Great Outdoor Blog

It is the epitome of competition, yet it eschews the very notion.
Thursday night, the Ramblin’ Rose triathlon series held an informational meeting at the Great Outdoor Provision Co. store in Cameron Village in advance of its two local triathlons, the Raleigh Triathlon May 20 and the Chapel Hill Tri Oct. 7. The hugely popular races sponsored by Endurance Magazine are women-only and geared toward beginners. They play down the competitive aspect of a tri, play up the comradery and supportiveness of the event. If you’ve participated in one of the races or just watched one, you know this isn’t mere marketing mumbo-jumbo. Ditto the Ramblin’ Rose’s motto: “Celebrating the empowerment of women.”

Empowerment: that’s where the competitiveness comes in.
During a presentation by athlete trainer Sage Rountree (who’s credentials are too numerous to list, so we’ll send you here http://sagerountree.com/ for an introduction), the 70 or so women who crammed into the store (between boats and women’s apparel) were focused. Rountree’s mission was to demystify the race by discussing training, equipment, transitions.
“Do you need a $4,000 carbon fiber bike?” she asked rhetorically. “Not yet,” she answered after a beat.

And none of the women present likely went out and bought one afterward. A fancy bike might give you an edge over others, but for this group, the only competition they were concerned with was with themselves.

Karen Friedlander of Cary came with her friend, Patty Harrison. Both had heard about the Ramblin’ Rose from a friend. Friedlander, who is 54, said she was looking for a challenge, to get herself back in shape after putting her needs aside for 20 years of work and kid-raising. She was looking for a better use of her time.
“I’m tired of the sedentary lifestyle,” she said.
Friedlander cited the Ramblin’ Rose’s reputation for being a supportive, non-competitive event. Then she exposed her internally competitive self.
“We joined a group called Tri It For Life, which helps train women for their first triathlon,” says Friedlander. The group originated in Charlotte; this spring’s session is their first in the Triangle. (Read more about Tri It For Life here.) http://getgoingnc.com/2012/06/tri-it-you-may-like-it/
Like Ramblin’ Rose, Tri It For Life encourages — and challenges. Friedlander says they do four organized workouts a week: a bike ride one day, a run the next, a swim and then a combination of two disciplines.
“It’s hard,” she says of her first three weeks of training. “It’s also enlightening. It’s done a lot to build my confidence. Even at my age, I’ve discovered I can do anything I want my body to do.”

Jackie Sinicrope of Cary is not a beginner: she’s got four races under her running shoes (five if you include last fall’s Chapel Hill Ramblin’ Rose that was called because of an electrical storm as she stood in line at the start). In a sense, she takes the events seriously by going into them prepared. She runs (she’s entered to do next weekend’s Quintiles Half-Marathon in Wrightsville Beach), she bikes regularly and she swims. Her tris to date have been the short-distance events, but she’s signed up for the longer international distance White Lake Triathlon http://www.whitelakeholidayresort.com/triathletes.html on May 4. “I like the motivation it gives me,” says Sinicrope, who is 42. “I like the routine and having a program, of knowing, ‘Hey, I’ve got a race coming up.’”

With so much experience and training, you might expect Sinicrope to be thinking about an age group podium finish.“No,” she says. “My goal is to just finish a little better than I did the last time.”Sinicrope’s friend, Susan Brown of Apex, did her first tri last fall, the women-only Dash for Divas, http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/directory/link-detail.asp?linkid=22724 and was hooked.

“I loved it,” says Brown, 45. “I loved how supportive it was. There was a great feeling of comradery. Everyone was cheering for one another — the spectators, the people running the race, the runners.”
When the opportunity to do a similar race, the Ramblin’ Rose, came up, she jumped. She said she might even train for this one.
Brown sees an extra mission — two, actually — in the Ramblin’ Rose.
“I have rheumatoid arthritis,” says Brown. “While I’m on meds and feel no pain, it’s important for me to stay active.”
It’s also important to be a good role model. Brown’s and Sinicrope’s 12-year-old daughters will be joining them in October’s Chapel Hill Ramblin’ Rose.
“It’s important to set a good example for our children, to show our kids a different, healthier way,” says Brown, a Montessori school teacher. “It’s part of my role as a parent.”

Brown, Sinicrope and Friedlander all appreciate that some potential female triathletes may be reluctant, because of weight, because of age, or for whatever reason. “You don’t feel like you stand out,” says Brown. “Everyone is in the same boat, it’s a supportive environment.” “In another setting,” adds Friedlander, “if you’re overweight, you might not want to be in a bathing suit.”
For a moment, Sinicrope exhibits a hint of outward competitiveness, joking it’s always nice to pass women half her age. Then she puts her thought in a Ramblin’ Rose perspective: “I like the challenge of getting older and getting better.”

