The Kanpai is a double-walled vacuum titanium bottle that takes the thermos to the next level for hot and cold drinks. The Vacuum double wall construction insulates extremely well to keep hot drinks hot and cold drinks cold. But what makes this BPA-free bottle really cool is the 3 lids it comes with; an insulated lid that’s water tight for packing, a drinking lid for sipping (not fully water-tight, so keep it upright) and a cooling lid.
The Kanpai is the perfect size to hold an 11 oz canned drink – from soda to beer – and this is where the cooling lid comes into play. The lid has a gel pack you freeze at home, then slide in your canned drink, screw on the cooling lid, and go – you’ll have an ice-cold refreshing beverage at the top of the peak or the end of the day!
So how do you win? Just head over to our Facebook page and tell us – or show us – what your favorite outdoor beverage is, and include an @ tag for Snow Peak’s Facebook Page. We’re thinking of photos of a drink with a view, a story of a thirst quenched, or a creative Haiku, but we’ll consider any creative entry.
Our favorite will win the Kanpai bottle on May 11, so get your entries in and wow us with whatever you love to swill in the wilderness!
Competence and confidence in the outdoors are imperative in our mountain environment, and for anyone who recreates outside. Whether you’re a guide or an outdoor enthusiast, this is the guide training event for you!
The Tahoe Rim Trail Association’s 4th annual Outdoor Leadership and Guide Training event is May 18-20 at Granlibakken Lodge & Conference Center in Tahoe City.
You’ll leave with skills to increase your confidence and competence in the outdoors. Industry professionals along with experienced Tahoe Rim Trail guides will lead workshops in Outdoor Leadership, Risk Management, Trip Planning, Field Skills, Leave No Trace and much more! The weekend offers many opportunities to network with professional and volunteer guides, as well as participants who share in common pursuits and passions.
Tahoe Mountain Sports is one of the event sponsors, and our owner Dave Polivy will be speaking on a panel about the latest and greatest group gear. Don’t miss this!
The 3-day workshop costs $250, which includes dormitory lodging, tuition and materials, day and evening training sessions, all meals, parking, conference fees and taxes, and wireless access. Plus, there are many price packages available, including affordable prices for Tahoe locals.
Start your guide training and outdoor leadership skills at one of the best locations for outdoor recreation: Lake Tahoe! Register through the Tahoe Rim Trail, and contact Jaime Souza for more information: jaimes@tahoerimtrail.org, 775-298-0231.
We’re working together with Kuhl Clothing to bring you the coolest giveaway this spring – two pairs of rugged, comfortable Kuhl men’s shorts!
Kuhl Shorts in action in Escalante - photo from Kuhl's Facebook Page.
All you have to do is go to our Facebook Page, like us, if you don’t already, and post your best picture of yourself having fun in the great outdoors. Hiking, biking, climbing – whatever, just include an @ tag of Kuhl’s Facebook Page with your photo, and you’re entered to win!*
Kuhl Shorts in action mountain biking near Mt. St. Helens in Washington - Photo from Kuhl's Facebook Page.
Kuhl shorts are made out of tough yet comfortable canvas materials that stand up to the rigors of the outdoors without being stiff or rough, perfect for long days on the trail or on the rock. All their shorts feature a blend of cotton and synthetic materials to give you the best feel, durability, temperature and moisture regulation. Crotch gussets and unique patterns mean unrestricted movement that won’t pull or bind.
The Kuhl Ambush Short is perfect for when you need to keep all your essential gear at hand, boasting a total of 9 pockets to keep everything organized.
Cotton and quick-drying don’t often go hand-in-hand, but the unique bi-componant UberKuhl fabric in the Kuhl Ramblr Shorts is just that, perfect for a summer hike that may include a dip in a mountain lake.
And the Kuhl Liberator Short features Kuhl’s Drypoint fabric creates a push-pull effect with perspiration that keeps you cool on a hot summer day.
So head over to our Facebook page and enter to win to try Kuhl Shorts for yourself.
*Sizing and color choices for the winner will be subject to availability, contest ends Friday, April 20.
