The Routt National Forest ranger offices sell Christmas tree cutting permits for $10 each, and we’ve taken advantage of this for the past several winters, spending an afternoon hiking into the woods around Rabbit Ears Pass. This year’s tree is a smaller tree, but it’s perfect for us. We rescued it from a crowded little stand of trees, hopefully our thinning will help out that section of trees.

Today was my first day out on a new pair of Atlas BC24 snowshoes, and I was thoroughly impressed with them. They’re pretty light-weight for their size, and they float great. It seems like I’ve seen a million different strap systems in the last 10 years, and the BC24 has one of the better systems, easily adjusting to my snowboard boots and holding them tightly. I’ll have a full review of the shoe up in another week or so, once I’ve had them out a few more times.

I got up for a few turns this morning with a few instructors to check out the new terrain. We took the Gondola up and then Rudi’s down to the BC lift. I was pretty stoked to find some calve-deep powder on the right side of Rudi’s, but lower down it got a bit rougher. From the top of BC we cruised down Tower to Heavenly Daze and made our way down to Jess’s Cut-Off, across to See Me, and on to the park. The Daze is pretty rough; there’s some slightly softer snow on the sides, but the majority is ground up ice balls.

Once you get down to the park everything changes though. The snow and grooming on lower mountain has been fantastic, and the park crew is doing a tremendous job keeping the Little Rodeo Park smooth and safe. The park is flowing great, and the features are set up perfectly. I’m super optimistic about this season’s park, if Nick can build two more parks as sweet as this one, I think we’re in for a treat.

Still no riding in Steamboat, but I took a short snow walk, and then started setting up for the split board how-to article.

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“30 Days on the Road” is a blog series tracking my travel for thirty days in October and November; from leaving Alaska on October 27th until Steamboat opens on November 25th. Due to a series of cool opportunities I don’t have to be back at a “real job” until 11/26th, and after a summer that seemed way too long, I’ll be making the most of my free month with as much snow and snow industry fun as I can cram in. The goal is two-fold, first to get you pumped about the upcoming season, and two to help keep track of time as I wander aimlessly for a month.

I’ll also be posting updates on Facebook and Twitter, so make sure and check out the action there too.

The snow up top was pretty dry and easy to ride, but the lower half of the mountain was alternating between trying to slush when the sun was on it, and trying to freeze when it wasn’t, and by our last run the base was pretty sketchy with ice. I had braced myself for crowds, but maybe thanks to Halloween hangovers there was plenty of room on the slopes.

Loveland has a great early-season jib park set up. At the top you can choose between a flat box and a flat rail, next hit is a left-hand C, then a large butter box. After the butter box there’s another feature I can’t remember – no one was hitting it, and then a great larger rainbow that is set perfectly.

I had a blast, great to be on snow again.

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“30 Days on the Road” is a blog series tracking my travel for thirty days in October and November; from leaving Alaska on October 27th until Steamboat opens on November 25th. Due to a series of cool opportunities I don’t have to be back at a “real job” until 11/26th, and after a summer that seemed way too long, I’ll be making the most of my free month with as much snow and snow industry fun as I can cram in. The goal is two-fold, first to get you pumped about the upcoming season, and two to help keep track of time as I wander aimlessly for a month.

I’ll also be posting updates on Facebook and Twitter, so make sure and check out the action there too.

The mountains were beautiful, I love this time of year in Colorado, there’s still color in the hills, but the mountains are crisp and white. Loveland was packed, which was great as it made me feel better about not stopping for a few laps (my gear was all in the boat, so riding had to wait one more day).

Coming down from Rabbit Ears Pass into Steamboat is such a great feeling; Steamboat feels more and more like home every year, and rounding that last corner and seeing the mountain always makes me a bit giddy. After a quick stop at the house to drop off luggage, tradition required a stop at Double Z’s for some fries and BBQ sauce, it really is the best.

