clothing that has been generously donated by our sponsors (ADS Tactical, Polartec, and Mountain Hardwear). The soldiers were also fitted with boots provided by La Sportiva. We are still working on rounding up some more equipment for the team (climbing gear, sleeping bags, trekking poles, etc.) but it’s looking like our soldiers will be well protected.

The next day, we headed up to St. Mary’s Glacier, which is a steep snowfield (it lost it’s official glacier status decades ago but the name hasn’t changed) at about 11,000 feet west of Denver. Although a couple of our soldiers–the two Hanging Chads and Matt–have experience climbing on snow and ice, the majority have never used an ice axe or worn crampons. Here we practiced skills such as ascending and descending fixed lines, self-arresting on snowslopes, and the basics of how to walk with 12 sharp points strapped to the bottom of each foot. I think most of our soldiers found this an eye-opening, and breathtaking, experience!

Our group camped for two nights at the base of the glacier. This gave us a chance to escape the “real world” down below and get to know each other better. While all the training is vital, this quite time is also an important part of building a team.

The next morning, we got an early start to climb James Peak, a 13,294 feet mountain that requires climbing the snowfield, trekking across the tundra, and then a final scramble up the summit pyramid. Though not technically hard, this gave everyone a chance to experience rugged, off-trail hiking and thin air. Unfortunately, Matt’s temporary prosthetic broke so he had to stay in camp, which is why these shake-down trips are essential before big expeditions. The rest of us made the summit and returned to camp in about six hours; a pretty good pace.

In short, this training trip was a huge success! We accomplished our mission, began to make connections with one another, figured out what works, discovered what doesn’t, sorted out gear details, and had a lot of fun. A phone call from President Bush was a great bonus. Organizing this expedition to Lobuche has been a lot of work for many of us. And I’m starting to feel like it’s going to pay off hugely. Can’t wait till we leave in October!

Here are some photos of the training courtesy of our team photographer Didrik Johnck.

Soldier Zach Martinez practices a self-arrest on a mellow slope before progressing to steeper terrain.


Soldier Nicolette Maroulis tops out after climbing a very steep 60-foot snow and ice slope on St. Mary’s glacier.


Erik roping up.


The Soldiers to the Summit team is made of up people with varying disabilities including amputees.


Soldier Chad Butrick prepares to rappelling down the glacier.


Soldiers Dan Sidles, Ike Isaacson, Cody Miranda, and Steve Baskis (left to right) celebrate the summit of James Peak at 13,294 feet.

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By Sarah – August 18, 2010

Himalaya Alert Documentary

On January 12 2008, Bernice Notenboom became the first Dutch woman to reach the South Pole. During her month-long expedition, Bernice and her team studied the effects of climate change on the ice, snow and glaciers of Antarctica. In the Spring of 2009, with the support of a Polartec Challenge Grant, Bernice summitted Everest and collected data on the effects of climate change on the mountain for her project Himalaya Alert. The following Fall we posted some of her footage in a blog post that you can read here.

According to the website, “Climate Change has often been described as a slow-moving catastrophe. It’s the kind of issue that once you begin to feel any large-scale effects, it’s too late to do anything. Though science has been telling us this for 25 years now, this is what makes it a very difficult problem to communicate to the general public.

Bernice Notenboom’s expedition to Mt Everest, offered a rare opportunity to explore the changes going on in one of the world’s Climate Change hotspots. Going beyond graphs and tables and what is often fairly abstract science, Himalaya Alert searches out the views of local people and records the concrete physical changes actually occurring at high altitude. This combined with the adventure and drama of the expedition itself opens up these issues to a broad general audience.

The Sherpa people are among the first to experience the tangible effects of a warming planet. For them this means living with the uneasy mix of the danger of flooding, from bursting glacial lakes, combined with drought, caused by a continued reduction in rain and snowfall, which is threatening their agricultural base. The likely fate of Himalayan glaciers is hugely important because they are the source for 10 of Asia’s largest rivers. Climate Change is not only causing glaciers to melt, it is also shifting the monsoon. In the short term at least, this looks like having a much bigger effect on river flow than the melting alone.”

Check out the most recent footage from the Himalaya Alert documentary, courtesy of EMS Films.

Posted in In the Field, Polartec Challenge.

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By Sarah – August 11, 2010