A couple weeks ago we added a new Q&A site feature that allows you to ask questions on product pages. The Q&A section can be found under the “Questions?” tab on every product page. Read questions and answers from other customers or ask a question of your own.
Questions will be published and answered within 24 hours of asking. You will receive an email confirmation when your question has been answered.
If you ever have any questions about any product on the site, please ask away. Odds are that other shoppers have the same questions you do, and your questions help build our online knowledge base for outdoor gear lovers everywhere. No question is too simple or technical for our gear experts.
The SnowFest! Parade in Kings Beach - we'll be celebrating with up to 70% off!
SnowFest! ends with a bang in Kings Beach this weekend, and we’re celebrating with the biggest savings of the season with up to 70 percent off outdoor gear and clothing.
Come for the SnowFest! Parade through downtown Kings Beach with free hot chocolate at the store from the Tahoe Rim Trail Association, enjoy the festivities, and walk away with some serious savings on the gear and clothing you’ve had your eye on all winter.
We’ve got this year’s best skis, boots, bindings and cross country ski gear up to 40 percent off. With plenty of winter left, it’s the best time of year to score big and get all the accessories you need like gloves, helmets and goggles.
And don’t forget the winter layers, with 25 to 70 percent off all winter clothing from brands like The North Face, Patagonia, Mountain Hardwear, Mammut and more. Winter boots from Sorel, The North Face, Keen and Chaco are also up to 60 percent off.
We’re open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. everyday – sale ends Sunday, March 11 at 6 p.m., so don’t miss out!
Meet the Tahoe Mountain Sports Giveaway Finalists!
Holy entries! This giveaway had the most entries to date for Action Sports Now with over 200! After narrowing the field to around 30 semi finalists, we randomly picked 15 finalists to compete for this amazing giveaway. Voting starts, Monday, February 13th at 12pm EST. All you have to do to vote is go to Tahoe Mountain Sports’ Facebook page, “Like” Tahoe Mountain Sports, click the left hand poll button or the link on their wall, and vote for your favorite entry. Whoever has the most votes on Sunday, February 19th at 5pm EST will be our winner. The winner will take home the following:
Check out the finalists’ entries below and good luck to everyone!!!
Craig Slocum from Yuba City, CA
The Sierra Nevada Mountains are my favorite place to play. So many memories from hiking, camping, fishing, hunting, snowboarding, 4 wheeling; I could go on and on. I will continue to visit the Sierras with my kids and hopefully they will appreciate the amazing beauty of the mountains, rivers and lakes.
Paul Osborn from Armstrong, CA
This is more of a love hate relationship, but a year ago I attempted to summit a mountain in Bolivia named Illimani. It was my first ever real summit attempt and it was a blast. I made it to around the 6000 meter mark and had to turn back. It got me hooked on mountaineering. Unfortunately I didn’t make to the top, but it is now my goal to try it again this summer. I’d love to have a couple pieces of new gear to help me in that attempt!
Here’s a video I put together of that summit attempt.
Brandon Bethea from San Diego, CA
My favorite mountain is Table Mountain in South Africa because it was my mom’s favorite and holds special meaning. After she was diagnosed with cancer, I promised I would go and see it one day, plus it will be my 6th continent whenever I do go!
Anthony Girelli from Asheville, NC
I like Cataloochee Mtn. It’s certainly not the best boarding, but the people and prices are great. It’s super close and convenient and I can go 3 or 4 times a week.
The Cat
Bounce, Bounce, Clink
The bar rises
One motion up
Blades meet white
Click, Click, Bump
Board and body one
Momentum builds
Deep grooves cut
Swish, swish, scrape
A pendulum
Frozen, moving
Along the hill
Left, right, left
Snaking along
Lost a field of others
Racing down
Gust, gust, whoosh
Wind whips
Cuts through clothes
Ears hear, not feel
Sip, sip, gulp
Hot inside
Cold without
Both lodge and me.
Rob Caughron from Oakley, CA
Me at Bear Valley! I love snowboarding!
Craig Strom from Truckee, CA
My favorite mountain is Squaw Valley USA because it gives instant access to the steeps. Good après doesn’t hurt either.