* * *

For more about the Ramblin Rose race series, which includes triathlons and races this year un Chapel Hill (Oct. 7), Charlotte (Sept. 23 & 29), Durham (Oct. 21), Raleigh (May 20), Rock Hill, S.C. (July 15) and Winston-Salem (Aug. 19) visit their website here. http://www.endurancemag.com/index.php/ramblinrose

After Diane Van Deren finished her record-breaking run across North Carolina on the Mountains-to-Sea Trail last June 1, she did something she’d never done as a professional athlete.

She took a break.

Not because of her severely blistered feet, which were nearly devoid of skin, or because of the flexor tendon in her left foot, which “nearly wore through.” Not because her calorie-starved body had dug into its reserves and was consuming muscle, or because she averaged about three hours sleep a night during her three-week MST Endurance Run. And not because her entire 52-year-old body was simply worn out from more than three weeks covering nearly 1,000 miles of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, from 6,643-foot Clingman’s Dome on the Tennessee border to Jockey’s Ridge on the Outer Banks.

“With every event I’d ever done, as soon as I finished it was like, ‘OK, what’s next? What’s next on the schedule?” Van Deren said from her home outside Denver as she prepared to return to North Carolina in early February. The MST was something altogether different.

“With this,” she said, “I just wanted to take time to appreciate what I’d been through.”

During her 22 days, 5 hours and 3 minutes on the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, Van Deren had been through a lot. The cold and wet of the Southern Appalachians, the heat and humidity of the Piedmont, and the violent weather of the coast (on her 20th day she had to outrun a tropical storm and a tornado), The North Face-sponsored elite athlete faced about every physical and mental challenge imaginable. But those challenges are a dime a dozen in Van Deren’s world, a world that includes everything from multiple finishes in the Hard Rock 100, arguably the toughest 100-mile ultra run in the country, to the 430-mile Yukon Arctic Ultra, a race in which Van Deren and her 50-pound sled broke through thin ice on a lake a day from the finish.

“It was just life-changing,” Van Deren said of her MST Endurance Run. “The people I met on this race, we developed a real trust in sharing stuff. We were very vulnerable with each other. I’ve never had an experience like this and I don’t know that I ever will.”

Van Deren returns to North Carolina the first week of February for a series of statewide appearances, starting with her Feb. 2 address to the annual meeting of the Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, the non-profit spearheading completion of the trail. At present, just over half of the estimated 1,000-mile trail is complete, much of that in the mountains and Piedmont. The rest follows temporary routes, mostly along country roads. Van Deren’s run, sponsored by Great Outdoor Provision Co., was intended to accelerate the trail’s completion by raising awareness — and money.

According to Kate Dixon, executive director the Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, Van Deren was successful on both counts.

“I think there were two big things to come from the run,” said Dixon. “We got a lot of new members, people in the state who were not aware of the trail, and we got a lot of national recognition.” National Geographic, for instance, included the MST in its Ultimate Adventure Bucket List for 2013.

“As an internationally competitive athlete, Diane elevated the MST to its rightful place among the world’s best trails,” said Chuck Millsaps, Minister of Culture with Great Outdoor Provision Co. and the expedition’s leader. “Diane’s expedition revealed this grand traverse as a transforming trek through our state’s rich beauty, history and culture welcoming others to come and discover.”

The run also exceeded its fundraising goal of $40,000.

While Van Deren did bow out of the Hard Rock 100, which took place a month and a half after she completed the MST Endurance Run, she didn’t sit around reflecting for long. In September, she competed in a 50-mile endurance run in Chile and in December logged one of her best 50-mile times ever, completing the San Francisco edition of the 50-mile North Face Endurance Challenge in 9 hours, 25 minutes, 1 second, a pace of 11 minutes 18 seconds per mile. She’s currently planning her race schedule for 2013. (One thing she says she won’t be doing again is another 1,000-mile run.)

An elite athlete learns from experience and uses that experience to battle through perceived obstacles. Van Deren’s experience on the MST helped her blow off what many of her San Francisco competitors found to be intimidating conditions.

“There was horrific rainfall, a downpour, there were flash-flood warnings, and they had to alter the course,” Van Deren recalled with a laugh. “I was the only runner going, ‘Huh. No problem.’ My attitude was, ‘Hey, I ran through a hurricane, this is nothing.’”

While there were other lessons from the MST run that will benefit Van Deren in future events, it’s the magic of a team effort that continues to leave the biggest impression. A competitor in one of sport’s loneliest endeavors, ultra distance running, Van Deren found herself handing over her fate to her GOPC team, from support crew chief Joel Fleming, who woke her in the morning and tucked her in at night, to logistics guru Amy Hamm, whose duties included tracking down baked salmon dinners in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere, to her team of daily trail guides, to expedition leader Millsaps.

At times that support came in the form of helping Van Deren get her shoes off and her feet patched. At times it involved telling stories, cracking jokes and otherwise helping her pass the long hours on the trail. And at times it simply came to recognizing when Van Deren was in the zone and needed to be left alone.

