Futurelight, Zermatt trip and product testing on skinny skis
Working at The North Face was one of my first jobs out of college. I had always drooled over the equipment, especially craving a TNF tent, sleeping bag, or most of all their basecamp duffels. As the listener has probably figured out, the Aspen valley has a lot of interesting people who have made it home. Scott and Nate are two of them and they make me feel like we have come a long way from the days of slinging Denali fleeces to college kids in Boulder.
In fact, Scott has been a big driver in The North Face’s recommitment to specialty retail and athletes pushing the boundaries of their sport. As GM of Mountain Sports, there is nothing more that he loves than getting friends out in the right gear to enjoy the mountains. This can be seen nowhere more prominently than in the launch of FutureLight soon to hit stores this fall. The fabric has been proved through some incredible athletic feats, most notably in Hilaree Nelson and Jim Morrison’s iconic Lhotse ski descent as heard in Episode 51.
Scott wearing his baby, Futurelight, looking out over the Alps
Most importantly, these two guys love getting out and moving efficiently through the mountains on skis! Nate, as the lead product tester for TNF, is the most active guide in the entire Aspen Valley. Even more impressive is this guy’s drive to get out and ski big lines on his very few days off from guiding. Scott has an eerie identical gear closet to myself, from Scarpa Alien 1.0 all the way to the Alien RS, and fully appreciates the combination light gear along with good balance to fully enjoy the terrain.
Left The boys together wearing matching Futurelight suits outside of Zermatt, Switzerland. I am off in obscurity somewhere just past the camera lens. Right Nate digging some hometown pow outside of Aspen
The stoke from these two for FutureLight and apparel design is so authentic that it can be hard to believe. This is coming from a guy who loves gear talk as much as anyone in the world. It is hard to get dinner or a beer with these two without conversation fully slipping to their latest project and when you give them a mic and a captive audience they are all in.
FutureLight is a revolutionary new fabric that many outdoor brands have been striving for, but nobody has fully achieved. We’ve written a few reviews of the stuff, including this one. TNF has dropped all Gore-tex from its lines for the upcoming season and gone all in. The tech is real, the stoke is real, and I really enjoyed having the two of them on the show.
Drinking wine and talking skiing in Aspen Colorado
Insert your dumb and dumber quote here, I just can’t do it.
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Doug Stenclik is an avid skimo racer and ski mountaineer who lives for sharing the amazing sports of ski touring and splitboarding. Since his first time on skins he was hooked and the obsession has taken him all over the United States and the world pursuing the human powered ski turn. He founded Cripple Creek Backcountry in 2012 and took over the Colorado Ski Mountaineering Race Cup in 2014 to spread knowledge and the love of the sport. In 2019 he took a step back from the ski shop and race promoter life to become a publishing partner with WildSnow.
