A big shout out to goes to our Athlete Advisory Board member, Sari Anderson, on her victory last Saturday at the U.S. Ski Mountaineering National Championships!

The annual race in Jackson Hole, WY is one of the longest-running randonee races in the country, celebrating its 12th year last weekend. Using ultralight skis and boots with nylon skins that affix to the bottom of their skis to go uphill, racers climbed and descended over 8,000 vertical feet on and off-piste at the Jackson Holes ski area. Polartec Advisory Board member and mother of two, Sari Anderson, finished second in the National Champs last year after some equipment issues so she was back for redemption this year. Facing the most competitive field of women ever assembled on US soil snow, Sari had a flawless race this year and claimed the national championships in three hours and four minutes, a commanding eight-minute victory over the next woman.

Read more about her race here.

Sari and men's national champion, Luke Nelson

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Take a look at their most recent blog post highlighting this leg of the journey below or click to see the post on the Cycling Silk Blog here. Check it out-their photos are incredible!

After nearly two glorious months in Tajikistan, biking the Tajik-Afghan border and exploring the potential for transboundary cooperation in the Pamir mountain borderlands, we spent roughly 36 hours transiting through Kyrgyzstan before riding into Xinjiang in western China, where all our mad Silk Road biking adventures began five years ago. Originally we intended to ride from Kashgar into western Tibet, retracing our route from 2006, and exploring the Mount Kailash transboundary protected area – our fourth case study of the expedition. But then we learned the western road into Tibet was closed for construction. Bummer.

So instead we opted to ride the Qinghai-Tibet highway, which runs from Golmud to Lhasa, and then bike to Nepal from there. Because of limited time on our Chinese visa, and the gaping distance between Kashgar and Golmud, we had to take a series of trains and buses to get to our starting point. We couldn’t afford a Chinese guide or a permit, since a single day with a guide would’ve cost more than our entire budget for Tibet, so sneaking was the only option. We figured we’d see how far we could ride into Tibet without getting stopped, and by taking some precautions – namely posing as androgynous Chinese cyclists, carrying all our food so we didn’t have to resupply in towns, and stealth camping to avoid hotels. With a lot of luck on our side, we managed to make it all the way to the border, and then crossed into Nepal without a hitch.

Now we’re setting off on the final leg of the trip, from Kathmandu, Nepal to Leh, the capital city of Ladakh in northern India. The Himalayan passes on the road to Leh tend to close by mid-October, so we’re gambling on good weather to make it in time. From Leh, we’ll explore our final transboundary case study of the expedition: the Siachen glacier, which straddles the disputed Indo-Pak border in Kashmir. After spending some time interviewing folks in India about the conflict, and about possibilities for its resolution through environmental cooperation, we’ll pack our bikes – Marco and Polo – in boxes and catch flights home to Canada in November. Hard to believe the end of the Cycling Silk road is practically in sight, though there are still some epic mountains blocking the way.

So, more to come on our adventures in transboundary conservation these past few months, and in the meanwhile, wish us luck racing the snows to Leh!

Courtesy of Kirsten Kremer

Kirsten Kremer, Emilie Drinkwater and Janet Bergman, supported by a Polartec Challenge Grant, traveled to the Eastern Indian Karakoram in July and August. Their objective was an unclimbed 6,135 meter peak that alpinist Mark Richey had previously photographed. The south facing aspect with several beautiful looking rock buttresses appealed to the women for alpine rock climbing.

Courtesy of Kirsten Kremer

The team met in Delhi on July 3, along with Mark Richey, Steve Swenson and Freddie Wilkinson, who were attempting a first ascent of nearby Saser Kangri II, and with whom they shared base camp and climbing permits. The team flew from Delhi to Leh, Ladakh, and drove over the Khardung La, the “highest motorable pass in the world”, to the Nubra Valley where they commenced the three day trek to base camp, a grassy meadow at 5,000 meters. From there the two teams split up, with advanced camps and objective peaks on separate glaciers.

“Kirsten, Emilie and I made two attempts on ‘6135’,” said Bergman. “The walls were good quality crack climbing, but the melted-out ledges and the summit ridgeline were constantly bombarding us with rock and ice whenever the sun was out”.

The team made the decision that the conditions were too dangerous to attempt it again. “That mountain really illustrated the paradox of alpine rock climbing,” Bergman said. “We wanted it to be warm and sunny enough to use tight rock climbing shoes and bare fingers instead of boots, crampons and ice tools, but some mountains, like this one, can start to ‘come unglued’ and become very unsafe in conditions like that. I think we made a good call.”

