Shelf Road season!!!

Hey everyone!!! Temps is crisp and the season for Shelf Road is upon us. That’s why I was sooooo freakin’ stoked to receive 12 copies of the NEW SHELF ROAD BOOK!!!

Training tips for climbing Shelf Road:

- Don’t eat. EVER!!! You may think your stomach is saying “yo dude!! I need some carbs to send!!” But what its actually saying is “listen, you pudgy little punter, if you weigh me down with one more delicious organic treat I can guarantee that you will NOT be sending that sad little pile you’ve been calling your project”.

- Shelf limestone is really sharp. You need to get your hand-flesh in shape. Wrapping your finger board in barbed-wire is a good way to start.

- The footwork required at shelf is very pocket and micro-edge intensive. Crampons actually work way better than climbing shoes for this. You might get some dirty looks, but most people back off pretty quick once you bust out your Tae-Kwon-Do skills with your G14s on.

- Skip bolts – all of them.

- Don’t accept failure. It is very important to be INSANELY hard on yourself if you can’t send something. If you don’t have a COMPLETE breakdown EVERY time you fall off something, then you’re not taking the sport seriously.

- Revel in glory. Every time you send something, be sure to let everyone and the crag know about it. If they seem not to care, it’s because they are jealous – revel in this as well.

- Only take on a draw when you feel the need to “spray down” a climber on a much harder adjacent route with unsolicited beta. If you take for any other reason everyone will know that you suck.

That’s all I can think of.

Climb on,

Sam Benedict

Shipping/Receiving Manager

Wilderness Exchange Unlimited

2401 15th st Suite 100 Denver, CO 80202

303 477 0881

sam@wildernessexchangeunlimited.com

La Sportiva - Oh the places you'll GO!!!

My Girlfriend reads me bedtime stories sometimes. She does this only under the contingency that I have behaved myself that day. Behaving myself consist of doing my chores, like vacuuming the floor, feeding the dogs, vacuuming the dogs and giving her massages. I also have to not pick my nose and stare at people when we are in public together, and not say stupid things by mistake.

 

The other night she was reading me “Oh the Places You’ll Go” by Dr. Seuss. I love most all of Seuss’s work, but this one has always been a favorite of mine. The message is that life is your oyster, a great adventure, and that anything is possible. It’s very uplifting and puts me in a happy place.

 

However, I couldn’t help but notice the other night that the author leaves out one pretty critical piece of the equation – footwear. He cleverly references in rhyme almost all the major types of triumph and defeat that one is sure to encounter in life. The book addresses some very philosophical and existential dilemmas. He even makes reference to shoes and feet many times, but never addresses the tremendous importance of proper footwear. Who knows maybe he was having a hard time rhyming with LaSportiva. Or maybe he thought specific product plugs would cheapen his writing… I don’t think it would have, but what do I know.

 

Anyway, point being: we just scored a huge pile of LaSportiva closeouts. 30% off on these three:

 

La Sportiva CASCADE GTX

La Sportiva TRANGO ALP GTX

La Sportiva Women's BOULDER X

 

So grab a pair before they’re gone, click the book cover below to get inspired, then go move some mountains kid!... or climb them, your choice, just don’t get stuck in that waiting place.

 

 

Sam Benedict

Shipping/Receiving Manager

Wilderness Exchange Unlimited

2401 15th st Suite 100 Denver, CO 80202

303 477 0881

sam@wildernessexchangeunlimited.com

Ode to harness #26

So I got to thinking the other day about harnesses, and how if you think about it, all other climbing gear is pretty much worthless if you take the harness out of the picture. All your ropes, carabiners, cams, nuts, slings, pulleys, rope devices, beer-bongs, sky hooks, RURPs, rivet hangers, wall hammers, big bros and hand drills… would really be quite useless with out the harness.

I started feeling like the poor harness is like the unsung hero of the climbing arsenal. Then I looked at my own loyal harness and started to cry a little. Then I picked my harness up and hugged it and apologized for taking it for granted. Then I cried a little more. Then my girlfriend walked in and gave me a very disapproving, contemptuous, but not all that surprised sort of a look. I told her to leave us alone, and to go make me a Hot Pocket, or mow the yard or something.

My emotional little moment with my harness inspired me to write a poem. I call it Ode to harness #26.