I rounded out the day by partially unpacking and digging up enough gear to ride at Loveland on Sunday. Somewhat boring day for a blog post, but sometimes you have to get from Point A to Point B; today was that day in between.

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“30 Days on the Road” is a blog series tracking my travel for thirty days in October and November; from leaving Alaska on October 27th until Steamboat opens on November 25th. Due to a series of cool opportunities I don’t have to be back at a “real job” until 11/26th, and after a summer that seemed way too long, I’ll be making the most of my free month with as much snow and snow industry fun as I can cram in. The goal is two-fold, first to get you pumped about the upcoming season, and two to help keep track of time as I wander aimlessly for a month.

I’ll also be posting updates on Facebook and Twitter, so make sure and check out the action there too.

I spent the rest of the day napping, catching up on the slew of emails that had piled up while I was back East, and planning out the next week’s travel.

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“30 Days on the Road” is a blog series tracking my travel for thirty days in October and November; from leaving Alaska on October 27th until Steamboat opens on November 25th. Due to a series of cool opportunities I don’t have to be back at a “real job” until 11/26th, and after a summer that seemed way too long, I’ll be making the most of my free month with as much snow and snow industry fun as I can cram in. The goal is two-fold, first to get you pumped about the upcoming season, and two to help keep track of time as I wander aimlessly for a month.

I’ll also be posting updates on Facebook and Twitter, so make sure and check out the action there too.

I found the Q&A section extremely helpful in forming an overall picture of Gore. This was some of the “big picture” time, stepping back from the focus on the products and looking at Gore as a whole. This was a lot of talking, so fewer pictures in this section. One of the things that is fascinating to me about Gore is their dedication and commitment to the end product. Gore is rather unique in that it doesn’t sell and end product to the consumer, but they guarantee those end products. They’re able to do this because of the host of tests and quality assurance steps that we went over in Parts 1 & 2. I’m sure there are other companies that operate like this, but I haven’t found one. Since everyone loves car analogies, think of it as if a steel company were to guarantee that your new car would be free of defects, and if anything happened to the car because of the steel, the steel company would have you a new car within a few days. Gore’s warranty is “No BS,” if you’re unsatisfied with any aspect of the Gore-Tex technology in a piece of outerwear, they’ll do whatever they can to make it right, whether that’s a repair, replacement, or a refund. On top of that, Gore says that their product warranty is less than 1%, compared to an industry average of around 6% (I haven’t verified these numbers, they’re straight from Gore).

The first question we spent some time on was how Gore compares to other similar products. The four types of waterproof barriers used in today’s outerwear are Microporous Coatings, Monolithic Coatings, Bicomponent Coatings, and ePTFE.

Microporous Coatings are polyurethane coatings with air pockets in them. The number and arrangement and quantity of air pockets determine both breathability and waterproofing.
Monolithic Coatings are continuous or laminated polyurethane; less breathable, more waterproof.
Bi-Component Coatings are a mix of Microporous and Monolithic Coatings, with a monolithic coating on the outside to prevent water from entering the garment, with a microporous layer to help it breath.
ePTFE is the membrane that Gore and their direct competitors like Event use. Gore stresses that it’s not simply using the material, but how the material is processed and used, and that just because something is ePTFE doesn’t mean it’s the same as Gore-Tex.

Event vs Gore-Tex Breathability

This created a big sidebar, with a few bloggers asking some questions about the specific differences between Gore-Tex and Event, citing Event’s research that says Event is 2x more breathable than Gore. Gore argues that there are flaws in Event’s testing methodology, and that Event’s chart doesn’t show the whole picture. There are some graphics Gore had that I’m hoping they’ll make public because it really helped explain what’s going on in regards to Gore and Event. The most basic explanation is that the absolute ideal temperature for Gore is cold and wet; Event’s tests were done in dry, hot weather, that you would have to be mad to wear a jacket in. This led to a cool demonstration with two cups of steaming water, two outerwear samples, and a piece of clear plexiglass. The blue circle of cloth is Gore, the black is a piece of Event. When the plexiglass was placed on the fabric it would fog up from the moisture coming through the fabrics. To the human eye it is almost imperceptible, both fog at basically the same time.

