You know the Apocalypse is near when...

...you can go skiing one day and climbing the next. Clearly, we are living in the final days.

Ben Taylor was in town for three days earlier this week. On Sunday he hooked up with Astrid and Colin Boeh, among others, to go skiing at Wisp for $7. Meanwhile, the rest of us hung back for the inventory party, which was attended by Eric, Kas, Lou, Cory, Jenn, and Becca. The laptop thing worked pretty well, although not perfectly. It probably saved us more time than it wasted, and Kasia agrees that this year we will have the most accurate and most efficiently collected inventory yet. Sadly, that's exactly the kind of thing that gets me excited nowadays.

Seth, Ben and I took monday off to go to Wisp for their last $7 day of the season. I was delighted to discover that I still remembered how to ski. Ben was wicked quick for a fat guy. And Seth was showing off his new tele skis with remarkably clean technique. Yings and wings at the pub capped the day off nicely.

Ben and I did get to go climbing on Tuesday. We went to Cooper's and basked in the 60 degree heat. We both found that we'd gotten a little soft since the end of the warm-weather boating season. Ben may relish being big, but I wouldn't mind being in better shape.

Lou

Newsletter Authoring, Inventory Party, Skiing

I spent some time the last two days writing some stuff up for the Newsletter that Seth and I are aiming to put out before Christmas. I forget so easily how much I enjoy writing. Reading a final draft that's clear and entertaining is very fulfilling. Anyway, expect updates about gearfetch and this blog, as well as a trip report for Glade Run, and whatever surprises Seth has planned.

Tomorrow we will be having an Inventort Party. Wow. We've gathered as many people as possible to help count every. single. bit. of merchandise in the store. I spent some time creating an excel template, and the idea is to run around with laptops cataloging it all for later comparison with our Point of Sale system. The end result, after I've spent many man hours on this project, will be a store whose physical inventory perfectly matches digital inventory, in every conceivable respect, and for all items to be bar coded so that they scan properly.

By the way, the best thing about a pre-party blog entry is that it leaves an opening for a post-party blog entry.

Finally, on Monday I will be trying out my brand new skis for the first time this season, and skiing for the first time in 8 years. Wisp has seven dollar lift tickets and I'd be silly to miss it. I feel I'd also be a fool to miss out on Tuesday's projected perfect climbing weather.

gearfetch.com and new blog update

After a conference call with the folks at Blue Tent, Kas, Eric and Lou are optimistic about the progress of the online store. We certainly missed our original target launch by a little bit, but we feel it is better to go live late with something that rocks instead of going live on time with crap. Expect the site to reflect this: it will be cool, user-friendly and fun, and it will embody the WV spirit.

BenT, our ops guru, is compiling a list of email addresses and soon we will be slightly irritating about 150 staff members with invitations to come join the blog party.

If you are not a WV staff member, fear not. There are many ways you can gain authorship to this page. You can post your thoughts by commenting other posts; you can sign up for a Google account, email lou@wilderness-voyageurs.com, and ask for authorship permission (which will be granted, honest); or you can submit posts as a guest with the guest username and password which will be available soon. (Also, there is nothing to stop you from posing as a WV staff member, nor will there ever be.)

Well, that's all for now. Can't wait until people start sharing their thoughts, opinions, tales of adventure, romance, despair, loss, and victory.

Kas, Eric and Lou

Welcome to The Put-in

Welcome to The Put-in and its inaugural post! The Put-in is a blog set up by the staff of Wilderness Voyageurs, gearfetch.com, Trillium Lodge, and Falls City Pub to allow seasonal staff to communicate in the off-season.

Have you just done a hairy first descent (I have), wiped out hardcore on your skis (soon to come), or summitted some remote peak (one day...)? We want to hear about it, in detail, with pictures, and all the time.

We know we've got staff scattered all across the globe, and we can't wait to hear of your exploits (not to mention see you again in the spring!).

Cheers,
Lou

P.S. This is my first ever post on a Blog, and I've never posted to MySpace or that other one (what's it called?) Anyway, expect upcoming posts to improve dramatically in style, flair, frequency, content, and many other facets like pinache.