“I just had to keep moving forward,” Van Deren says of the run. “To have someone who could look me in the eye and say, ‘Here’s the game plan,’ was huge.”

Said Millsaps, “Diane reminded us that it is not about being super human as much as it is about becoming a human being. As a team we discovered how adversity reveals the best gifts: endurance, creativity and gratitude.”

And, Van Deren is quick to add, unity. Though it’s just her name in the record book, she says the entry should read like the credits to a Hollywood blockbuster.

“I still feel it’s a ‘we’ thing, not a ‘me’ thing.”

* * *

Where to catch Diane

Diane Van Deren returns to North Carolina, the site of her record-breaking Mountains-to-Sea Trail Endurance Run, the first week of February. There are several opportunities to see her and hear her talk about the run, what she’s been up to since, and what’s in store for 2013.

Saturday, Feb. 2: Keynote speaker at the Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail Annual Meeting in Saxapahaw. Details here.

Monday, Feb. 4: The Summit School in Winston-Salem, 7 p.m.

Tuesday, Feb. 5: Great Outdoor Provision Co. in Greensboro, 7:30 p.m.

Wedesday, Feb 6: Great Outdoor Provision Co. in Charlotte, 7:30 p.m.

You wanted to take a whitewater kayaking course last year — but didn’t. You swore you’d finally spend that week on the AT you’ve been promising yourself since college — but didn’t. You also didn’t train for an ultramarathon, take a weekend canoe camping trip or climb Looking Glass Rock.

2012 — where did you go?

Disappointed with last year’s adventure resume? Don’t let 2013 be a repeat of 2012. Vow to make this your Year of Adventure. And start now by making a plan.

Now, a true year of adventure consists of numerous small adventures and maybe one or two big ones. (It is called a Year of Adventure, after all, not a Long Weekend of Adventure.) Say your goal is that epic backpack trip, a week — at least — on the Appalachian Trail. You just don’t go out and hike 15 miles a day, seven days in a row, with 35 pounds on your back. You lead up to it, with a series of smaller adventures in the form of training hikes.

But all the good places to hike are in the mountains, you grump.

Au contraire, mon adventurer-in-training.

Go to our Hiking Page and you’ll discover five hikes near each of our seven markets. Say you’re in Greensboro and your goal is to get in at least two hikes a month. On our Greensboro Hiking Trips you’ll discover five of our favorite hikes. Only got a couple hours? The Lake Brandt/Palmetto Trail and the Piedmont Environmental Center are good options. If you’ve got time for a day hike check out nearby Hanging Rock State Park or Mayo River State Park or the Birkhead Wilderness of the Uwharrie National Forest.

You start exploring our recommended trails and begin to feel good about your hiking. Time to add camping to the mix. Before committing to a backpack trip you’ll want to field test your equipment, not to mention your camping skills, in a more controlled setting. Check out our Camping page and you’ll find find five places to car camp near where you live.

Next step: a short backpack trip. Come by the shop to explore our map section and scout potential trips, or meander over to books and pick up a copy of “Backpacking North Carolina,” where you’ll find good warm-up trips of two, three and four days. Finally, you’re ready for your epic on the AT. Start planning with the Appalachian Trail Conservancy’s maps and guidebooks, which cover everything you need to know — from shelter and campsite locations to water sources — to plan and execute a trip capping your 2013 Year of Adventure.

Plotting an epic year is just as easy for other adventures, from flatwater paddling to whitewater, trail running to climbing.

Maybe you’re flummoxed by all the options in the adventure world and aren’t sure where to start? A good source of inspiration is your local Great Outdoor Provision Co. shop. Spend half an hour wandering the aisles and chances are you will find motivation in the most curious of places. Pick up some maps at random; A region you thought you were familiar with may reveal a valley or ridgeline you don’t know at all. Maybe you pick up a copy of the “Shining Rock/Middle Prong Wilderness Map”; you’re as comfortable at Shining Rock as you are in a 0-degree down bag on a January night. But Middle Prong? What’s over there? Or perhaps the quirky “The Linville Gorge Hiker’s Guide,” a grassroots effort with homemade maps, mimeograph (Google it, kids) quality and grainy pictures catches your eye. Start thumbing through and you quickly discover a ton of insidery information about one of the wildest places on the East Coast. Intrigued? You bet.

Motivation can come in unlikely places. A trip to the camping department reveals a titanium spork that suddenly makes you want to spend the evening huddled in the dark and cold over a can of beans. In boats you realize it’s been way too long since you’ve had yours out on a winter paddle, while a trip through outerwear makes you realize it’s rarely too cold in North Carolina to get out and explore. Maybe you discover something entirely new, maybe something you’ve thought about, but never pursued until you pick up a flier for a day-long fly fishing class on a nearby lake. A one day lesson, a handful of day trips to local hotspots and who knows, you could be fly fishing for cutthroat trout in the Rockies come July. Does a river run through you? You won’t know until you put a fly rod in your hand.

