Well its been a long and busy week at Mountain Equipment's offices this week as we launched our product line-up for Spring / Summer 2010!
Obviously we cant give too much away at this early stage but we have some completely new ranges of sleeping bags, a couple of new tents and lots of new technical clothing for next year. It is now upto our sales team to convince the retailers to buy it and if all that goes to plan you will see it in the shops from the end of February next year!
And it has been one of our busiest summer launches ever. With distributors and agents from across Europe and the world attending including Germany, Norway, France as well as further afield places such as Korea, Japan and Taiwan. An awful lot of nationalities and different markets in order to please and look after.
Everything kicked off on Tuesday evening with some business updates followed by a marketing presentation. The latter part is a fantastic round-up of the past 12 months activity; looking at all the editorial coverage Mountain Equipment has received, awards our products have won as well as a chance to focussing on what our sponsored athletes such as Dave Macleod have been up to.
Wednesday was then the big day, a whole day of product presentations starting at just after 9am and lasting until just after 6pm - a huge number of products to run through and I for one was very glad to be able to have a beer after all that talking.
And Thursday was the chance to digest it all, for our distributors to decide what products they will range in their countries and for us to start the huge task of pulling together final editions of the new workbooks and start planning for the sales campaign and tradeshows.
And when all of that is over we can start working once again on the new Winter 2010 ranges, which are now well underway. It never stops......
Friday, 19 June 2009
Monday, 8 June 2009
LAMM: Kintail 09
It was very interesting reading Rich's comments below. I know how much training and detailed planning Rich and Keith have put into this years effort. As you can imagine I was gobsmacked when they wandered over to our tent on Sat evening and announced that they had retired! Unfortunately, Keith just had a bad day in the mountains. Maybe his body had not recovered fully from the 'Highland Fling' he ran less than a month ago (see previous post).
Steve (my race partner) and I embarked on our first LAMM together. It was my second LAMM, having completed last year's event in Glenfinnan, and Steve's first MM. Unlike Rich and Keith, our goal was to complete C class and simply give it our best effort.
We ran the Yorkshire 3 Peaks a few weeks ago, with my mate Tim, as a warm-up and to gauge our fitness levels. We did ok, completing the 25 mile circuit in 6 hrs 30. We could have done much better if it wasn't for the chronic cramp that seemed to attack every muscle in my legs after 13 miles and incapacitated me for the rest of the day! I have always struggled with severe cramp, especially during long distance biking and running events. Keith kindly gave me some 'Nuun' tabs on Friday night which seemed to stave off the cramps completely on both days (thanks Keith!)
As usual, the location was stunning and the scenery utterly breathtaking.
It took us a while to get going on day one, but we plodded on while our bodies slowly adjusted to the environment. Reaching the 5th control (of 8) always gives me a huge lift, psychologically, knowing that the final 3 controls are positioned fairly closely together. Steve recognised this and we pushed on and finished the first day 59th out of 150 teams.
On day 2 we felt good after a reasonable night's sleep, a feast of expedition food and tea! We started well and knew that if we kept the pace up we could massively improve our overall position. This was thwarted, however, by a schoolboy navigational error on the 3rd control. We lost 45 mins at least..........enough said! Spirits were low at this stage, but we picked ourselves up, checked off the 5 remaining controls and crossed the finish line in 66th place!
We will be looking at a top 3o finish in C next year!?
Mountain Equipment used:
AR2 tent - perfect, lightweight and roomy
Xero 250 Sleeping Bags.
Compressor Vest - a superb lightweight alternative for throwing on over your layers at the end of the day!
Microtherm Alpine Jacket (see my off piste skiing post). This has to be the most versatile piece of kit that I own. Amazing and only 80 quid!
Altus S/S and L/S Tees. Shifted the moisture quickly and worked well with Microtherm.
Axion Jacket. Worn for 20 mins on day 1! The lightest jacket ME make.
Particle Pant. Not worn
Will post some piccies asap.
Steve (my race partner) and I embarked on our first LAMM together. It was my second LAMM, having completed last year's event in Glenfinnan, and Steve's first MM. Unlike Rich and Keith, our goal was to complete C class and simply give it our best effort.
We ran the Yorkshire 3 Peaks a few weeks ago, with my mate Tim, as a warm-up and to gauge our fitness levels. We did ok, completing the 25 mile circuit in 6 hrs 30. We could have done much better if it wasn't for the chronic cramp that seemed to attack every muscle in my legs after 13 miles and incapacitated me for the rest of the day! I have always struggled with severe cramp, especially during long distance biking and running events. Keith kindly gave me some 'Nuun' tabs on Friday night which seemed to stave off the cramps completely on both days (thanks Keith!)