Jennifer Causby from Mt. Pleasant, SC
Copper Mountain, CO!! Well, we haven’t actually stepped foot on the slopes there yet, but we will be there on February 9th! As a southern girl from South Carolina, we get really excited over a few snow flurries (which rarely happens.) If we want to play in the snow, we have to drive to North Carolina, for some of the man-made mush. To celebrate my husband’s 31st birthday, we decided to take an adventure to Copper Mountain to see the real stuff – SNOW.
We can’t wait to see the powder and taste it on our tongues as it falls from the sky. Since I have never snowboarded, we are going to spend one day on boards and one day on skis. I don’t know if the pros in the mountains will be more surprised to hear me say, “Hey Ya’ll”, or to see my excited from seeing so much real snow. Since we live near the beach, and not near the mountains, we have lots of preparing to do for our trip. That’s where this amazing (dare I say, Kick-Ass) giveaway would come in. This prize pack would be put to use almost immediately, and I see ourselves becoming addicted to our new found sports. It would be used more often.
Please, help us go out West in style so we won’t be identified as rookies immediately. You know the saying, “Fake it till you make it” – that’s our plan and this gear is a major part of that plan!
John Maguire from Denver, CO
To you Mr. Action Sports Now,
I have ridden a lot of mountains, I even work for one currently in Colorado, but I owe it all to my hometown hill where I started and fell in love with this sport. I grew up living one mile away from a small mountain in the middle of Vermont named Suicide Six. Google it I dare you, hopefully a result shows up. Out of all the trail maps I have collected over the years, Suicide Six is my favorite because it’s so awkward! Three chair lifts including a ‘J’ bar. Look at this, AMAZING.
Back then I thought this was a mountain. A real mountain. I landed my first 3, jumped off my first chair lift, and even broke my first bone here at S6. Memories I would never trade for other experiences at these huge resorts. I know everyone else is bragging about their mountain being Vail, Breckenridge or another giant resort, but we owe it to these little gems out there which still run. We owe it to you little guys! Here is a picture from Suicide Six in my collection. I hope you enjoy Mr. Action Sports Now.
Joe Flannery from Truckee, CA
Before I knew what a bivy sack was, before I learned the Yosemite Decimal System, or slipped skins onto my skis, I walked up Bighorn Peak in the North-West corner of Yellowstone National Park. I had just graduated from college and was working in the Park for the duration of the summer. Within a few weeks of that first season I lusted after something a little longer than the average hike. A co-worker suggested Big Horn, so I made plans for my next day off.
Big Horn Peak rises above the Sky Rim Trail, a ridgeline route running along the boundary between Yellowstone Park and the Gallatin National Forest. A pack of wolves roams this region, and the high density of whitebark pines promotes an equally high density of grizzlies. This rugged backcountry corner receives some stock use, but is largely ignored by the visiting summer throngs.
I woke up late the morning of the hike and that, plus the long drive, put me at the trailhead by 11:00. I shouldered my stuff. Back then my outdoor gear consisted of the same backpack that had recently carried my textbooks, a pair of hiking boots, and a two Nalgenes. To play it safe I threw in an extra apple beside my customary PP&J.
The first section of trail paralleled Black Butte Creek and I walked along in the dappled light of lodgepoles and creek-side willows. I passed a few fishermen sight-casting for trout in the larger pools, but within a half- hour I walked alone for the rest of the day.
Three miles up, and just before the trail left the drainage on a little shelf, I jumped a large animal bedded down in the shade. It stood and crashed through the underbrush. I flailed at my bear spray canister, numbed in panic by the dark brown fur seen flashing between the branches. It was a bull moose. He stomped away, splashing across the creek before stopping for a moment on the other side to display his rack and glare back. The sudden adrenaline rush left me empty and starving; after the moose’ departure I sat and ate the apple and half the sandwich, then finished off the first Nalgene. The day was hot, and I had been guzzling unconstrained. Water filled only half of the second water canister when I peeked into my bag to take stock –I must have drunk some it in the car. And now the trail left the trees.