We’ve got the resources to help make sure 2013 doesn’t disappoint. Let’s get started on your Year of Adventure!

——–
curated by Joe Miller

In 2010, Cory Richards put his name in the American alpine record books by becoming the first American climber to summit and 8,000-meter peak in winter. His climbing party’s summit celebration atop 8035-meter Gasherbrum II in Pakistan was subdued and short-lived, based on a healthy respect for the mountain and the season, and the fact that the summit is only the mid-point in a successful climb. Richards and climbing partners Simone Moro and Dennis Urubko saved the real celebration for after they miraculously survived an avalanche on the descent. This past May, the 30-year-old Boulder, Colo.-based climber and photographer had another scare when, as part of a National Geographic/North Face team attempting to summit Mount Everest via the West Shoulder, he began experiencing chest pain and shortness of breath and had to be helicoptered off the mountain at 23,000 feet.

Richards will be in Raleigh Oct. 10 speaking on “Both Sides of the Lens” at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. He’ll talk about his life as a climber and as an award-winning photographer as part of the North Face Never Stop Exploring Speaker Series. We caught up with Richards on assignment in the Crimea — “shooting and climbing a North Face expedition … . Big limestone walls above the Black Sea…amazing” — where he discussed growing up, dropping out of high school and the ironic situation that caused his evacuation from Mount Everest.

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Great Outdoor Provision Co: You credit your parents with instilling an appreciation of the outdoors in you and your brother. Could you talk a little about your upbringing, about climbing with your dad, about where you grew up?
Cory Richards: We actually “grew up” in Salt Lake City. My brother and I were tremendously lucky to have parents that made us fit into their lifestyle vs. adjusting it to fit our needs. If they wanted to go backpacking, then we were expected to be a part of that…it was a theme that started before we could think and just carried on through. Dave [my brother] and I didn’t know any other way. In the summer, it was going climbing/backpacking in the WInd Rivers of Wyoming or the Unitas in Utah, in the winters it was school and skiing on the weekends. We didn’t really have a choice — and I am thankful for that. I started climbing when I was 5. We have some amazing family photos of me tied up in a makeshift swami-belt about as tall as my dad’s thigh. Those experiences slowly led to others. Some of them saw us benighted under boulders because my brother and I were too slow to get up and off a climb in a day, which of course would send my mom into random fits of panic when her three boys didn’t make it back to camp at night. It was those experiences, however, the standouts and the stories, that ended up taking root in me and steering me towards the path I’m on now. My parents believed that the best education could be found under and on top of rocks, in skinned knees, and cold fingers …and I’m very thankful for that.

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GOPC: There’s a current reexamination of the importance of higher education in this country; the Thiel Fellowships, for instance, are targeted to kids who don’t pursue higher ed but go directly into working on their passion. You dropped out of high school: Could you talk a little about that, about what was going on with you at the time and how that decision has helped shape you as a climber, a photographer and a person?
CR: I ended up in a high school setting two years early, meaning I was 12 going to school with 18 year olds. I think my personality naturally gravitated towards the social aspects vs. continuing to focus on the classroom. Over the following two years, I attended three different high schools and finally dropped out altogether at 14. Four years of mostly bad choices followed until my uncle finally persuaded me to try to go back to school. My SAT scores were pretty bad as I had spent the better part of my teenage years partying and making a mess of myself.

Thankfully, I can write reasonably well, and I used that skill set to put together an essay for a small school in Montana. For whatever reason, they took a chance. Bottom line, I have made a tremendous amount of poor choices in my life, some very hurtful to family, friends and acquaintances — and I am very lucky that anyone in my family still talks to me and I am thankful for every friend I have. Oddly enough, I think it was largely those poor choices that led me to the career I have now.

The combination of climbing and skiing as a child that eventually brought me back to the outdoors, and photography was a creative outlet for telling that story, the story of struggle both internal and external, which I need. There is some darkness in me that art helps channel. Adventure photography is just a way to go beat myself up while telling the story visually. I love mountains — they put you in your place.
But truthfully, I am more lucky than talented. Professionally, if I surround myself with talented capable people and make myself the weakest link, I know exactly how strong the chain is. It’s a way of gauging exactly how far I can push myself as both an athlete and photographer in the mountains. I rely heavily on the people I work with to bring out the best in me. Conversely, I am an open book and source for them: it’s a give and take. While the decision to drop out was made in foggy haste, and the darkness that followed was nothing if not a struggle, I wouldn’t change a single thing.

Those years taught me to endure and to thrive when things are, well, hard. That has carried over into my athleticism as well as my art. I could never tell a student what they should do. But what I can say is that the idea that you can do anything IS true. That said, if you choose the road less traveled, you’ll have to work harder than anyone else around you.

