Archive for March, 2012
Wednesday, March 28th, 2012
Talus is thrilled to add another super extreme event to our sponsorship roster. The Siberian Black Ice Race across Lake Baikal in Siberia is just finishing. The ColdAvenger sponsored team: Team Deutschland has made an impressive finish.
Here’s a description of this challenging event from the event website:
“Lake Baikal is the world’s oldest and deepest ice lake and billed as ‘the world’s most terrifying lake’ with an eerily spooky covering of black tormented ice. In the world’s most ancient and beautifully remote city of Irkutsk, competitors compete in an entirely new category of endurance racing, in either the 379 mile marathon or the 155 mile sprint using a range of non-motorized forms of transport such as bike, ski, foot, skates and kite-ski. They have to be self-sufficient on the ice with temperatures as low as -40 degrees C and winds of up to 100km/h.”
Please go to the Extreme World Races blog site to read the full updates of the progress, and to learn more about the race.
Here is a gallery of photos from the Siberian Black Ice Race website.
These images are all owned by Extreme World Races and Siberian Black Ice Race. Please respect their ownership rights.
Tags: Extreme World Races, Lake Baikal, Siberia, Siberian Black Ice Race, Team Deutschland
Posted in adventure racing, athlete, cold weather, Crazy Fun, I Am ColdAvenger, March 2012, Uncategorized | Comments Off
Tuesday, March 27th, 2012
We are very proud to announce that we recently decided to manufacture all ColdAvenger products within the United States of America. Our outsourced manufacturing model was working just fine, but Talus shareholders and management wanted to demonstrate our support of the American worker and the quality of USA manufacturing plants.
“It is so nice to be a in a position to make the business decision to bring all manufacturing back here,” says John Sullivan III, CEO of Talus Outdoor Technologies. “The ColdAvenger’s patented ventilator technology has always been produced in the US, but it is nice to have the whole cut and sew process and packaging made here now as well.”
Made in America is a label we are mighty happy to be wearing.
Tags: American made, john sullivan, made in america, made in USA, United States of America
Posted in March 2012, Uncategorized | Comments Off
Tuesday, March 20th, 2012
The folks at Extreme World Races have sent us some great photos from one of their recent expeditions to the South Pole.
Here is Helen Skelton, BBC TV superstar AND holder of MULTIPLE world records for her adventure achievements, trekking for the Pole!
In her latest exploit she covered 329 miles by kite ski, 103 by bike, and 68 by cross country ski, in support of the non-profit Sport Relief.
Read her great diary of her expedition on the BBC website. Helen has set Guinness records for multiple feats of awesomeness, including kayaking over 2000 miles down the Amazon River.
We’re proud that the ColdAvenger helped her on her latest challenge!
Tags: BBC, Extreme World Races, Guinness Records, Helen Skelton, Sport Relief
Posted in adventure racing, athlete, cold weather, expedition, March 2012, Uncategorized | Comments Off
Monday, March 19th, 2012
It probably goes without saying that when you are running a marathon in Siberia, good face protection is pretty much a requirement. We are thrilled to introduce Ignasi Prat.
Ignasi recently completed the 8th annual Lake Baikal Marathon in Siberia. Lake Baikal is the deepest lake in the world, and at 25-30 million years old, it is one of the oldest in geological history. The conditions for a marathon there in March are pretty harsh (from the event website):
“The surface of the frozen Lake Baikal is covered in fields of “hummocks”, small hills of ice rubble. Beneath the ice surface, geothermic springs and seismic activity cause localized melting that sometimes may weaken the ice to form holes…
The course is predominantly flat, but the surface is hard at times and uneven. Although it’s mostly covered in a soft layer of snow, there are areas of highly polished ice that create conditions similar to an ice-rink. Wind can add to the already bitingly cold temperature and provide serious resistance to progress across Lake Baikal.
The utterly featureless landscape gives little or no sense of perspective to competitors. The finish line at the port of Listvyanka can be seen almost from the start line. It is a long, cold, lonely 42.2 km trail across the baren white landscape, where progress is marked only by checkpoints positioned at 5 km intervals ( with hot drinks, food and, for the brave, some more vodka).”
What a fun place for a marathon! Ignasi is the Owner of Events and Travel Barcelona, a destination management company in Barcelona, Spain, so it is probably not surprising that he would travel to exotic locals to experience extreme sports.
Head over to Ignasi’s YouTube page to see videos of his run, and the race site has a photos page here (2012 shots not up yet, but check back, and for now, view previous year images).
Congratulations, Ignasi. Nicely done! You are ColdAvenger!
Tags: Baikal Ice Marathon, E&TB, iamcoldavenger, Ignasi Prat, Ignasi Prat Payeras, Lake Baikal, Siberia
Posted in adventure racing, athlete, cold weather, I Am ColdAvenger, March 2012, Uncategorized | Comments Off
Tuesday, March 13th, 2012
ColdAvenger extreme climber Marek Klonowski has just returned from Pakistan as part of the latest effort to summit Nanga Parbat. Fate and the weather gods were not with the team this time, but they booked some serious climb time and sent in A-MAZ-ING photos of their trek.