As usual, the location was stunning and the scenery utterly breathtaking.
It took us a while to get going on day one, but we plodded on while our bodies slowly adjusted to the environment. Reaching the 5th control (of 8) always gives me a huge lift, psychologically, knowing that the final 3 controls are positioned fairly closely together. Steve recognised this and we pushed on and finished the first day 59th out of 150 teams.
On day 2 we felt good after a reasonable night's sleep, a feast of expedition food and tea! We started well and knew that if we kept the pace up we could massively improve our overall position. This was thwarted, however, by a schoolboy navigational error on the 3rd control. We lost 45 mins at least..........enough said! Spirits were low at this stage, but we picked ourselves up, checked off the 5 remaining controls and crossed the finish line in 66th place!
We will be looking at a top 3o finish in C next year!?
Mountain Equipment used:
AR2 tent - perfect, lightweight and roomy
Xero 250 Sleeping Bags.
Compressor Vest - a superb lightweight alternative for throwing on over your layers at the end of the day!
Microtherm Alpine Jacket (see my off piste skiing post). This has to be the most versatile piece of kit that I own. Amazing and only 80 quid!
Altus S/S and L/S Tees. Shifted the moisture quickly and worked well with Microtherm.
Axion Jacket. Worn for 20 mins on day 1! The lightest jacket ME make.
Particle Pant. Not worn
Will post some piccies asap.
LAMM 2009: Unlucky for some!
Well i've just returned from the North of Scotland after one of the most frustrating weekends of my life - getting a DNF classification in a race, having chosen that option rather than accept a mid-table finish is a tough call to make.
This years Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon was held in Kintail, in the North West of Scotland, a location that contains some of the most challenging and breathtaking terrain anyone could wish to visit. To be able to race over the type of terrain is a privilege.
This years Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon was held in Kintail, in the North West of Scotland, a location that contains some of the most challenging and breathtaking terrain anyone could wish to visit. To be able to race over the type of terrain is a privilege.
Courtesy of: Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon
I have been racing in Mountain Marathons on and off for some ten years, in various classes, with various levels of preparation and training, and various success. This year my partner and I's aim was a Top 3 finish in the A-Class of two headline mountain marathons, the LAMM and the OMM.
It was always going to be a tough call, in hard training over the winter for a potential Bob Graham Round attempt this year I ruptured a tendon in my knee, forcing a 3 month lay-off and up until 8 weeks ago i could barely run 5km let alone race competitively in a mountain marathon such was the pain. So this weekend was always going to be a challenge.
We knew how fast we needed to go, we knew some of our competitors and how fast they could go. Conditions were actually very good, cool but bright, very little heavy cloud on the mountains and little wind other than up high. And it started so well, a steady start and we hit the first checkpoint bang on, the second was a steady run through glacial hummocks and small lochains, again bang on. The third, we opened up and ripped through the field visible to us, passing four teams on our way to the fastest checkpoint time overall that day, momentarily things seemed to be going so well. But after that things started to go wrong.
As we pulled up and across the next hillside, I noticed my running partner falling back, only slightly at first, but it became greater despite slowing myself to try and give him a pyscological tow. As we neared checkpoint four, I could see he was in a bad way, devoid of strength in his legs and beginning to sufer from cramp. I could sense any lead ebbing away, at this level, minutes really do matter. And so it was a slow and frustrtating haul to the fifth checkpoint. We were now losing time at a colossal rate. I sat on a rock on the lofty summit of checkpoint 5, contemplating the amazing views north towards Torridon and south across the snow-capped peaks of Kintail and our iminent retirement.
When Keith finally arrived, he was no better, he looked drained as well as gutted. He knew how high the stakes were and how fine the margin for error was this year. Simply completing the course was not what we came to do this year, nor was a mid-table finish and with no sign of energy and strength returning to Keith's body, we knew we had no option but to retire and resigned ourselves to walking back to the overnight camp, a walk of only about 5 km, but one which felt like the longest walk I have ever endured.
So were we right to retire? Yes, unequivocally so. Looking back at the results, we were within 3 minutes of the overall lead at checkpoint 3. We lost five minutes or so on the fourth checkpoint over the eventual winning team and a whopping 15 minutes on checkpoint five. If we had continued at that slowing rate, we would have been lucky to finish inside the top ten that day, dont get me wrong, in all other circumstances that would be a fantastic result, for many simply completing a mountain marathon let alone compete in an A-Class is a tremendous achievement and as such many teams would be blown away to achieve that kind of result , but that was not what we wanted or expected and when you raise the stakes that high you have a lot further to fall when it does not work out.
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