Courtesy of Emilie Drinkwater

Fortunately, the area around Saser Kangri II where the guys had their advanced camp had several promising looking unclimbed peaks so, with the help of their Indian Sherpa staff, the women were able to clean out their advanced camp at ‘6135’ and move over to the Saser Kangri II camp for the remainder of their time.

“As seems to often be the case, all of our activity happened in the final week of the trip,” continued Bergman.

On August 5-6, Kirsten and Emilie (Janet was in the throes of a violent 24-hour stomach bug) climbed Pumo Kangri, PD/AD 6440 meters, a striking ice and snow peak just outside of camp,soloing all but the final pitches, and rappelling through the night with a single rope

Saser Linga and Pumo Kangri- Courtesy of Janet Bergman

(they’d anticipated more snow than ice and got just the opposite). Freddie and Janet high-fived with them on their final rappels the next morning as they climbed the same initial ice slope to approach Saser Linga, IV 5.9+ ~6,200 meters, a beautiful 7 pitch rock pinnacle. Finally, on August 8-9, the four of them plus Mark Richey skied across the glacier to a high bivy and simul-climbed Stegosaurus, PD/AD 6,640 meters, a dinosaur-esque peak with a 150 meter corniced ridge traverse to the summit.

“I don’t have too much to say regarding my Polartec pieces because they performed exactly how they should,” said Drinkwater (The team was outfitted with a variety of Polartec fabrics by different manufacturers for the expedition).

Stegosaurus- Courtesy of Janet Bergman

“The obvious advantages of the Polartec fabrics are how light, soft, and comfortable they are, in addition to being durable.”

Emilie did have one clear favorite piece of clothing though. “I wore that pink Patagonia jacket every day for six weeks. I also used it as a pillow and, on one occasion, as a blanket to wrap around my very cold feet. This was my favorite piece because, aside from being pink and comfortable, it worked well under a large variety of temperatures. I would have worn it on the plane ride home but it was starting to smell gross.”

The team extends sincere gratitude to Polartec for providing the Polartec Challenge Grant program that makes this and so many other great adventures possible.

Courtesy Janet Bergman

UTMB® (Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc®) : considered the “queen” race of the event. 2,500 participants, 170km and 9,700m of positive altitude change. 46 hour time limit.
TDS® (sur les Traces des Ducs de Savoie): 122 km and 7,100m of positive altitude change. 1,200 Participants. 31 hour time limit.
CCC® (Courmayer – Chamonix- Courmayer): 98km and 5,600m of positive altitude change and 1,800 participants. Time limit is 26 hours.
PTL® (la Petite Trotte à Léon): TEAM RACE made up of 2/3 people. 300 km and 25,000m of positive altitude change. Limit is 138h and 80 teams (teams need to stay together for the whole loop).

This year all UTMB finishers received a finisher vest from The North Face, made with Polartec® Power Dry® High Efficiency fabric. It’s a symbolic gift that the runners will wear with pride for years to come.

Polartec would like to send a big shout out to its own David Gatti, Director of Military Business for Europe, who completed the TDS in 25 hours and 45 minutes, finishing 351st out of 1,200 runners. Of course, David wore a complete Polartec layering system (Power Dry T-shirt, Power Dry High Efficiency longsleeves, Neoshell Jacket). Congrats to David on his second UTMB finish!

To read a complete recap of the race, check out irunfar.com and the North Face Journal.

Enjoy some photos and video from the UTMB below.

For the 11 world-class climbers, skiers, mountaineers, runners, explorers and adventure racers on the Polartec Athlete Advisory Board, there’s perhaps nothing as painful as sitting under the fluorescent bulbs of a conference room for an eight-hour meeting. But, if that meeting will result in warmer, drier and lighter fabrics that help them perform faster, longer and more efficiently, they’re happy to put in the time. Of course, it doesn’t hurt if that meeting takes place in the international capital of mountain sports – Chamonix, France.

This past week, the Polartec Advisory Board members traveled from around the world to Chamonix, carrying stacks of prototype baselayers, insulating layers and weather protection jackets they’ve been testing for past 6-12 months. The athletes joined a team of Polartec product developers and company leaders, including Polartec president Andy Vecchione and VP Jon Adelman, for a marathon meeting to discuss the latest in fabric technologies.

The athlete group, which was instrumental in the development of both Polartec Power Shield Pro and Polartec NeoShell fabrics, has been testing a wide variety of exciting new (and top-secret) Polartec innovations. The group has put those fabrics through the proverbial ringer, evaluating them for warmth, breathability, waterproofness and overall comfort. The athletes shared their opinions on their test garments and talked about what they would like to see in the next iteration of prototypes.