The next question asked if Gore would be developing a “price-point” version of their material, lower cost, but maybe doesn’t work as well. The straight answer from Gore is “No.” The testing and guarantee from Gore basically prevents this, as they don’t want a poorly performing piece of “Gore-Tex Light” to detract from their branding work or their reputation for quality.

A number of questions centered around the environmental aspects. The biggest takeaway is that Gore doesn’t “greenwash,” meaning they don’t publicize what they’re doing for the environment. They want to be known for their technical offerings, not for being green; being green is just part of who they are. They took us through a list of the various things that Gore has done to promote efficiency, but the number one component is durability. In their view, if Gore makes products that last twice as long as the industry standard, they’ve made a huge impact on the environment in the long run.

Everyone outside the Gore store

The Q&A session completed the technical aspects of the trip, but there was a bit of fun still ahead. We piled into a bus, and Gore took us on a shopping spree at the Gore store; we were all able to pick out something from the store, up to a $300 value. The Gore store is a great shop, and unique from most company stores in that it has gear from many different companies, all united by their inclusion of Gore-Tex. I snagged a bright blue Burton AK 3L jacket that I had been coveting for a while.

Once everyone was back on the bus we made our way to downtown Philadelphia for a City Hunt scavenger hunt. This was loads of fun, but as I told Gore, I would have traded it for 3 more hours of checking out the Gore facilities. We had a great team, and it was fun to cruise all over Philly checking out the sites; we ended up coming in second, which I think was actually the winning position because I didn’t have to fit the silly trophy into my carry-on bag. Finally we made our way to dinner at Moshulu, a restaurant on a boat (T-Pain did not make an appearance). The dinner included most of the Gore employees we had interacted with, and was a great way to wrap up the trip. There was plenty of time to chat with the various employees and ask additional questions.

The night wrapped up with a group of us back at the hotel bar. Over the course of a few beers the discussion ranged from search engine optimization, to effective use of social media, and on to the average height of leprechauns. The group of bloggers Gore assembled for this event was awesome, and one of the great side benefits to this trip is that it developed a great support network of similarly wired people from a bunch of outdoor sports.

Thanks for following this saga. I had no idea this would turn into a three-part blog and back up the posts so much; in the remaining days of 30 Days on the Road I’ll probably spin stuff like this into articles, and keep the blog posts a little more simple and on time.

If you’re looking for more information I recommend you check out Gore’s Quality Testing website.

I feel it is important to mention that W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. covered expenses for this trip. In return they’re obviously getting coverage of the trip, which they wouldn’t have received otherwise; it works out to pretty cheap advertising for them. I’ve tried to prevent this from having an influence on what I’ve written, in terms of tone or value judgments, and I hope that the end result is the same as if I had gone there on my own dime. I’ve been a user of Gore-Tex products for years, and while I now know a lot more about Gore and Gore-Tex, I’ve tried not to let Gore’s generosity bias these posts.

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“30 Days on the Road” is a blog series tracking my travel for thirty days in October and November; from leaving Alaska on October 27th until Steamboat opens on November 25th. Due to a series of cool opportunities I don’t have to be back at a “real job” until 11/26th, and after a summer that seemed way too long, I’ll be making the most of my free month with as much snow and snow industry fun as I can cram in. The goal is two-fold, first to get you pumped about the upcoming season, and two to help keep track of time as I wander aimlessly for a month.

I’ll also be posting updates on Facebook and Twitter, so make sure and check out the action there too.