Here goes:

Oh harness oh harness
I wear you all day
I hang in you sometimes, when I have to belay
You hold all my gear
Like my cams and daisy chain
And you catch me at times, when I can not maintain
You were my first piece of gear, when I was just new
And I hate to take you off, but sometimes I must poo

Then I started thinking of all the great deals on harnesses at the WildyX, like these:

Black Diamond MOMENTUM DS Harness Package
 
Black Diamond PRIMROSE SA Harness

Mammut VISION Harness


Mammut MIRAGE Harness


Black Diamond PRIMROSE A/L Harness

So anyway, the next time you’re out crushing, take a little time to let your harness know how good its been to you and how much you really do appreciate it… Unless you don’t really like your harness that much, in which case you should lay a big guilt trip on it and come buy a new one from us.

Climb on,

Sam Benedict
Shipping/Receiving Manager
Wilderness Exchange Unlimited
2401 15th st Suite 100 Denver, CO 80202
303 477 0881

Mammut – best recognize

Can I just say that I love Mammut? They are a totally awesome company. Every single thing they make is somewhere between mind-bendingly awesome and face-meltingly awesome. Every time I clip my Mammut rope through one of my Mammut carabiners, or put on one of my rugged yet euro-chic Mammut garments, I am filled with this warm fuzzy feeling that I can only imagine would be comparable to hugging a baby mammoth, or swimming in a pool full of puppies.
  or

 

That’s probably why Mammut decided to use a mammoth in their branding concept – a pool of puppies just isn’t as concise and doesn’t carry the same connotation of rugged power.

 

That said, you should check out the following list of Mammut products. Any one of them has the potential to enrich your life in ways unimaginable.

 

-Mammut LIQUID CHALK

-Mammut SERENITY 8.9mm X 70M SUPERDRY Rope

-Mammut INFINITY 9.5mm X 60m DUODESS (Bi-pattern) SUPERDRY Rope

-Mammut GENESIS 8.5mm X 60m SUPERDRY Rope

-Mammut GALAXY 10mm X 70M DUODESS SUPERDRY

-Mammut GALAXY 10mm X 60M DUODESS SUPERDRY

-Mammut GLACIER LINE 8.3mm X 40m

-Mammut GLACIER LINE 8.3mm X 30m

-Mammut 16mm NYLON SLINGS

-Mammut 8mm Dyneema Contact Slings

-Mammut ELEMENT KEY LOCK Screw Gate

-Mammut ELEMENT KEY LOCK Twist lock

-Mammut BIONIC MYTHOS HMS Locking Carabiner

-Mammut 5er Pack Classic Express Quickdraw Set

-Mammut SMART ALPINE Belay Device

-Mammut TREA GUIDE 40L Pack

-Mammut OPHIRA 3 Slide

-Mammut OPHIR 3 Slide

 

In summary: puppies are adorable, so are infant mammoths, and Mammut products are a shining example of all that is wonderful in the world.

 

Have a splendid week.

  

Sam Benedict

Shipping/Receiving Manager

Wilderness Exchange Unlimited

2401 15th st Suite 100 Denver, CO 80202

303 477 0881

sam@wildernessexchangeunlimited.com

How to realize YOUR personal potential

We all want to do our best in life. We all want to be all that we can be. We all have hopes, dreams, goals, aspirations and ideas of what we would like out lives to be like. Sadly, most of us don’t quite live up to our potential. It’s easy to think things like, “I’m not good enough," or, “There’s no way I could do that,” or, “My circumstances are prohibiting me from realizing my potential”… but those thoughts are COP-OUTS. They are excuses for not being hell-bent on doing your best, and they really don’t do any good. Sure, life is easier for some than others, but when it comes down to it, we are ALL capable of just about anything. We are ALL infinitely powerful, and the only thing stopping anyone from doing anything is attitude and perspective.

 

So what then makes some people so much more successful/productive/influential than others? Surely, it’s primarily things like luck, circumstance, genetics, lineage and all the things that are out of our control… right?

 

WRONG!!!

 

I believe that the only thing that sets these people apart is that they have somehow been fortunate enough to actually REALIZE their potential, and ACTIVATE their personal power. 

   

Of course, there are those successful types who didn’t really do anything, who didn't really work for it, who don’t really have any talent. Those who just happened to be in the right place at the right time, or were born with a silver spoon in their mouth, or became an icon by nothing more than dumb luck.

