Stay on top of the snow instead of buried under it. Finally, the winter seems to be off and running which means that with each storm, the avalanche danger is going to jack. The Utah Avalanche Center is the source for avalanche conditions in the Wasatch. Starting today, the UAFC will blast intermittent updates as needed. They’ll go full bore around mid-November on various radio stations and Utah’s KSL on Saturday mornings. The non-profit will pinpoint five regions around Utah before you head out for the day.
In 93 percent of avalanche fatalities, the victim, or someone in the victim’s party, triggers the slide that kills them. This means that the vast majority of avalanche accidents don’t happen by chance. They happen to the stupid and the cocky. Before you go out of bounds know what you’re getting into. Take a basic avalanche class and check the daily avalanche advisory. If you’ve never seen the Know Before You Go video, take a look. You can learn a lot about avis in under 10 minutes.
UtahAvalancheCenter.org is loaded with avalanche insights, updates and accident reports. You can also call 888-999-4019 and follow UAFC on Twitter (UACwasatch) and Facebook.
Another super cool Twitterer is @UDOTavy for info on road closures in Little Cottonwood, Big Cottonwood and Provo canyons.
7 a.m. came three hours too early. I did my best to rally though and slipped into the OR Industry breakfast at 7:30 a.m. Shshhh. I’m so stoked I didn’t blow it off. Marian Salzman from Trendspotting gave quite the lecture on the state of Americans and how the outdoor industry can get their attention. She’s one of the top trend forecasters in the country so when she speaks ears perk up. She told retailers they need to market to the inactivity of America or what she calls the Beached White Male (BMW). She said they (we) need to show them how to get outdoors…Outdoors For Dummies.
By Let Ideas Compete
Consumers don’t want to be hardcore extremists. They want soft rugged adventures where they can play safely outside. This is the pilates and yoga crowd as well as the angry white man who sits at a desk 24/7 pushing pixels. We all know guys like that. They feel disappointed and disenfranchised by all the broken promises in politics, business, the economy. We can give them a place to go and something to do on a Saturday. Show them the way, Grasshoppers.
Another cool thing she said is that “outdoors” does not mean “cut off”. No longer are people looking for some great escape where they unplug from the world. We want to connect even in the outdoors so you’ll see a whole lot more products in the market place next year and beyond addressing connectivity- GPS watches, solar chargers for iPhones and MP3s, websites like FB for outdoorsy folk, etc.
By jsrcyclist
And here was my favorite point: ‘No answer’ means a missed opportunity. When someone calls you for something, YOU CALL THEM BACK. It’s too easy now for them to call someone else or go somewhere else if you don’t respond. You want to keep customers (and friends), you return phonecalls, you put contact information in easy to find places or your website and you respond promptly when you get a question.
Finally, she said expensive things have lost their chic. It’s about having the highest functional product, not the most expensive. We aren’t going to spend more than we need to. You will see an explosion in “gritty chic” over the next few years where functionality is fashionable and stuff lasts more than a season. That’s good news for Cordura. They announced today at the show that they are going beyond backpacks and luggage and will make tough but comfortable apparel fabrics. Already Timberland, Wrangler and Levi’s are using the Cordura denim which makes a jean last four times longer. Now they’ve got fabrics for all types of outdoor clothing.
Armed with trend knowledge, we moved onto the floor.
EXTRA! EXTRA! Read all about it! I’ve struck out on my own after 20 years of writing about skiing for everyone else. Subscribe or follow me on Twitter @pcskigal to get the latest watercooler anecdotes for Utah skiers.
Got the news this afternoon. No more Sports Guide. At least not this year. The publisher said something about a wait and see position “Due to the down turn in the economy that has severely affected advertising sales…We are in the process of evaluating our options for 2009 and will announce our plans as soon as possible.” We’ve tabled the first issue of the winter! 🙁 They say maybe next year…. we could go exclusively online, come back monthly, bi monthly, bi annually. We don’t know and I don’t want to really say much about this as, well, you never know. Unfortunately, the writing has been on the wall for some time and Dan (owner of Mills Publishing) wants to stop the bleeding. Despite having a worthy publication that met the needs of a sporty community like Utah, there was no love coming from the advertising department or advertisers and so it stopped making financial sense for now. I wondered out loud if they would put the mag up for sale (so that maybe someone could turn it around and rescue a state treasure; this pub has been around for 25 years!) and was told no. They “wanted the option of reviving it themselves.” Hmmm. It won’t do them any good though. I once asked a NY magazine consultant to look at some issues and provide feedback and constructive criticism. He said the content was spot-on for our audience but it was obvious the designer(s) had no idea what they were doing and should be fired. Of course, I couldn’t repeat this! 😉 Unless someone there spends some serious cash for a consultant, a new designer with magazine experience and without a chip on their shoulder, a website guru and a dedicated sales rep, simply a new editor won’t save them. There will ultimately be no difference and, hence, no moneymaker. Maybe there’s someone out there with foresight, disposable income and a brilliant business plan that could make Dan Miller an offer he couldn’t refuse?? Ben Warner? John Bresee? Where are you guys?! A Utah pub dedicated to year-round adventure sports, that highlights how-tos, gear, health and community recreation news is definitely marketable. It could easily expand to include the intermountain west and not just Utah. It could thrive like gangbusters on the web and with the right tweaking become instantly viral- expecially if you add video blogs and such. Uh Oh, looks like someone saw the promise. I hear Outdoor Utah Recreation Guide is set to launch their own outdoor rec magazine. A quarterly magazine that’s everything Sports Guide was (and probably more)! http://www.outdoorutah.com/index.php?/Newsflash/New-Outdoor-Magazine-to-be-Launched-in-Utah.html Sports Guide will continue to have a web presence but we’ll see how far that goes. I wish I knew more about marketing on the web or I’d find the solutions myself. Unfortunately, I have ideas and great editorial skills – if I do say so myself 😉 – but need someone else to figure out the sales end. And now I’m without a title. Jill Adler, Sports Guide Editor, no more. It wasn’t that much work (40 hrs/mo) or that much $$ so I can’t say that I’m going to feel the loss financially. But I’ve been writing for SG for 10 years and editing for nearly five. I’ll miss it. I loved the audience, the work and what it stood for. It displayed a way of life; my way of life and those of my friends and fellow skiers, climbers, hikers, bikers and plain voyeurs. Not enough people turned its pages in enough time to keep it alive. What am I going to do now? Same old. I’m an Associate Editor for OnTheSnow.com and still the freelance writer I’ve always been- Salt Lake Magazine, Sunset Magazine, Flipside Newspaper, Utah Health, etc. On the bright side, I’m back at work on my Utah Dog Hikes book due out by Outdoor Retailer 2009; just had an audition for an IHC commercial with my current commercial running on air as we speak. I’ve got a piece due tomorrow for MSN.com (not nearly as controversial as the Wife’s Bill of Rights piece though!) and six ski states still to cover for Mountain News; many more restaurant reviews and updates for Gayot.com. When ski season starts, I’ll do more ski modeling and broadcasting. Always keeping busy. However, ideally, I’d like to add a regular proofreading gig to the pot to replace those 40 hours each month and keep me garage saling next summer. If anyone knows of a newspaper, magazine, website or manufacturer that could use me to massage their copy, PLEASE, send them to my website. In the meantime, I’m going to take a hot bath in my brand new jetted tub, make a cup o’ hot cocoa and watch today’s recording of “As The World Turns.”