A group of us in the Comfort Chamber at about 20 degrees F

The comfort lab is a wind tunnel and cold climate room where Gore can test their outerwear in a more personal manner, simulating temperatures from -20 F to +120 F and high winds. While the fabric tests we saw earlier can tell Gore a lot about the fabrics, they can’t test how the jacket works as a finished product, or the effect that pockets and zippers have. In the comfort lab Gore is able to put the finished product on Nate the test dummy, a thermal torso that can report temperature data, and see exactly how wind and cold are transmitted through the outerwear. In addition to Nate, Gore also enlists the help of local college students to get perceptive feedback about products.

We would be really wet without these jackets

Just down the hall from the comfort lab is the rain room, a glass-walled, two-story room designed to simulate rainfall. We suited up in Gore-Tex jackets, pants, and foot coverings, and were ushered into the rain. Water drops fall from the ceiling, approximately 30 feet, and can also be sprayed from the wall at pressures simulating a 60 mph windblown rain or how rain will interact with a seated motorcyclist. Temperatures in the rain room are also adjustable, to a point; they can’t make it snow, but they can get pretty close. The jackets we were wearing were split down the middle, half blue, half yellow. Going back to DWR from Part 1, the yellow half was coated with DWR and the blue half wasn’t, allowing us to really see and feel the difference. On the yellow half, water beaded up quickly and rolled off the jacket. On the blue half, the material quickly became wet, and I definitely felt like I was getting wet, even as they assured us that the Gore-Tex was keeping us dry. This was another really cool tactile demonstration, and was a fun experience; and yes we were still dry.

The group suiting up for the rain room

I'm waterproof now

Yellow has DWR coating, Blue doesn't, Gore-Tex membrane keeps us dry

The rain room concluded our time at Elk Mills 5, the next stop was Elk Creek 2, a glove and shoe testing facility. Tom Casti and Larry Abbot walked us through a couple of different boot and glove tests and filled us in on the details. Boots are rigorously tested, including 100,000 flexes (500,000 for military products) on a partially submerged flex tester.

Gore membrane booties are pressurized and submerged in water. Faulty booties will bubble.

This bootie has a leak at one of its seams

Boots are filled with water and positioned in this machine which spins them at high speeds. If a boot is faulty, centrifugal force will push the water through the boot.

This boot is still full of water after the centrifugal test

These mechanical legs flex each shoe at least 100,000 times

This foot from the flex tester has sensors on it that detect moisture and set off an alarm

This test pressurizes a glove. If the glove has leaks, water in the blue tray will bubble

This glove is faulty and the water is bubbling

The finished product

After touring the glove and boot testing we moved to a conference room for a group discussion and question and answer period with Gore. On the way Gore stroked out egos a bit by showing us the posters they made for each attending blogger. The posters were in the lunch room, and had been put together so that employees at Gore knew something about us when we came to tour. It was pretty flattering, but I thought it was cool that Gore wanted their employees to know something about the people who were touring through the facilities.

The Q&A was a great opportunity to learn more about specific areas of Gore that we had questions about. At the onset of the trip Gore had solicited questions from us, and then took the time to pull together the right people to answer the questions.

Continued in Gore Tour: Day 3 of 30 Days on the Road – Part 3, coming soon.

If you missed it, check out Gore Tour: Day 3 of 30 Days on the Road – Part 1

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“30 Days on the Road” is a blog series tracking my travel for thirty days in October and November; from leaving Alaska on October 27th until Steamboat opens on November 25th. Due to a series of cool opportunities I don’t have to be back at a “real job” until 11/26th, and after a summer that seemed way too long, I’ll be making the most of my free month with as much snow and snow industry fun as I can cram in. The goal is two-fold, first to get you pumped about the upcoming season, and two to help keep track of time as I wander aimlessly for a month.

I’ll also be posting updates on Facebook and Twitter, so make sure and check out the action there too.

I’ll also be posting updates on Facebook and Twitter, so make sure and check out the action there too.