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GOPC: You’ve been climbing since you were a kid; when and how did you get into photography? Are you entirely self-trained?
CR: After going to school in Montana for a year and a half, I moved to Salzburg, Austria, through the study abroad program. It was there, at Salzburg College, that I met and began studying under Andrew Phelps. Andrew was the one who ultimately pushed me in the direction of photography. It was interesting, though, the last thing he said to me after a year of studying with him was, “Remember that photography is only what you do, not who you are.” I’ve tried to carry that into all things that I do, including climbing. I’m not self trained, but my formal schooling was limited.

After Salzburg, I moved to Seattle where I went to school for another year until one of my instructors actually urged me to drop out and just start working as an assistant. I did, and subsequently spent seven years assisting fashion, saving the money I earned to go on climbing trips and other random adventures. I worked for a guy named Bill Cannon for most of that time. He was very hard on me, but he gave me a work ethic and he eventually ended up as groomsman in my wedding — my 65-year-old groomsman.

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GOPC: Whenever we see a close-up photo of a climber glued to sketchy wall, our first thought is, “There’s another guy there doing essentially the same thing — with a camera.” How does that work, and what are the biggest challenges you face climbing and shooting?
CR: The greatest challenge is not the athletic part…it’s the balance of knowing when to be an athlete and when to be a photographer. And furthermore, when to be a child, brother, friend, and husband. Sure it’s hard to get in position at times, and it’s hard to anticipate and be ahead of the game as it unfolds. But honestly, it’s the life balance that is hardest. That is what the Speaker Series presentation is all about…being on both sides of the lens. On the one hand, knowing both sides allows you to understand them more intimately, but on the other, it demands a constant immersion. Finding the balance is the key. It’s a vital part of the journey and the balance is constantly redefining itself.

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GOPC: Have you figured out what happened to you on Everest in April? How long did it take you to recover? Was that the worst physical problem you’ve had in the mountains?
CR: Everest was a massive ego check, and one that I needed. Oddly enough, I over-heated. I had a heat stroke on the highest mountain in the world — isn’t that the best cosmic joke of them all? But more importantly, that heat stroke triggered something more acute. Basically, I had taken on too much, said yes to too many people, and was trying to climb the hardest route of my life, and the bottom just fell out. I couldn’t sustain the pace or the pressure and the heat-stroke triggered a full-on release of that stress. There seems to be an expectation — a myth — that alpine climbers are impervious to fear and stress. It’s just not true. Everyone experiences both of those things on a somewhat constant basis while in the mountains, and for me, they boiled over. But I don’t want to give away too much. Otherwise, the event won’t be as fun!

- – - – -
GOPC: In 2011 you became the first American to summit an 8,000 meter peak in winter, which resulted in your documentary, “Cold.” Grayson Schaffer’s piece in Outside did a great job of depicting your harrowing descent from the summit and the sense of foreboding that tempered your celebration at the top. I think most people, especially non-climbers, think you pop open champaign at the summit, party for a few minutes, then open a backdoor and are magically back at base camp. Can you explain what a summit is really like, how you really feel and what’s going through your mind at the time?
CR: Most of the time, when you are that extended, your mind is fairly vacuous. Alpine climbing is hard work. Alpine climbing at 8,000 meters is really hard work. Your actions are a reduction of necessity and she you get to the top, you may cry a bit, you may collapse and lay still for a moment, but in general, you are numb. The summit is a halfway point and not a place for celebration — after all, it doesn’t matter if you make it to the top if you don’t make it down. There is an awesome quote from Alex Lowe, the father of The North Face team, that says “Going up is optional, but coming down is mandatory.” There is a muted sense of joy that exists but can only be experienced to it’s fullest when we are down safely. Often times, getting down is the hardest part.

- – - – -
GOPC: What’s your next big expedition?
CR: Antarctica. It’ll be my seventh continent, and I’m very very excited.

* * *

“Both Sides of the Lens,” Never Stop Exploring Speaker Series
Who: Cory Richards, climber and photographer
When: Oct. 10, 7 p.m.
Where: Main Auditorium, N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences, 11 W. Jones Street, Raleigh
Cost: $20, including exclusive VIP reception at 6 p.m., $8 for reserved seat, free for general attendance (based on availability). Proceeds benefit the Mountains-to-Sea Trail.
For tickets, go here

It began in 1949 when Warren Miller, then a ski instructor in Sun Valley, Idaho, bought an 8 mm film camera and decided to make a little movie about life on the slopes. The finished product went over well with the folks who saw it in local halls and theaters, so he made another the following year. And so on and so on, a ritual that continues 63 years later, with the company Miller created (and left in 2004) still producing one greatly anticipated feature-length ski flick a year.

The genre Miller essentially created has, over the last 20 years, expanded greatly. An explosion of photogenic adventure pursuits — led by whitewater kayaking, rock climbing, bouldering, mountain biking, snowboarding and skateboarding — has provided the material, a similar explosion in sophisticated video technology available on the cheap has provided the means for aspiring dirtbag directors to load their buddies into the microbus and head to the gnarliest whitewater, the steepest drops, the most impossible routes to nab a few minutes of jaw-dropping footage.