   

 

But is that really success? I don’t know. Depends on how you define it, I guess. And that’s kind of the whole thing – you want to realize YOUR potential, not try to be someone else. I think success is being pleased with who you are, what you’ve done and where you’re at… whatever that might be.

 

As I was thinking about all this, I couldn’t help but to notice that I was at work and should probably be doing something. So I called up some friends. I got a hold of Steve Forbes, Steve Jobs, Chris Sharma, Chris McNamara, Vince Vaughn, Tim Tebow, Donald Trump, and 2-Pac Shakur - ohhh, uh, I mean the spirit of 2-Pac - and asked them for some tips on realizing one’s personal potential. Much to my surprise, most of them put a far greater emphasis on owning quality outdoor gear than on attitude or perspective.

 

Here are a few specifics they recommended:  

 

“These products were crucial to me surviving my 2^nd and 3^rd bankruptcies. Without these products I wouldn’t be the Trump you see today… those were dark times.”

            -Donlad Trump

 

-Sierra Designs ZETA 2

-JetBoil Flash PCS Java Kit

-Osprey AETHER 60 Pack

 

“Somebody told me all Patagonia shirts were bulletproof. Well… turns out they aren’t, but they sure are stain resistant!!! And you cant say they ain’t all kinds of fly”

            -2-Pac

 

-Patagonia Men's Fezzman Shirt

-Patagonia Men's Three Trees Shirt

-Patagonia Men's Migration Hemp Shirt

 

 

“I use these products to help stay fit. I also do yoga. I would even consider doing some bouldering but… well, I’m a pro football player, not a very good one, but still. I don’t need to crush hard boulder problems to feel like a man. I mean c’mon, I’m Tim Tebow”

            -Tim Tebow

 

-GRIP PRO TRAINER

-Metolius PROJECT BOARD

-Lapis Brush

 

 

“I have some pretty intense fans. I was carrying standard self defense mace for a while, but I was going through it so quickly; it was getting really expensive. Plus, saying “get back!! I have bear deterrent!” sounds a lot more serious that “get back I have a sissy little mace canister with a Hello Kitty sticker on it”

            - Vince Vaughn

 

 

-BEAR DETERRENT w/ Holster

 

 

“I own triple C4’s, quadruple C3's and about twenty sets of brass nuts!!! I have nine DMM revolvers on me at ALL TIMES. And you know what? Ya’ll wouldn’t be havin’ no iPhones if I didn’t have such a fatty rack!! If you want to change the world, great, go do it. But yer gonna have a hard time unless you own copious amounts of climbing gear.”

            -Steve Jobs

 

"Yeah!!! I wear Sanuks!!! What? You want to fight about it or something!?!?!... cuz I’m not a fighting man. How’z about an autograph?"

            -Chris Sharma

 

Anyway the point is…. Actually, I’m not sure anymore.

 

Just buy some outdoor gear, get out there and be your best!!!

 

Sam Benedict

Shipping/Receiving Manager

Wilderness Exchange Unlimited

2401 15th st Suite 100 Denver, CO 80202

303 477 0881

sam@wildernessexchangeunlimited.com

Teko socks – beyond organic – beyond best price

Crazy closeout deals on performance socks are one of the staples of our store. Sometimes we even joke about changing our name to the Wilderness-sock-exchange. We wouldn’t actually do that of course. That name would imply that we sell used socks – which we don’t – because it would be gross. We just like to chuckle about it every time we get a huge shipment of closeout socks.

Like the other day for instance, we got roughly 1.5 kazillion pair of Teko closeouts. The whole staff was pretty excited. We’ve never sold Teko before, so everyone was super psyched about learning as much as possible about Teko. So Reilly “Fingers” Anderson had an idea. He thought it would be just swell to put on a little puppet show for the staff about the virtues of Teko socks and their sustainable practices. He commissioned me to make a super crappy diorama for his first installment of “Story Time with Uncle Fingers”.
The show was only one act in which one sock-puppet unicorn keeps on trying to explain how awesome and sustainable and affordable Teko socks are while the other sock-puppet unicorn just drinks continuously until he gets alcohol poisoning. It was really moving.
 
The whole staff was blown away by the performance… Except for Butters, who as it turns out is afraid of unicorns.

Everyone else gave rave reviews.

“OMG Bro!!! That was the best puppet show EVER!!! I can’t believe how sustainable and affordable Teko socks are!!!”

-Jason “I climb harder than you” Baker

“Dude. I had no idea what a socially relevant issue sustainable sock manufacturing was. I have to rethink my whole wardrobe now!! Also, I think I'm gonna try to lay off the booze a little!!”