Such as:
The crew held at basecamp for nearly 45 days, waiting for a weather break that never came. Crew leaders Simone Moro and Denis Urubko made the painful decision to call off the summit attempt. However, the drive to see the peak never fades, and Merek will be back next year.
Looks like it was cold up there…. Please visit this Picasa page to see more absolutely stunning photos of the expedition.
And the team has a page with the whole story and beautiful videos about the effort. Like this one:
Tags: "Marek Klonowski", Denis Urubko, klonowski, Nanga Parbat, North Face, Pakistan, Picasa, Simone Moro
Posted in athlete, expedition, I Am ColdAvenger, March 2012, mountain climbing, Uncategorized | Comments Off
Monday, March 12th, 2012
It is great to see that recent Wounded Warrior Project events in Whitefish, Montana garnered some national media attention. Aisha Chowdhry of The New York Times recently published a very nice piece about the events during this year’s Whitefish Winter Carvinal. The Wounded Warriors came to Montana to ski the slopes of Whitefish Mountain Resort.
The entry highlights the tales of several of the young people who have served our country bravely and selflessly. It also tells a little bit of the story of small towns in America, like Whitefish:
“In Whitefish, restaurants opened their doors for the wounded men, a jewelry store owner, Sam McGough, offered them $200 or more toward goods in his store, and residents welcomed them with with meals at their mountain-top homes. The Whitefish Winter Carnival included the warriors and their families in its parade. People on the ski slopes thanked them for their sacrifices.”
Billy, a Green Beret, with his wife, Jennifer - From Aisha Chowdhry; New York Times
Talus is very proud to be a primary supporter of the Wounded Warrior Whitefish event. Please give Aisha’s piece a read and get involved with Wounded Warriors.
Tags: @aishach, @skiwhitefish, Aisha Chowdhry, New York Times, NYTimes.com, Whitefish Mountain Resort, Whitefish Winter Carnival, whitefishwwp.blogspot.com/, Wounded Warriors
Posted in March 2012, Military, skiing, Uncategorized | Comments Off
Wednesday, March 7th, 2012
Felicity Aston has recently completed a feat that would color any of us impressed – she skied across the Antarctic Peninsula alone. This is the first time a female athlete has completed this amazing endurance achievement. She did it without use of kites or parasails, covering 1744 kilometers in 59 days.
We are very proud to have Felicity as a part of the I Am ColdAvenger team. The Expedition Balaclavas have been all over the South Pole this year, and we sure couldn’t be more thrilled.
You can follow Felicity’s trek and listen to podcasts of the journey at the Kaspersky ONE Expedition website, and read Felicity’s reports here.
View more of Felicity’s Amazing photos on our Facebook page.
Tags: antarctica, coldavenger, Felicity Aston, kaspersky one
Posted in athlete, cold weather, expedition, February 2012, I Am ColdAvenger, skiing, Uncategorized | Comments Off
Wednesday, March 7th, 2012
Yeah, that’s inspiring, right??? The folks at Upadowna.com have taken out the Expedition Balaclava for a serious test review. They know their stuff, so it’s nice to read a good read by them about their experiences:
Dry, frozen, air is a recipe for disaster for your lungs and skin, period. And to be honest the majority of the balaclava systems do very little to help, in most cases they actually make the outdoor experience worse.
With this in mind, Steve Hitchcock (they call him Yeti…) took the Expedition for a spin:
And until recently there has not really been a good fix, then I discovered the Cold Avenger® from Talus. This trick little balaclava has a molded ventilation face piece and is made of medical grade plastic which is perfect for flexibility, inherent microbial resistance, and endurance.
Read the full review here.
Tags: Steve Hitchcock, Upadowna, Upadowna.com
Posted in cold weather, February 2012, Uncategorized | Comments Off
Monday, March 5th, 2012
Here is a great story from the Flathead Beacon about Andy Zemit and his quest to climb every 10,000 foot peak in Glacier National Park. There is a legend about Kintla, the name of a lake in the park, and the peak that eluded Zimet for some 20 years, that once you got in, there was no getting out. That seems to have happened to Zimet.
From the article:
“Between 1991 and 2009, Zimet skied five of Glacier’s 10,000-foot mountains. More often than not, this required long hikes, steep climbs and even traversing lakes and rivers. Yet one peak eluded him: Mount Kintla. But like old legend suggests, he couldn’t escape.”
- Photo from Flathead Beacon – Courtesy Andy Zimet
There’s nothing like Glacier to inspire someone to come back again and again. Last year, Zimet finally completed his quest:
“After a long hike, camping out at the base and then climbing at dawn, he was finally about to finish his “project” the way he wanted. For 45 minutes, he sat at the top and took it all in. Then, when the moment was right, he put on his skies and headed down. “
We love stories about people who stare down their challenges and make their dreams happen. Good job, Andy.
Tags: Andy Zemit, Flathead Beacon, Glacier National Park, Justin Franz, Kintla Lake, Mount Kintla
Posted in February 2012, skiing, Uncategorized | Comments Off