The result: film festivals such as the Radical Reels Tour 2012, a collection of 11 short films representing the best action sport films to come out of the celebrated Banff Mountain Film Festival. This is the ninth annual Radical Reels Tour and will air Sept. 6 in Chapel Hill at the Varsity Theater and Sept. 7 at the Hanesbrands Theatre  in Winston-Salem.

The films, ranging in length from four to 22 minutes, cover a variety of pursuits: skiing, snowboarding, skateboarding, freeride mountain biking, whitewater kayaking and rock climbing. As you might guess from having seen similar shorts (or extreme videos on You Tube) the people behind the lens are often every bit as involved in the filming as the stars themselves.

Rush Sturges, for example, is the force behind “Frontier,” a 20-minute ode to whitewater kayaking around the globe. Sturges grew up on the Salmon River, won the Junior World Championships of freestyle kayaking in 2003 and continues to compete professionally — when he’s not on the river filming for his River Roots studio, which produced “Frontier.” (Or when he’s not performing adventure-themed hip-hop under the name AdrenalineRush).

Darrell Miller is a veteran of the modern ski filmmaking industry, best known for shooting in his native Jackson Hole, Wyoming. His “Miller’s Thriller: Ski BASE” focuses on the extreme of extreme skiing — ski BASE jumping, and also includes some vintage footage dating back to the early 1990s (older skiers will be reminded of how much has changed in just 20 years).

One of the more curious entries comes from bobsled-track-skateborder-for-hire Danny Strasser, a German whose 7-minute-long “Concrete Dreams” is basically him longboarding down some of Europe’s more renowned “bobtracks.” As his press notes note, “Bobtrack downhill skateboarding is a sport that didn’t actually exist— until Danny Strasser … .” Riveting for the first couple minutes, not so much for the last five.

Mountain bikers will like the collaborative work of The Coastal Crew and Anthill Films, the latter of which has compiled some of the best and most diverse fat tire footage around.

You’ll get a taste of the self-indulgence that occasionally infuses today’s adventure shorts (“Here We Go Again,” “Cat Skiing”) as well as a hilarious sendup of the same in Bill Donavan’s “Narsicame,” which salutes the work of the Narsicame Institute for Healing in its tireless effort to help the Hero cam addicted point the camera toward subjects other than themselves.

And there’s the topical. “Reel Rock: Race for the Nose,” winner of the Radical Reels People’s Choice Award takes a look at speed climbing, specifically Hans Florine and Dean Potter’s competition to be the fastest to scale Yosemite’s El Capitan. (The current record to ascend the 3,000-foot wall: 2 hours, 37 minutes, 5 seconds.) At 22 minutes, it’s the longest film in the Radical Reels collection and the one that passes quickest as it explores the ego and insanity of the anything-goes sport of speed climbing.

Eleven films, more than a half dozen disciplines, 109 minutes of total footage — coming September 6 and 7 to a theater near you (provided you live in the Triangle or Triad).

****

Info

Radical Reels showings

Thursday, September 6 – Chapel Hill, NC
Doors 6:30 / Show 7:00
Varsity Theater
123 East Franklin Street
Tickets: $15 “Pre-Sale” special at the Chapel Hill Eastgate GOPC; $17 online or at box office

Friday, September 7 – Winston Salem, NC
Doors 7:00 PM / Show 7:30 PM
Hanesbrands Theatre
209 North Spruce St.
Tickets: $15 “Pre-Sale” special at the Winston-Salem Thruway GOPC; $17 online or at box office

*****

Radical Reels lineup

All.I.Can: Perseverance (custom edit for the Radical Reels Tour)

Canada, 2011

8 minutes

Directed by: Dave Mossop, Eric Crosland

Produced by: Malcolm Sangster, Eric Crosland

Awards: Best Feature-length Mountain Film, Sponsored by Town of Banff

Website: http://sherpascinema.com

Quick hit: Mellow environmental theme in this pean to the beauty and beastliness of skiing. Features the usual ski bum suspects, as well as 76-year-old Mary Woodward, who skis 100-plus days a year and scoffs at anything that doesn’t involve deep powder.

The Art of Flight

USA, 2011

8 minutes

Produced and directed by: Curtis Morgan

Website: http://artofflightmovie.com/

Quick hit: Snowboarders, including Travis Rice, spend more time flying over the snow than plowing through it. Includes a guy riding the cables of a ski lift, as well as lots of high-def, slo-mo footage.

Cat Skiing

Canada, 2011

7 minutes

Produced and directed by: Darren Rayner, Callum Jelley, Mason Mashon

Website: www.voleurz.com

Quick hit: A bit self-indulgent with a set-up and a conceit that doesn’t seem relevant (see “Narsicame”), but otherwise lots of good snowboarding and skiing footage.

