I’m the world’s laziest person ever; when it comes to the elements, I tend to baby my down jackets and prefer my stinky, synthetic insulation over the fluffy good stuff. When Outdoor Research sent over their Diode Hoody, I was a little skeptical. A down jacket to battle the elements? It didn’t seem real.
While prepping for my solo trip to New Zealand, I tossed in my personal climbing gear into my backpack. I knew there was awesome climbing to be had outside of the three major cities I’d be visiting. I wasn’t sure how I’d find climbing partners, but I didn’t want to risk not having my stuff with me like I did for summer OR.
Endless googling proved to be fairly fruitless, so I ended up mostly winging it in the Southern Hemisphere. Fear not, I put together a little guide so you aren’t stuck without climbing partners in New Zealand like me!
Adidas is one of those companies that I associate with standard athletic gear: gym shorts, volleyball jerseys, shoes. Over the past few years, they’ve been building up an impressive team of athletes—Kevin Jorgensen, Sasha DiGiulian, Nina Williams, to name a few—that I respect and admire. I met up with Adidas Outdoor at Outdoor Retailer this past show to check out what they had to offer. The new Terrex Solo Approach Shoes caught my eye.
I’ll let you in on a little secret. For the longest time, I only had one pair of non-technical pants: my Baldwin Denim raw skinnies. I either lived in those or my Norrøna pants, because they were all I really needed. But when you only have two pairs of pants, sometimes things get tattered. Sometimes you want to mix it up. Sometimes you want pants for both work and play. That’s when the Royal Robbins Ranger Twill Pants came into my life.
When Mountain Hardwear asks if you want to party with them in the desert, the only answer is yes! I booked a flight to Ontario, CA (closest “major” airport to Joshua Tree) and told my boyfriend to pick me up. The agenda was a chili cookoff, Ethan Pringle flipping pancakes and climbing with Cliffhanger Guides aka a good freakin’ time.