The trail steepened once out of the drainage. The sun beat down. I crawled a mile up the trail past the creek, tiring quickly and awakening to the fact that I had severely under-packed; most of my water was gone, I had little food, and my journey still was only one-third of the way through. The few trees that spotted along the trail cast ever-lengthening shadows. I picked up my pace.
Another mile. Then another. I greedily drank the last of my water and ate the final sandwich half. The last mile steepened even further, and turned into a sort of loose scramble. False summit after false summit added to my exhaustion. I stumbled over rocks and nearly tripped every fifty feet or so. Strange thoughts crossed into my mind, filling a void the dehydration created. A few more sloppy steps and then I was there, the earth leveling lush and green high in the sky.
The summit of Big Horn contained a scene I will never forget: High alpine tundra, as fresh and blooming as a valley meadow, covered the flat-topped mountain for a space as large as two football fields. Purple and yellow flowers smiled up at the sun. The peak itself stood at the opposite side, rising twenty feet above the horizon-line like a rocky steeple. A trail, beat into the turf by hikers and wildlife, held water in puddles. I lurched forward punch-drunk over the trail, sending hundreds of thirsty butterflies into the air. Halfway between myself and the peak, a herd of bighorn sheep, mostly ewes and lambs, bleeted and grazed amongst the grass. The flock parted as I walked through. In the jumble of rocks on the prominent, I found the register and scrawled some indecipherable message, lost in memory to my thirst and exhaustion. On the north side of the peak I found a patch of snow. I packed each Nalgene half-full each, then started down. It was well after dark when I finally made it back to my car.
Years later now, with enough gear to fill half of my garage and a few more trips under my belt, I still smile at my summit on Bighorn despite the disastrous planning and self-created miserable conditions. Maybe it was the delirious lightness in my head and step, or the way the butterflies swirled and danced, or the cry of the ewes calling to their lambs, but that peak will always seem holy to me, almost biblical against the blue sky. And so Big Horn is, and will always be, my favorite mountain amongst many a range.
Vanessa Nicola from Shamokin, PA
Mount Washington in New Hampshire. It is a beautiful, scenic place.
Natasha Sheu from Longmont, CO
Hi, I decided to write my entry in the form of a Haiku. My favorite mountain is Solvista Basin in Granby, Colorado! Thanks for doing the giveaway in the first place and the opportunity to win this sick prize package.
It is White. All White
Suddenly Heaven on Earth
Snow just for shredding
Riding on the chair
Higher and flyer we get
Hanging with homies
Now hit the powder
Get mad air on all the jumps
Wind hitting my face
I love snowboarding
Never want to leave this haven
Solvista Basin
Milena Regos from Incline Village, NV
OK, my favorite mountain is Bansko, Bulgaria. The reason is that I grew up there skiing when I used to race at the ski team in Bulgaria. Now, it’s a big town and one of the more popular resorts in Europe. It’s a funky, very old town with cows going out and coming in every day. You can hardly understand the locals as they have their own accent (and I speak Bulgarian fluently). It’s a fun town and a very cool mountain. I hope you will go there one day!
Stephen Springer from Greenwich, RI
My favorite all time mountain is Killington Resort in Killington, Vermont. This mountain is awesome and you can shred a different slope every half hour and still not even have seen the whole mountain yet. Also the terrain parks are killer! They are always grooming and fixing the parks so each ride down is as good as the first. THIS MOUNTAIN IS AWESOME!!!!
Aidan Tinelli from Syracuse, NY
Hey guys! My favorite mountain is Phelps. It is one of the 46 high peaks in New York. It’s my favorite because me and my family climbed it in the middle of winter and also it has a great view!
