Snow and Gore: Day 2 of “30 Days on the Road”

Originally posted on SnowboarderGuide.com

Wednesday 10/28 was day number two of my “30 Days on the Road” blog feature. Check out Airports: Day 1 of 30 Days on the Road if you missed it.

The day started in Boulder at 7 am with a quick check to see if the foot of snow on the ground was going to mess with travel out of Denver. Aside from Frontier cancelling a few flights everything looked good, so at 7:30 am I was out the door and on my way to catch the RTD Skyride bus back to Denver. The bus was thirty minutes late, but given the road conditions that was probably pretty good.

Arriving at DIA at 9:30 am for a 10:20 am flight is what I would call “pushing it.” Denver’s airport is huge, and depending on the wait at security can definitely take that full 2 hours they warn you about. Luckily for me, security was running fast, and by the time I got through the metal detectors it didn’t matter anyways, as United had delayed the flight for an hour. One hour turned to two, but thanks to wireless internet I was able to use the time to prepare for the days ahead.

Leaving Colorado when it was dumping, especially only 24 hours after arriving, and when facing tweets from all over Colorado announcing snow depths, was no easy task mentally, but was proving just as difficult physically.

We finally left the ground a little after noon, and were on our way to Philly. The states on the East Coast always come across as a bit of a novelty to someone from Alaska. We fly into Philadelphia, drive to our hotels in Delaware, and go from there to the Gore facility in Maryland. You can hardly get from one city to another with those distances in AK, much less cross state lines.

A little travel weary, I was shuttled with 10 other bloggers and industry folk to the Gore Capability Center. When we told people we were coming out East to visit Gore, they often didn’t know who we were talking about until we added “You know, Gore-Tex.” While they’re best known in our circle for the Gore-Tex material used in outerwear, Gore has their materials in thousands of products throughout many industries. The Capability Center is a pretty cool facility Gore designed to communicate their brand and their products, in a detailed, yet accessible manner.

Then we received a short presentation about Gore’s new website/community they’re working on, and a fantastic dinner, before being shuttled to the hotel. Big day with Gore tomorrow, we’ll be checking out the factory, rain room and comfort chamber, footwear and gloves manufacturing, have a Q&A sesh at lunch, and then some other stuff planned for the afternoon. Pictures and tweets as I can, and another full update tomorrow night.

Continue to Day 3 of 30 Days on the Road

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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.