-Brain “the closer” Jacoby

“I don’t understand why my girlfriend gets so annoyed when I watch keeping up with the Kardashians. It’s a genuinely entertaining show!... oh, what are we talking about? Yeah, those Teko socks were a killer buy!! Hella-props to me!!”
- Don “our fearless leader” Bushey

Think affordable, stay sustainable,

Sam Benedict
Shipping/Receiving Manager
Wilderness Exchange Unlimited
2401 15th st Suite 100 Denver, CO 80202
303 477 0881sam@wildernessexchangeunlimited.com

Appeasing Mother Nature

So, if you live around theses parts (Denver Metro/ Front Range), you may have noticed the persistent afternoon monsoons in the last two weeks. Sure, afternoon showers/storms are pretty typical for this time of year. But what we’ve been seeing lately is a bit different. Mother Nature is behaving like a surly, disobedient teenager who just got a new wah-wah pedal and an amplifier that goes up to 11.
 

She’s still experimenting with the potential of her new high-voltage, face-melting rig of sheer hard-rocking power. Her chops are still a bit on the sloppy side, but its not stopping her from making a heck of a disturbance and ruining afternoon climbing sessions for everyone in the area.

 

I bring this up because I was in Eldorado Canyon the other day and was privy to one of these displays weather insurgency. I couldn’t help but to wonder what had provoked Mrs. Nature to behave so spitefully… then it dawned on me that these storms must be a direct message to all the ill-prepared climbers out there. Suddenly it all made since!! Stay with me here:

 +  +

 =  +  

X  /  X =

 (hate^100,000)

 

 

So, if my math in the equation above is sound, there is only one conclusion that can be drawn: Mother Nature becomes extremely vengeful when climbers are ill prepared/under equipped/ or have not purchased the following products from the WildyX:

 

-Beal JOKER 9.1mm x 70M – Mrs. Nature really enjoys the soft catch of this rope

 

-Mountain Hardwear Men's EPIC Jacket – when you aren’t prepared for a thunderstorm, Mother Nature end up feeling that she isn’t being taken seriously – this insights rage.

-Mountain Hardwear Women's EPIC Jacket – same goes for the ladies (except double)

 

-La Sportiva SOLUTION – Mrs. Nature is far more favorable to those who climb in Solutions. The following shoes have also been approved by Mrs. Nature:

-La Sportiva TC PRO

-La Sportiva Women's KATANA

-Scarpa FORCE Climbing Shoe

-Five Ten ANASAZI MOCCASYM

 

-DMM HB BRASS OFFSETS Set (#0-6) – Mrs. Nature really enjoys taking whippers on these.

 

-Edelweiss ENERGY ARC 9.5mm x 60M– She really likes this rope because its lightweight and handles like a dream – climbers using this rope are 126% less likely to be benighted.

 

Mrs. Nature is extremely intolerant of climbers who are not prepared with the following:

-Mammut LUCIDO T1

-Trango PIRANHA Knife

-Petzl TIBLOC Ascender

 

Remember, while Mother Nature can be a cruel mistress, she can also be nurturing and hospitable – just don’t anger her by not having the right gear.

 

Hope that helps,

 

Sam Benedict

Shipping/Receiving Manager

Wilderness Exchange Unlimited

2401 15th st Suite 100 Denver, CO 80202

303 477 0881

sam@wildernessexchangeunlimited.com

Wilderness Exchange Spring Gear Swap and Sale!

Wilderness ExchangeSpring Gear Swap and Sale- Saturday May 21. Come one, come all for the deals of a lifetime!

Set-up is between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. to sell gear.  The Swap begins at 10:00 and will run until about 4:00 p.m.
Turn your unneeded gear into cash.
Turn your unneeded cash into gear! 
Attendees are responsible for all payments, transactions, and pricing- there is no commision due to Wilderness Exchange Unlimited- your loot is yours to keep!

Tables are provided free on a first-come first-served basis. Many local outdoor industry sales reps will be down selling hundreds of their samples at killer deals. This is the event of the Spring- with great exposure to R.E.I. and I-25, we're blowin it up!

To all of you who have participated in the past- thanks for making this event what it is. Let's have some fun and sell some gear !

SPRING SALE !
Monday May 16  through Sunday May 22
Simply print this page out to redeem coupon.