Francesco Viola from Charlotte, NC
The Favorite Mountain that Never Was
It was a clear morning in February at Snowshoe Mountain, West Virginia. Fresh Snow had just fallen and my coworkers, friends, and I had just gotten all of our snowboards and gear packed up for an awesome day of snowboarding. The Mountain was in tip top shape and everyone was excited about getting some solid runs in during the day. This trip was attended by some coworkers and some friends of mine. About 5 of the coworkers had never been snowboarding before and me being the nice guy that I am, decided to volunteer myself to go down the green runs with them and teach them some good techniques to use. I was no expert, but growing up surfing and skateboarding, I would consider myself better than average. I had been to Vermont at Jay Peak and Stowe and to the North Carolina Mountains so I figured that I at least had some knowledge that would help mold my coworkers into better snowboarders. We had gotten to the green runs as soon as they opened the mountain and started our descent down the mountain. As soon as we began, I immediately knew that it was not going to take an hour to help my coworkers out and that I may be stuck with them for more than what I originally bargained for. My friends had gone to the more experienced runs and I was to meet up with them later after I had helped my coworkers. As the sun rose in the sky, I realized that I was going to be stuck with my coworkers on the greens for a while. Three hours later, around 12 o’clock, we finally met up with my friends at the bottom of the mountain and my coworkers were going to get lunch so I was finally free to go with my friends to the blue and black runs and the terrain park. At this point I was ready to get off the greens and to get to the good runs and the terrain park. We all rode the lift to the top of the mountain and my coworkers headed to the lodge for lunch so me and my friends went directly to the terrain park. I was super pumped at this point and was ready to hit some jumps and just go all out. Me and my buddies strapped in at the top of the terrain park and I was the first one to start the run. The first jump was a table top jump which I cleared and started to the next jump. I built up speed and tried to get a lot of air and as soon as I got in the air I realize I was about 6 ft higher in the air than I realized because the second jump was not another table top, but a ramp. I panicked a little in the air and was going to do a controlled bail out. Then all of a sudden BOOOOOM and I’m laying on my back screaming at the top of my lungs “help”. My buddies rode up from behind me to see if I was ok. My one friend walked up and said, “Hey man, are you alright, did you hit your head?” I said, “No I broke my arm really bad.” At this point, he proceeded to look at my left arm which was bent at a 35 degree angle from the normal position that it should be in. At this time, my friend began to freak out and bolted down the mountain to get help. I was in the worse pain I had ever experienced and now wished that I had ridden down the terrain park to check everything out before proceeding with the jumps. Mistake on my part. To make an even longer story short, I was taken to Pocahontas Memorial Hospital to get pumped with Morphine for 6 hours before they decide to drive me two and a half hours away to the nearest large hospital. 2 plates and 17 screws later, my arm is back together and on the long road to recovery. I still have the plates in my arm and haven’t been snowboarding since the accident. That was 3 years ago. From being at Snowshoe, the small amount of time I was there, I could tell it would have been my favorite mountain, but unfortunately it turned out way differently.
Its time for me to get back out on the mountain and what better way to go than winning this prize pack. Thanks Guys!
We are excited to announce that Tahoe Mountain Sports owner Dave Polivy was honored by Leave No Trace as one of its extraordinary member-activists of 2011. Dave is one of 11 chosen out of the some 60 members nominated, so it’s quite an honor!
His involvement with Leave No Trace began in late 2010, when he chose the nonprofit as the beneficiary of a fundraising Facebook campaign. For every new Facebook fan Tahoe Mountain Sports got in a 2-week span, Dave donated $1 to Leave No Trace. The fans poured in, and helped raise more than $700 for Leave No Trace.
From that successful campaign, the collaborations continued. Dave organized Leave No Trace’s participation in SnowFest 2011, in a partnership with TMS and the Tahoe Rim Trail Association, and spearheaded two Leave No Trace awareness trainings, one in the 2010–11 winter season and one in the summer of 2011, as well as a family hiking event.
I caught up with Dave to ask him a few questions about this honor.
Why did you get involved with Leave No Trace?
Ever since I took a NOLS course back in 1994, I have been involved with LNT principles. Now that my work directly connects me with the outdoors, I feel obligated to pass on that education to as many people as possible. If my business is to get people excited and inspired to play outside, then we also need to be a steward of that playground. Since we want our children to be able to enjoy the same natural environment that we do, we must take care of it ourselves and teach others the same. We also see a lot more people enjoying the outdoors and it is necessary to properly educate them on the best way to leave no trace so others can find it in the same condition they did.