1. Airports: Day 1 of “30 Days on the Road”
2. Snow and Gore: Day 2 of “30 Days on the Road”
3. Gore Tour: Day 3 of 30 Days on the Road – Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
4. Jet Lagging | Day 4 of 30 Days on the Road
5. Steamboat or Bust | Day 5 of 30 Days on the Road
6. First Day on Snow 11/1 | Day 6 of 30 Days on the Road
7. One Day Off | Day 7 of 30 Days on the Road
8. Swollen in Boulder | Day 8 of 30 Days on the Road
9. N3L Optics | Day 9 of 30 Days on the Road
10. Keystone Opening | Day 10 of 30 Days on the Road
13. Copper Opening Weekend | Day 13 Of 30 Days On The Road
14 – 16. In Steamboat
17 & 18. Burton Learn To Ride Super Clinic | Days 17 and 18 of 30 Days on the Road
19. Steamboat Snow | Day 19 of 30 Days on the Road
20. Copper Play Day | Day 20 of 30 Days on the Road
21. Day Off
22. AASI Staff Fall Training
23 & 24. Resort Trainers Clinics
25. Copper Morning and Drive to Boulder
26. Backyard Bang in Denver
27 & 28. Boulder Chill and Drive to Steamboat
29. Steamboat Errands
30. Steamboat Opening Day | Day 30 of 30 Days on the Road

My internal clock was pretty much fried, and the 8am start to the day definitely felt like 4am, but after a great breakfast and copious amounts of coffee at the hotel, I was starting to feel alive. Our first stop was the Elk Mills 5 facility, where John Reaney (Snow Product Specialist) and Brad Hill (Snow Marketing) talked to us about Gore-Tex and showed us some pretty cool demonstrations and explained some of the technical aspects.

Brad Hill takes our hands on a run

The first demo Brad ran us through was to show the difference between a non-breathing plastic bag and the breathable Gore-Tex. He passed out two “mittens” to each person there, one made from each material. With a mitten on each hand, we held up our hands and made them “run,” rapidly and repeatedly opening and closing our fists. Within moments you could feel the moisture in the regular plastic bag, while the Gore-Tex mitten was clearly different, wicking the sweat away from that hand and preventing moisture buildup.

One of the things they described is that the overall goal of a Gore-Tex snow product is to create a micro-climate within your outerwear that keeps you in your comfort zone. One of the primary ways this is accomplished is through the breathability of the Gore membrane. This is one of the areas where some confusion comes up. Believe it or not, breathability doesn’t mean air can pass through the membrane. A common misconception is that gear with a high breathability rating will pass air through it, and people will try to test this by holding the fabric to their mouth and trying to breath through it. The ability for air to pass through fabric is called “air permiability,” and is a completely separate issue. Breathability is actually the ability of sweat to move through the fabric as it evaporates into water vapor.

Steve TetonAT Wicking Water from inside to out

In another demo, Brad had Steve from TetonAT dip his hand in water, and then put that wet hand into a glove-shaped Gore-Tex membrane he then put his gloved hand into a bucket of ice water. Steve then exercised his hand for a few minutes. The heat generated by his hand moving was enough to make the water on his hand heat and then evaporate out through the membrane; the same membrane that kept the outside water from moving inward. Cool fact, human skin doesn’t actually detect wetness; it can feel hot and cold, and it can feel pressure, and the combination of those two senses are what creates the sensation of being wet. So while Steve’s hand was in the ice water, he actually couldn’t tell that his hand was drying out. It wasn’t until he took his hand out of the water and the Gore-Tex glove that he could tell that his hand had dried out. Likewise, when you’re sitting on a chair lift and the snow is accumulating on your lap, you may think you’re getting wet because you can see the water on your lap and you can feel the cold and pressure.

