trade shows

Greetings from Utah, and the Outdoor Retailer show. I have been on a travel trade show whirl wind - The snowsports show (SIA) in Vegas, Backcountry Base Camp demo day for Karhu at Brighton Utah, The LA Times Travel show in LA for National Geographic Adventure, and now the OR show. Whew... tired. I did manage to ski one fun day this week at Alta in the middle of it all. I was speaking at the Travel show with my Well-Behaved Women Rarely Make History show, and was among speakers such as Rick Steves and Pam Houston.

The shows have been interesting. This year I have lots of new products hitting the floor that I helped design - Fox River Organic Socks, Fox River Women's and Men's Ski and Snowboard Socks, The Head Women's Ski line, The Dream Thang Head Ski boot (the first women's specific last to hit the market) The Karhu Women's line, Osprey Snowsports Switch and women's Aura packs (shaved pounds off the packs), and the Patagonia ski and snowboard line. What a feeling to see your product ideas come to life, and even better when they win pick of the show! I'm currently designing for the 2007-8 season, so sometime I forget what year it is when I sign a deposit slip at the bank!

Lots of cool products at the show - the fat ski trend is finally hitting the mainstream market (hard to imagine that it took a full ten years for that to happen). Women's products are going off, as dealers, reps and companies are finally getting what we girls have been telling them for years - women love to shop, and if you let us women design for women, they will buy, and buy more frequently than men.

Some cool new things I picked up.... The new Sweet Fat Thang (Head women's fat ski - green and white butterflys), Dynafit lightweight touring helmet, Kleen Canteen Stainless steel water bottle, Fortress women's sport watch, the new Suunto Observer, and a cool Crumpler messenger bag.

Good to be alive.

Welcome! I just walked into my straw bale house from a backcountry ski with my girlfriends up Snodgrass Mountain in Crested Butte, Colorado. Days like this make you feel lucky to be alive! We have been getting heaps of snow, one of the best years since 92-93, and the powder is deep and the skies are blue. The avalanche conditions, or should i say lack thereof, made this really cool pillow line skiable today, which is normally too dangerous to even ponder. Yesterday was a sick powder day again on the CB ski area, which was rewarding after spending all day Wednesday working on my non-profit, The Office for Resource Efficiency, or ORE. We aim to be a one-stop-shop for energy efficiency and alternative energy, such as wind, solar, and hydro. We are growing so fast that we are hiring a new building director, to help take some of my work burden away. We also just completed a partnership with Crested Butte Mountain Resort, which is super exciting.

The last two weeks have involved packing in lots of skiing, teaching (my Rippin Chix Steeps Camp and a Babes in the Backcountry Avalanche Level One), and working until late into the night on my computer. Between my volunteer work in affordable housing, ORE, and green building, writing, photography, making films, planning expeditions and ski camps around the globe, and working for my sponsors, I can certainly say that life is never boring, as each day brings a new adventure.

My boyfriend, Jason and I, snuck off to Michoacan, Mexico for some surfing during Christmas and New Years. Great waves, but Mexico likes to party for its holidays, and it was anything but quiet and romantic. Our particular favorite was this guy learning to play bongos 24hrs a day right beside our tent - note to anyone, do not learn to play a musical instrument at 4 in the morning.

Now my tan is fading, unnoticed beneath my Patagonia wool and Capilene underwear, and I'm prepping to head to the Ski, Travel and Outdoor Retailer travel shows in Vegas, Salt Lake and LA. It has been a fun season with my sponsors, as I'm living a lifelong dream of actually designing products. Fox River will be showing my fun new ski and snowboard socks and Osprey my redesign of the Switch Snowsports backpacks. For Head/Tyrolia, I'm part of an 11 woman international team - with one of girl from each country that Head does a significant business in. We designed the latest line of Head's women skis - we all had to agreee on style, color, type of ski, etc, which was truely an amazing feat. What surprised me the most was that we are all so similar in our tastes, regardless of age and skiing ability. Finally, women designing women's products -seems so obvious, doesn't it? With Patagonia, we now meet several times a year - the pro skiers, telemarkers and snowboarders (ambassadors, they call us) and we have moved from tweaking the lines of 05,06, and 07, to actually developing new revolutionary gear for 07-08. Patty G has always had the best fabrics on the market, and now we are bringing in key fashion and ski/snowboard specific funtion - whether it be in the park or powder.

More later, gotta pay some bills, eat some food, and catch up on my inbox.
cheers, alison
www.alisongannett.com