We can’t share exactly what innovations are coming from Polartec in the future, but based upon the enthusiasm at the end of the Athlete Advisory Board meeting, we can assure you that there are some really exciting, ground-breaking fabrics in the pipeline.

Sari and her race partner Pete Gaston happy to be home in Aspen

The Elk Mountains Grand Traverse is a 40-mile backcountry ski race that starts at midnight in Crested Butte and finishes in Aspen, CO. When it comes to fabrics and layering, there’s no better test for warmth, weather protection and breathabilty. Every year racers invariably have to contend with sub-freezing temperatures, howling winds and whiteout snow conditions, combined with brutally long, sweaty climbs followed by bone-chilling descents.

This past weekend, Polartec Athlete Advisory Board member, Sari Anderson made history at the race, finishing as one of two women on the podium for the first time in the event’s 14-year history. Sari is a professional adventure racer, mountain biker and ski mountaineer and this year’s race put all her skills to the test. You can read her full race recap here, but the condensed version is that she raced super-strong – breaking trail through over a foot of fresh snow for the lead teams for miles on end. She and her partner finished in third place overall, in just over nine hours.

One thing Sari didn’t have to worry about at this year’s race was her layering system. Here’s an excerpt from her race report:

Sari breaking trail along Richmond Ridge

Overall, my set-up performed beautifully, but there were a couple of standouts. First of all, I wore an awesome new jacket from Patagonia called the Knifeblade. It’s a minimalistic, anorak-style jacket made from Polartec Power Shield Pro – essentially a lightweight pullover softshell. While I watched almost everyone in the race shed layers on the climbs and then layer up for the descents, I never took the Knifeblade off. It kept me warm and completely dry while it snowed for the first few hours of the race, but breathed well enough so I didn’t overheat once the sun finally came out. Full disclosure – I’m on the Polartec Athlete Advisory Board – but this truly was the best aerobic outerlayer I’ve ever tried.

Another truly impressive bit of gear for this race were my gloves. My friend Doug Heinrich, the glove product director at Black Diamond, sent me a pair of Impulse gloves (made from Polartec Power Shield) to try and they were awesome. I wore them the entire race and my hands never got too hot nor cold.

Congratulations to Sari!

The Patagonia Knifeblade jacket, available in August 2011.

Sari with her daughter at the finish line.

Check out some shots of Greg’s last few days and the video that his friends put together of his incredible journey to 2 million.

2 Million With Greg Hill from FD Productions on Vimeo.

However, in this month’s issue, VF writer Lenora Jane Estes checks in with Polartec Challenge Grant winner, Greg Hill, as he nears his goal of skiing 2 million vertical feet this year. (He has just over 18,000 to go as of today.) When asked how he would finish out the year, he said “I’ll finish on our local ski hill here in Revelstoke. There are a lot of people who are interested in the goal but aren’t backcountry skiers, so I made it accessible for everyone to witness my last hour. I’m going to hike up and finish on the ski hill so people can share those moments with me. Then I’ll definitely have a little bit of a party and wake up on January 1 feeling quite relaxed.”

To read the entire article-click on this link- www.VanityFair.com

Also check out this awesome video documenting the past year of Greg’s life and hard work and dedication that it took to get here. Good luck in these final few days Greg!

2 Million With Greg Hill from FD Productions on Vimeo.

“He has become the poster goat of the backcountry world: a seemingly uncrackable, unquenchable, undeniable ascender for the ages. His one million vertical feet of self-propelled ascending back in the winter of 2006-2007 put him on the ski mountaineering map, and now, as a sponsored athlete, with his own signature AT setup, and currently eight months into a goal of logging two million vertical feet (5,000 ft a day on average), in a single year, the Revelstoke, B.C., guide and father of two will undoubtably crack the stratosphere as one of the most interestingly committed backcountry skiers of our day…..

“If all the year were playing holidays…to sport would be as tedious as to work,” to quote Shakespeare. So of course, at times, it is tedious but when the tedium ends with a summit and a steep and deep descent, then I have to count myself as one of the lucky ones. Over 60 different mountaintops, many, many adventures, days exploring new terrain. North America, South America, not a lot of boredom doing on. Plus, I have been tree planting for 15 years and learned how to distance myself from the harshness of the situation to find my happy place.”

To read the entire article, pick up this month’s Powder magazine.

Check out a video of Greg hitting his half way point earlier this year. Currently he has skied 1,666, 2204ft.