After the intro we moved into a tour of the factory floor and testing areas. Because Gore has some proprietary systems in the factory, there were areas where we couldn’t take photos. The factory itself was pretty impressive; I’ve been in a few textile factories before, and Gore’s was almost unrecognizable as a factory. The rooms we toured through were clean, with high ceilings and full-spectrum lights. The facility’s cleanliness is just one more example of the high standards Gore has in all areas of its business. The first thing you see when you walk into the factory is endless rolls of material. Gore does the lamination between the Gore-Tex membrane and the outerwear fabric for all Gore-Tex products sold. So when Burton is designing a new AK jacket, they work with Gore to choose a fabric and pattern for the jacket. Once the fabric has been found, Gore laminates their membrane to the outer face fabric, and delivers it to Burton. Burton then begins making jackets using that fabric.

Desecant testing

From the factory floor we toured some of the evaluation and testing facilities. The first thing we saw was the ways fabric breathability is measured and learned a quite a bit about breathability that will be going into a separate post at a later date. The most important thing to know about breathability though is that there is no industry standard for testing breathability, and the results can be drastically different from test to test. When you’re shopping for gear, don’t rely on the numbers listed for breathability.

Hydrostatic MM Tester

The next piece of equipment was the High Pressure Hydrostatic Tester, and I was stoked to see it. Hydrostatic testing is how companies determine a how waterproof a piece of outerwear is, communicated to customers as “mm of waterproofing.” Fabric samples are clamped into the ring and water is introduced below the fabric at a low pressure. Over time the pressure is increased, until liquid water is detected on the top side of the fabric, or the fabric fails. When a jacket is advertised as having 20,000 mm waterproofing, it means that the water pressure was equivalent to a water column 20,000mm (or 65 feet) tall. Gore does not publish it’s waterproofing numbers, because they say it doesn’t factor in the longevity or durability of the fabric, but they did say their membrane tests to above 20,000mm.

Our next stop was a room full of washing machines, my guess is over 100 of them. All of them had their lids removed, and all were running. In the washing machine room, John explained that this was the best way they had come up with to test the durability of their products and simulate use. The machines get roughly 100 hours of run time per week, and all products see 500 hours of testing. Once a product has gone through the extended rinse cycle it’s dried, visually inspected to see how it has handled the wear, and then re-tested in a low-pressure hydrostatic tester to make sure it is still waterproof. If it fails either the visual inspection or the hydrostatic pressure testing the fabric is evaluated to see what needs to be changed in order to make it pass.

Washing machine

Gore-Tex from a test

Banks of washing machines

Brad Hill demonstrating DWR

Another area we’ll be delving into in a later post is DWR, Durable Water Repellent, the coating that keeps the face fabric from getting wet. DWR works like little pegs sticking up from the fabric that prevent water droplets from being absorbed. When DWR gets dirty or becomes worn down, the fabric may absorb water, and as mentioned earlier, if the outer fabric is wet, you may feel wet even if a Gore-Tex or other membrane is keeping the water from reaching your skin. Pretty basic stuff, but what you may not know about DWR is that it can be refreshed without applying additional waterproofing to your outerwear. Gore recommends washing their jackets with a small amount of light detergent, and then running an extra rinse cycle. Here’s the kicker, Gore recommends putting your outerwear in the dryer to dry it, rather than hang drying. The heat in the dryer helps the DWR “pegs” stand back up. They recognize that it’s a hard sell to tell people to put a $400 jacket in the dryer, but that it’s the best way to keep your gear clean and waterproof. By cleaning and drying in this manner, Gore says the DWR on their jackets can be renewed 10-15 times.

Continued in Gore Tour: Day 3 of 30 Days on the Road – Part 2

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“30 Days on the Road” is a blog series tracking my travel for thirty days in October and November; from leaving Alaska on October 27th until Steamboat opens on November 25th. Due to a series of cool opportunities I don’t have to be back at a “real job” until 11/26th, and after a summer that seemed way too long, I’ll be making the most of my free month with as much snow and snow industry fun as I can cram in. The goal is two-fold, first to get you pumped about the upcoming season, and two to help keep track of time as I wander aimlessly for a month.

I’ll also be posting updates on Facebook and Twitter, so make sure and check out the action there too.