You really went above and beyond typical member-activist involvement, can you tell us why?
We really felt that LNT did not have a big presence here in Lake Tahoe. And with the lake being one of our nation’s natural jewels, we felt there was a need to heighten the principles of LNT and we took it upon ourselves to assist in that. Since the whole goal of the environmental community in the region is to improve the health of Lake Tahoe, we felt this was our little part that we could do to help out.
Why are Leave No Trace values so important?
They instill a sense of responsibility when recreating in the outdoors, and it is important to pass that sense of responsibility on to the next generations.
Have you met any of the other honorees?
I have not, but I hope to in the near future.
What does this honor mean to you? Were you surprised?
I was totally caught by surprise and I am very excited and flattered to be honored. I am also humbled by this honor because I thought I was just helping out a good cause, but to think that they as an organization thought I went above and beyond is very humbling. I found out I was honored during Outdoor Retailer in Salt Lake City. When I ran into the LNT folks, they pretty much floored me when they told me. All I kept doing was expressing my happiness and pride to them all night. Every time I saw one of them I ran up and gave them a big hug!
Any future plans with LNT?
We are always working on fun and innovative ways to get the LNT message across. We are working with the Tahoe Rim Trail Association this spring on their Annual Guide Training and helping to spread the message there. We will likely put on a couple more awareness workshops during the year, and after that, you have to wait and see what we have up our sleeves, but I promise, it will be fun, unique and educational just like how we have done things in the past!
Congratulations to Dave Polivy again, one of Leave No Trace’s “Eleven People We Love” for 2011. Click through to read about the other member-activists honored.
So you ask… What the heck is a Nacktspektakel? Well, it’s a night of spectacular fun is my explanation. A Nachtspektakel (pronounced knocked-shpeck-tockle) is a traditional European-style ski event that bonds people through the sport of ski touring. A cultural norm in Europe, night spectaculars are new ways to combine skiing, beer and food that are sure to catch on in the States, and in my opinion, they are here to stay! There is no better way to spend a Saturday night than skinning, drinking and meeting like-minded new friends.
The end of a great night
A group of 50 gathered at the Village at Squaw Valley to meet up and embark on this unique event. We headed up the summer trail with the goal of High Camp on our minds and cold beer and hot food as our rewards. This was not your ordinary group of 50 seasoned backcountry skiers because there were people of all ability levels and with all types of gear. Abilities ranged from folks who had never donned skins before to the most seasoned of backcountry skiing vets along with splitboarders, Dynafit enthusiasts, telemarkers and the sidecountry-specific Marker Duke users of the world.
Skinning Up Squaw
Once we arrived at High Camp at Squaw Valley USA, we were greeted by friendly staff ready to help us to our beverages of choice and serve us up a 3 course meal with salads, soups, burgers, pork shoulders and a wonderful berry cobbler dessert. Quite the meal for such high altitude dining. There was much revelry and many smiling faces throughout the event, but the dinner and camaraderie while at High Camp was at an all-time high. Everybody was truly stoked to be part of such a unique and fun event.
As the evening wore on, Squaw ski patrol was looking out for our safety and making sure we didn’t drink too much, so they started to shepherd us out of there and got us skiing on down the hill. As everybody geared up, the excitement for the ski down started to increase and more smiles came out because after all, at heart, we all love the downhill and that’s why we do the uphill to begin with! Skiing down in and out of the Squaw Valley lights was a great experience, and there was a lot of woot-wooting and hollering all the way down.
Gearing up for the ski down
Benefiting from the night was the Snow Leopard, an endangered species currently living in the high Himalaya of Tibet and China. A portion of everybody’s registration fee is being donated to the Snow Leopard Trust, which is working to conserve these mysterious animal’s habitat and existence and is a truly worthy recipient of our donated dollars. Thanks to them for all the work that they do.
Lastly, thanks to the sponsors of this great event, Dynafit, Squaw Valley USA, Alpenglow Sports in Tahoe City and of course, ourselves, Tahoe Mountain Sports. We look forward to putting on more great events like this and hope you will join us!