Concrete Dreams

Germany, 2011

7 minutes

Produced and directed by: Danny Strasser

Website: www.danny-strasser.de

Quick hit: Pretty much 7 minutes of Danny Strasser skateboarding (on a longboard) some of the more renowned “bobtracks” (“bobsled runs,” for the uninitiated) of Europe. Much of the footage shows Strasser grabbing his butt — understandably. Raises the question: How does he stop? Or even slow down?

From the Inside Out (custom edit for the Radical Reels Tour)

Canada, 2011

13 minutes

Directed by: Dylan Dunkerton, Kyle Norbraten, Curtis Robinson (The Coastal Crew)

Produced by: Ian Dunn, Kyle Norbraten, Darcy Wittenburg

Website: http://www.fromtheinsideout.secondbasefilms.com

Quick hit: Mountain bikers will love this look at freeriding in British Columbia and elsewhere, starting with how a trail is carved through a dense Pacific Northwest forest, then on to the riding. They make it look so easy!

Frontier (custom edit for the Radical Reels Tour)

USA, 2010

20 minutes

Produced & directed by: Rush Sturges

Website: www.river-roots.com

Quick hit: Includes jaw-dropping footage of whitewater kayakers frolicking in big, ugly water, of course, but also some insight into why these guys do what they do and how they do it. It’s like “solving a puzzle” one kayaker offers.

Here We Go Again (custom edit for the Radical Reels Tour)

USA, 2010

10 minutes

Directed by: Don Hampton, Gardy Raymond

Produced by: Don Hampton

Website: www.dh-productions.com

Quick hit: Guys in jeans and lumberjack shirts doing circle loops on rollers, wipe outs on jumps, shooting cans of Red Bull full of holes in the woods. Another “Narsicame” candidate, but fun.

Miller’s Thriller: Ski BASE

USA, 2010

6 minutes

Produced and directed by: Darrell Miller

Website: www.stormshow.com

Quick hit: Darrell Miller grew up in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and he uses his familiarity with the terrain to shoot riveting ski BASE jumps.

Narsicame

USA, 2011

4 minutes

Produced and directed by: Bill Donavan

Website: www.dangerouscircus.com

Quick hit: You no doubt know this person, you may well be this person: he/she (but more than likely “he”) can’t make a move on his bike/board/boat without documenting it on his Hero cam. This 4-minute public service announcement from the Narsicame Institute for Healing may be the first step toward ignoring the flashing red light.

Reel Rock: Race for the Nose

USA, 2011

22 minutes

Produced & directed by: Nick Rosen, Peter Mortimer

Website: www.senderfilms.com

Awards: Radical Reels People’s Choice Award

Quick hit: It is perhaps the craziest type of competition in the adrenal arts: speed climbing. Especially when it comes to the likes of trying to be the fastest up the 3,000-vertical-foot Nose route of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. This film looks specifically at the competition between Hans Florine and Dean Potter’s ego as they attempt to break the current record of 2 hours, 37 minutes and 5 seconds. As one observer in the film notes: “Anything goes, pulling on gear, stepping on somebody … .”

Whitewater Grand Prix

Canada, 2011

4 minutes

Produced by: Patrick Camblin

Directed by: Patrick Camblin / Tribe Alliance

Website: www.triberiders.ca

Quick hit: Six elite kayakers participate in a six-stage competition on some of the biggest, widest, tallest, roiliest whitewater around. Some fun footage as well, such as an overhead shot of gull in the foreground that appears to be pacing one of the paddlers below.

We look forward to hosting the North Carolina Kayak Fishing Association (NCKFA) to our Greensboro Shop on Saturday, March 10th at 2pm for their monthly meeting. We welcome all members and guests. NCKFA President, Mark Patterson, will be speaking on Big Game Fishing. He will also cover the topic of “Surf Launching” and explain the best practices of this technical skill.

This is a great seminar for both beginner and experienced anglers/paddlers. We are grateful for the dedicated work of individuals like Mark and other NCKFA members who inspire us in this great sport of kayak fishing.

Sat, November 19, 2011

Learn more or RSVP at http://bit.ly/uHi4Kc

It’s time to recognize another year of protecting safe, clean water in the Neuse River basin…but this year we have something special to add.

For years, the Neuse Riverkeeper Foundation and other area environmental groups have been working to ensure the best possible outcome for Falls Lake through our work on the Falls Lake Rules. This year, the strongest water pollution cleanup rules in NC went into effect for Falls Lake and the cleanup finally began. Please join us for some outdoor family fun to help celebrate the future of a clean, safe Falls Lake!

12:30 – 3:30pm Falls Lake Social
The NRF will have a fleet of canoes and kayaks out of the lake for use, free of charge. Bring a picnic or grill out for lunch, play on the water, get to know other members and NRF staff, or stop in at the community building to watch “Gasland” and learn about a groundbreaking (literally!) new issue in the Upper Neuse.

