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Setting up camp on a bluebird day. Mt McKinley.

Hunkered down HardShell ready for the night.

Our good friend and Guide Brook Barnes, came off Mt McKinley with some great reviews for the HardShell.

She said that during some severe winds the tent didn’t budge all night long.

The OneUp is a revolution in shelter systems.

Without using one for yourself it is difficult to understand what I mean, I hope this short video will help you.

click here.

Family camping SlingFin style. L.F.D and his little brother, the OneUp at the highest lake in the world.

Our Friend Guido Shilling has returned from a trip he guided to Ojos del salado on the Chile-Argentine border. He came back with some absolutely stunning photos and even better reviews!”

Ojos de salado is the tallest volcano on earth and the second highest mountain in the western hemisphere @ 22,608 ft, shadowed only by Aconcagua @ 22,841 ft  where a team of guides are headed next with a hardshell to put through the paces.

The OneUp and the L.F.D perched at the lip of the highest alpine lake in the world (20,960 ft)

More to come soon! Stay tuned.

=D

Last week at 6:06 am a total lunar eclipse was to set occur, completely unknown to the group 9 backpackers headed to shelter cove for a weekend trip that was set to leave at 3pm on friday.

Now, with all camping trips some delay in departure is to be expected, last minute things need to be obtained. Batteries and fuel are normally on this list, as well as any item that falls under the “Oh I thought you were brining that” category.  Add to this 9 people and 4 dogs in 3 cars the delay seemed to be exponentially increased. Almost everyone had forgotten something, from fuel to sunglasses to bear cans and food to put in those bear cans. One person had even forgotten a sleeping bag.

A quick stop by SlingFin base camp solved the major issues like the sleeping bag, battires and fuel. This however came with the time munching, yet inevitable tour of the amazing tents set up all over the shop.  Next, off to REI to rent the bear cans, then to a market with foodstuffs for the un-provisioned. Long story short, the caravan didn’t hit the road till 12:30 am, and by that point most nerves were frazzled and we just wanted to get on the road, and for good reason too, the drive from Berkeley to the lost coast is about 3.5 hours… If you know where you are going.

At the last pit stop the clerk asked where we were headed and if we planned on seeing the eclipse. We had noticed how bright and full the moon was that night. I told him we were headed to shelter cove and he said, “Oh man, that maybe the best spot to see this eclipse in all of California”.

And he was right.

This is my old trusty windscreen.

After about an hour of beach hiking we came to a bluff that over looked a large rock among the surf getting pounded by waves in the moonlight. The sky was clear and filled with shooting stars as we all settled into sizzling bacon on the camp stove and the twelve year old single malt. Just then the shadow of the earth began to over take the moon and the group went silent, a few minutes later a voice said,”Perfect timing”.  We realized that all the delays and last minute stops had allowed us to arrive at what was in fact the perfect time. Had all gone according to plan, and we arrived at dusk as proposed, that big beautiful full moon would not have lit our way due to the high cliff and treeline to the East, as only further on in its cycle would it reach the beach.   And if we had gotten to camp earlier the chances of the entire group braving the cold long night, even with fresh bacon and fine scotch were low.

Trips tend to be more satisfying if you “go with the flow”.

The OneUp has a feature you cannot find on any other tent. The sno-flaps on the OneUp fold and attach underneath the webtruss effectively sealing off the spindrift trying to enter your shelter.

Conversely, if the sun is out and you need to cool down while receiving some extra air flow during your nap, just roll the fly back and attach it to the webtruss.  

OneUp on Xixiabangma. That spindrift never had a chance.

The OneUp has returned from a trip to Shisha Pangma. At 8,013 meters it’s not the tallest in Tibet but what it lacks in stature it makes for with it’s names.

From Wikipedia:   “There are several different theories about the meaning of the mountain’s name. Geologist Toni Hagen, who worked in Nepal for many years, explained the name as meaning a “grassy plain” or “meadow” (pangma) above a “comb” or a “range” (shisha orchisa) in the local Tibetan dialect, thereby signifying the “crest above the grassy plains”.^[4][5] On the other hand, Tibetologist Guntram Hazod records a local story that explains the mountain’s name in terms of its literal meaning in the Standard Tibetanlanguage: shisha, which means “meat of an animal that died of natural causes”; and sbangma which means “malt dregs left over from brewing beer”. According to the story, one year a heavy snowfall killed most of the animals at pasture, and all that the people living near the mountain had to eat was the meat of the dead animals and the malt dregs left over from brewing beer, and so the mountain was named Shisha Pangma (shisha sbangma), signifiying “meat of dead animals and malty dregs”.^[6] TheSanskrit name of the mountain, Gosainthan, means “place of the saint” or “Abode of God”.“

We just received some photos from our fellow guide, who was able to bag these summit flag pics for us.

Every friday we try to decompress a little by having SpinArt party!

You remember spin art right? well ours is a little different.   Jim ” re-programmed” an old box fan we found in the trash, and after going  all “Office Space” on the forgotten air circulating device, we decided to salvage the motor and what was left to make an art machine!

The premise is simple: attach the object you desire to enhance, begin high speed rotation, apply paint and remove.

Easy right?

Turns out, even with a design house filled with creative artistic people and beer, the best SpinArt, time and time again, came form this little tyke.

Meet Isabella Sunshine. She is the daughter of Tim Baka one of our founders.

This little girl rocks so steady. Upon her very first introduction to SpinArt she was blowing our minds in no time! I mean with catch phrases like “NICE… DUDE!” and “BAM-BOOM” who could resist? She was even giving us fist pounds saying ” Bump it dude” upon completion of her artwork.

We find that this type of atmosphere is the most conducive to good design and can be inspiring when you least expect it.

Everyone is relaxed an the mind is in a fluid state (albeit fluid beer) and there is no wrong question, no right answer, only possibilities. You want to glue that to that? Do it. You want to make a crossbow out of tent poles? Sweet. Want to pick out some fabric, cut out a pattern and sew it together and have “Little Miss Sunshine” smack some stellar SpinArt on there? Yeah we can do that for you.

Custom baby!

For instance, a freshly made piece of spin art fell face down on the floor, and this gave us all a communal light bulb. I cant tell you what it is just yet, but keep an eye on the blog for a chance to win one of a kind SlingFin goodies!

What ever you do, do it.

=D