Adventure fans get ready to “click here.”  Hang on though — we want to tell you a little bit more about the project first.  Black Diamond Equipment, Ltd. (makers of exceptionally sweet outdoor gear) just released their 2013 Climbing Digital Catalog.  HotWax Media’s sharpshooting (and at times ice axe-weiding) team of designers, coders, climbers and project managers worked closely with the creative, technical and marketing folks at BD to bring this little work of art to life.

Join some of BD’s athletes as they share their stories of climbing exploits around the globe.  While you’re at it, checkout some of BD’s hot new products!  This year’s catalog has an underlying theme of first ascents and inspirations.

The catalog features dramatic imagery and is easily browsable.  In fact, it’ll be hard to put down your laptop once you start flipping through the amazing images from some of climbing’s best photographers.  As you read the stories and browse the products, the catalog engages you further with interactivity, including narrated slideshows and videos.  If you don’t read English comfortably, don’t worry — it’s available in both French and German as well.

Ok, enough keeping you waiting.  Here is the link.  We hope you have as much fun checking it out as we did building it.

http://catalog.blackdiamondequipment.com/climbing2013/en_us/index.html

As the official conference, training, and expo series of the Apache Software Foundation (ASF), ApacheCon attracts individual engineers, companies, and open source enthusiasts of all stripes from countries around the world.  This year’s ApacheCon US sponsors include Adobe, Citrix, HP, HotWax Media, IBM, RedHat, and other technology companies representing many facets of web application software development.

HotWax Media plays a very active role in the Apache Open for Business (OFBiz) project, and our regular sponsorship and participation in the ApacheCon events is primarily in support of that role. We are proud of our community involvement with the ASF and OFBiz, and ApacheCon is the perfect opportunity for open source community participants to put a face with a name!

This year’s theme is “Open Source Community Leadership Drives Enterprise-Grade Innovation.” Presentations will be professionally-directed, focusing on demonstrating real-world solutions to specific challenges. The experience also includes a Business Panel discussion, numerous tutorial sessions, and other community events such as the BarCamp and the Hackathon.

If you are interested in attending but have not yet registered, drop us a line!

For more information on ApacheCon US 2013, visit: http://na.apachecon.com/

On the walk back to the office we discussed what we could do to make a difference.  We mostly just came up with little things, but little things can add up (like compounded interest).  A simple thing like walking or riding your bike to work on a bigger scale might make a big difference.  There is of course the catch 22.  The highway signs tell us not to drive on poor air quality days, however the air quality has gotten so bad at times that exercise is not recommended.  That doesn’t leave you with a whole lot of options.

This is our home.  We must work to make it a better place.  Every petition signed, every vote cast, every step taken makes a difference.

The ice climbing event is a series of elimination rounds for speed.   It should be fast, fun, furious, and with lots of sharp things flying around.   The elevation of Vail is about 9,000′ so there may be some heavy breathing as well.  It’s not like skiing where you just go downhill.  Just kidding skiers, I know your sport is difficult too.

Other events will be running, biking (yes, in the snow), skiing and there are some dog events for you animal lovers.  Yup, go see for yourself at http://www.mountaingames.com/winter

There was stiff competition for the events this year.  I don’t recall such a strong field in the USA all going head to head for the podium.  As predicted, the Europeans kicked our butts.  Climbing is much more established and supported over there.  I placed 8th in the main event, the difficulty competition held on Saturday.  The full list of men’s speed climbing competition results has not been published yet so I don’t know where I landed in the line up.  I had hoped to do much better in the speed, but the cold, brittle and fragile ice conditions didn’t seem to match up with the techniques I was using.  Nor did the ice for that matter, I was tearing it apart.  With so many skilled competitors the little details end up making a big difference (much like web design).  As always, I wish I had done this or that a little better, but with the intensity of a crowd cheering loudly and only a couple minutes to work with “on stage”, you just go out there and give it all you have and hope it goes well.  Once the comp is over, you rally again on the dance floor late into the night only to wake up early and do it once more for the speed competition.  No wonder I’m tired!

The ice festivals are sort of like an Outdoor Retailer trade show held outside with more a focus on fun, competitions and climbing than direct business. It was also nice to see a few of HotWax’s clients like Black Diamond (http://bdel.com) and Scarpa (http://scarpa.com) outside of the conference room.  I liken it all to a traveling circus with the next stop being the upcoming Outdoor Retailer Winter Tradeshow (http://www.outdoorretailer.com/winter-market/) and following that, the Teva Winter Games (http://www.mountaingames.com/event-detail-winter/Mixed-Climbing.aspx) held in Vail, Colorado.   Maybe I’ll see you there! Till then, over and out!

Jason Nelson
HotWax Media Designer

Video of Jason’s Speed Climb

P.S. I was the slower one in the red and black. Will Mayo is the other climber.  Also, thanks to Kate Higgins for shooting this video.

Further Reading

http://ourayicepark.com/ice-festival/

https://www.facebook.com/OurayiceparkInc

Jason Nelson competes in the Ouray Ice Festival 2006

Hotwax Media’s newest team member, Designer and Web Developer Jason Nelson, is scheduled to compete in the Ouray Ice Festival Competition next week. Events include a difficulty competition on Saturday and a speed competition on Sunday. This years competition will host an international field of competitors including former champion Ines Papert from Germany.  Earlier this year, Jason placed third at the Bozeman Ice Breaker Competition.   We wish him luck on this upcoming event.

The Ouray Ice Festival, held each year in January in Ouray, CO, is an eclectic gathering of ice climbers, gear manufacturers, and ice climbing enthusiasts. The international Festival was first held in January 1996 and now is widely recognized as the premier event of its kind. Each year, familiar faces return to climb, socialize, test out the latest equipment, and watch the pros power their way up the latest competition route.

Here’s a peek at last year’s route (if it doesn’t show, go here):

View of Salt Palace Convention Center from HotWax Media office.

The Outdoor Retailer shows tend to be a real hoot.  With Summer Market this year running from August 2 – 5, the show is the largest outdoor sports industry gathering in the world, bringing together over 1000 brands, 21,000 attendees, and buyers from Afghanistan to Arkansas and many places in between.  The show generates over $40M in direct economic impact for the state of Utah each year.

Over the years, HotWax Media has had the pleasure of working with dozens of premier outdoor retail companies including Scarpa, Black Diamond, and about 60 more of the coolest brands we know.  This year, our focus is e-commerce for outdoor retail companies. We have spent the last few years paying special attention to the outdoor retail space, and in particular their needs related to e-commerce. The result is an amazing e-commerce platform targeted specifically for outdoor retailers, offering a host of industry-specific features.  These include the ability to link dealer web sites to product detail pages based on available inventory and other preferences, a native pro-purchase program, video product reviews, a dealer locator, integration with existing ERP such as NetSuite, and much more.

For an example of the platform in action, take a look at  Scarpa’s website.  We couldn’t ask for a more credible brand as a client showcase – we’re psyched to be working with them!

SCARPA’s e-commerce website

To learn more about our outdoor retail e-commerce software, browse our website or contact us today.  If you are an outdoor retailer, we think you’ll like what you see.  And if we don’t talk with you again first, we’ll see you at OR!