4:00 – 5:00pm NRF Annual Meeting
Hear updates on the state of the river, join us in recognizing our dedicated volunteers, and learn about the plans and priorities for the coming year.

All are welcome!! Come join us for the Mountains-To-Sea Trail & Backpacking NC Challenge celebration.

When: Tuesday, Nov 8th, 6pm-7pm
What: A casual meet & greet with local author Joe Miller and Kate Dixon who serves as the Friends of MST Executive Director.
Who: Welcoming all who love the MST and Backpacking North Carolina
Why: To celebrate the MST and those who completed our Backpacking NC Challenge.

We’ll honor our those who have hiked and select FMST Raffle Winners.

>> Check out Joe’s Trip Report for Merchants Millpond

Challenge participant photos:

UPDATE: We’ve come up with another chance to win a $50 Gift Card.
How to enter: “Tag” Great Outdoor Provision Co. and share this video on your wall post. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVJ4wR2QpFg

Once you tag/share you will be entered into a random drawing for a $50 gift card. Contest will run through til 3pm next Friday, Oct 21st at which time we will select the winner.
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Thanks to great customers like you we’ve been named “Best Outdoor Store” in Raleigh by “The Destination Guide“. The Destination Guide is holding a contest to see which video best represents Raleigh. Please watch this short video to “Vote” for Trusty. Thanks!

MULETrivia: Answer for a chance to WIN a $100 Gift Card
What was the square footage of our 1st shop in 1972? (mentioned in the video)
To enter: Post the answer to our Facebook page. We’ll randomly select a winner Friday, Oct 14, 2011 @ 3pm.

Governor Perdue has once again declared October Mountains-to-Sea Trail Month, and we have lots of great
ways for you to celebrate. Thanks to all our sponsors for their support.

Month-Long Activities

• Submit a photograph into our 1st Annual MST Photo Contest sponsored by Great Outdoor Provision Co. Deadline: October 31st.
• Check out the photos that have already been entered on our Photo Contest Flickr site.
• Buy a raffle ticket to support the MST and gain a chance to win 18 great prizes of gift cards and gear donated by Great Outdoor Provision Co., Jesse Brown’s Outdoors, and Mast General Stores. Tickets cost $5 or $20 for five. E-mail Kate Dixon, FMST Executive Director, at kdixon@ncmst.org to place an order.
• Test your knowledge of the MST in the Trivia Contest sponsored by Great Outdoor Provision Co. Each day, from October 1 to November 7, they’ll post a new question about the MST. The first person to answer the question correctly that day will win a raffle ticket. Anyone who answers all 38 questions correctly will win five raffle tickets and fame as an “MST Trivia Whiz – 2011!” Thanks to Danny Bernstein, the 21st person to complete the MST, for writing the questions.
• Take the Backpacking NC Challenge and win great prizes by completing at least two of the trips in Joe Miller’s recent book Backpacking North Carolina. Deadline: October 31.

Special Events

• Tuesday, October 4 - World class ultrarunner Diane Van Deren will present an exciting program in downtown Raleigh. Proceeds from VIP ticket sales will be donated to FMST. Sponsored by The North Face and Great Outdoor Provision Co.
• Friday-Sunday, October 7-9 - Campout! Carolina. Pitch a tent over the weekend to show your support for North Carolina’s environment. Campout! Carolina is hosted each year by Earth Share, a partnership of environmental groups including FMST that participate in workplace giving. Last year, more than 8400 people camped out during Campout! Carolina. Register to let Earth Share know you plan to participate this year.
• Sunday, October 9 - Clues on the Neuse. Join us for a family-friendly scavenger hunt along the MST in Smithfield.
• Thursday, October 13 - Trail Grand Opening in Raleigh of the first eight miles of the Neuse River Greenway/MST. 10:00 am at the Falls Lake Dam canoe launch, 12098 Falls of the Neuse Road.
• Saturday, November 5 - Benefit dinner and concert for the MST at Galileo’s in Boone.
• Tuesday, November 8 - MST Month Closing Celebration when we’ll announce the winners of the Backpacking Challenge, the Raffle, and the MST Trivia Whizes. Join us @ 6 pm at the Cameron Village Great Outdoor Provision Co. store, 2017 Cameron Street, Raleigh for fun, fellowship and refreshments.

Trail Workdays

• Saturday, October 1 - Sauratown Trail (north of Winston-Salem)
• Thursday, October 6 - Blue Ridge Parkway (near Boone)
• Saturday, October 8
  • Blue Ridge Parkway (near Boone)
  • Eno State Park (north of Durham). Join this workday to help FMST qualify for a $1000 grant from Prudential YSU Realty.
• Saturday, October 15
  • Blue Ridge Parkway (near Boone)
  • Sauratown Trail (north of Winston-Salem)
• Saturday, October 22
  • Blue Ridge Parkway (near Asheville)
  • Falls Lake (north of Raleigh and Durham). After this workday, the Army Corps of Engineers will thank the volunteers by hosting a cookout!