The TMS crew is back at Lake Tahoe, fresh off a few days at Outdoor Retailer Winter 2012 in Utah, and we saw a whole lot of great stuff, from ultra-techy gear to down-to-earth mountain lifestyle goods.
Dave started off at Demo Day at Solitude, testing our Salomon Rocker 2 powder skis, the Volkl Nunutak backcountry rockered skis, Garmont Cosmos alpine touring boots and Moment Bibby Pros – he was really impressed so don’t be surprised to see some additions to our ski lineup next year!
Thursday and Friday it was on to the show to check out the latest and greatest coming next winter.
Mountain Hardwear continues to turn out some of the most impressive outwear whether you’re mountaineering, backcountry skiing or lapping the resort, continuing with their super-breathable waterproof Dry.Q fabric.
A new Suunto GPS enabled watch topped the tech list, along with Smith goggles that have a built-in Bluetooth heads-up display! Look for more on those two soon!
All the techy stuff is great when you’re out in the woods or on top of the mountain, but what Kuhl does best is cover you the rest of the time. Here’s a casual styled soft shell that’ll perform in foul weather but also look good at work and around town. There’s a reason why on any given day you walk into Tahoe Mountain Sports you’ll see every employee wearing Kuhl pants – look for another upcoming blog post on why Kuhl is so cool.
One of our favorite new camping companies is Klymit – with their ultralight X-framed sleeping pads and Cush pillows. What’s coming up next? A super-comfy sleeping pad (above) that comes in at an unbeatable price (talking $60 right now), and some crazy waterproof breathable jackets (teaser: one changes textures when wet, and the other purportedly breathes 25 times better than eVent!) Look for more on Klymit on this blog soon.
Deuter Backpacks continue to come out with some of the best designs around. On the left, the new Deuter Guide Lite series slots in between the big and beefy Guide series and the lighter Speed Lite series for backcountry skiing, fast-and-lite mountaineering and climbing. On the right, the Cruise series get’s a dedicated front pocket (white zipper) for avalanche gear.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg: we’ve got dozens more photos on our Facebook Page, and we’ll be doing more in-depth overviews of some new gear on this blog, so stay tuned!
Have you seen our new look yet? Tahoe Mountain Sports has gone mobile, launching a new e-commerce site for iPhones, Androids, BlackBerrys and tablets on November 15, 2011. And since then, our mobile visits have increased 113%!
As recently reported by Internet Retailer, mobile commerce is an increasingly important factor in web retailing, and over the 2011 holiday season, retailers saw significant increases in mobile traffic and sales. IBM, reported that 14.4% of its Christmas Day sales were made on a mobile device, up from only 5.3% a year ago. We’ve seen similar statistics. The month before we launched our mobile site about 9% of our visitors were browsing on mobile devices. Since the launch, the ratio of mobile users versus desktop users has been climbing about 1% each month. Today there are 14% mobile users, versus 86% desktop users.
Check out the site to see the ease of buying for yourself. The look is sleek and lightweight so pages download quickly even when your cell signal is weak. Gear, clothing and footwear are just a finger’s tap away, so when you’re shivering on the chairlift, wishing you had that extra layer, or on the road, remembering what you forgot to pack, you can order right from your phone so your next day on the hill is even better, or your package is waiting at your next destination.
We worked with CommerceV3 to expand our web presence into the rapidly-growing world of mobile devices, from iPhones and Androids to tablets. And we’re proud to be among the first outdoor retailers in the Tahoe area to launch a mobile website.
“Our statistics since the launch really show that simply more and more people are using tablet and web-enabled mobile devices and that it’s a global trend,” said TMS owner Dave Polivy. “We try to keep up with all trends whether they be the coolest colors of the new jackets at the ski hill, the lightest weight sleeping pads on the market, or the hand-held technology that people are using to run their lives on.”
Have you bought anything on the Tahoe Mountain Sports mobile site? We’d love to hear about your experience. Comment here, or via any of our other channels: Facebook, Twitter, info@tahoemountainsports.com, online chat from our homepage.
