Red Rocks Rendevous

Well folks it’s been a week since we braved the Nevada winds, sun , rain, sand and… did you see snow? I am pretty sure I did. Though I was told all of this was typical for the Red Rocks Rendezvous, I wouldn’t know, this was my first one. Normally the Trango team keeps me safe and away from others in the warehouse, where I perform the absolutely necessary (and daunting) task of getting things in and out the door, as this is my job as the Logistics Coordinator. This year however, we thought we’d take a chance and allow myself some time in the great outdoors, away from the hustle and bustle of shipping and receiving and instead allow me some time to meet our fans and our customers– to meet the folks who up until now were just names on a UPS shipping screen. Plus, I had never even been to Las Vegas; What’s that you say? Trango will pay for me to go to Las Vegas–Count me in!

OK, so I will have to admit, I’m a bit of “noob” climber, and I had no idea that such a beautiful place existed right outside of the City of Sin. Living in beautiful Boulder, Colorado has allowed me to get in some really great climbing with out having to travel very far. So when my girlfriend and I arrived, rented the car and started driving west on hwy 215 towards Red Rocks, I was excited to see that there was more to Vegas than Seline Dion and Hollywood Hangover’s.

Spring Mountain Ranch was the location for the event, a pristine state park in the middle of the desert with brilliant sandstone walls keeping watch over the rolling hills of Juniper Valley. In the middle of the park was center stage for the event and a few hundred yards away was the on- site camping for sponsors and event participants. Trango was among about 20 other climbing and outdoor industry sponsors who had set up booths to show off their gear and answer any questions, as well as entice participants to go and purchase our products from the Mountain Gear store , Mountain Gear being the event organizer we were more than happy to do so.

Having spent most of my time in the Trango warehouse, shipping products out to people, it was really great to actually see folks come to the booth and be really excited about our truly innovative and unique products. Almost every person who came to the booth wanted to play with the Big Bros (“whoa…that’s a big crack” was heard more than once”), try out our auto-assist belay device the Cinch (“ this is so much smaller, lighter and has a smoother feed than the [insert competitors product here]..” was often the response) and were amazed at the feather light Superfly Carabiners (“oh man…these come in lockers now…sweeet!”). Also people loved our climbing knife selection especially the lightweight and cleverly designed Piranha Knife (“wait… it has a screwdriver AND a bottle opener…?”). I learned a lot about our customers and received a lot of positive feedback. For me, it was great to do an event like this simply to see that people are really stoked about our products and that there is more to climbing than whose puffy jacket is puffier; who has lived out of their car the longest and who has the nicest rack ( get it…rack)…Its more than all that…it’s about community.

Though the winds were against us, this years Red Rocks Rendezvous was a huge success, though next year I’ll schedule some time to actually climb and work on keeping the EZ- Up on the ground. Being given a chance to go out there and represent Trango; a company that people whole-heartedly love and has such a strong tradition rooted in the climbing community was an honor. I look forward to seeing you all next year. A big shout out to Paul Fish, President and founder of Mountain Gear for giving all of us– “Old timers” to “Noobs”– a chance to come together and experience what it really means to be a climber.

-Jared Clark

Team Trango Logistics Coordinator