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In 1989, after years of scaling some of the most challenging peaks in the world, Peter Metcalf took on a daunting new risk: resuscitating a bankrupt climbing-equipment company, and putting himself into deep debt to do so. From the defunct assets of Chouinard Equipment, Peter launched Black Diamond Equipment, and capitalized on the growing popularity of sport climbing to grow it into one of the most recognizable outdoor brands in the world. By the way, Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Chouinard Equipment, went on to build his next company, Patagonia, into an iconic outdoor apparel brand. It's a great HIBT story, and you can listen to it HERE.This episode was produced by Josh Lash, with music by Ramtin ArabloueiEdited by Neva Grant, with research help from Alex Cheng.You can follow HIBT on Twitter & Instagram, and email us at hibt@id.wondery.com.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Episode 395 of The Outdoor Biz Podcast and my conversation with Christian Bacasa. Christian is a father of two, an entrepreneur, technology sales executive, and a dedicated sportsman. Following his recovery from Stage IV Hodgkin's Lymphoma, he discovered fly fishing, which he credits with his physical and emotional recovery. He is co-founder of Dupe a Fish, a subscription-based travel booking platform for service providers and anglers, and hosts the Fly Fishing Insider Podcast. Facebook Twitter Instagram The Outdoor Biz Podcast Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Sign up for my Newsletter HERE. I'd love to hear your feedback about the show! You can contact me here: email: rick@theoutdoorbizpodcast.com Or leave me a message on Speakpipe! Brought to you by Thrive Market Show Notes Tell us about the first fish you caught on a fly. So first fish I caught on a fly. It was the Henry's Fork. I was with a friend of mine, TJ. He had taken me up to go fly fishing. In actuality, we went up to look at a drift boat. So he's talking to this guy about a drift boat to buy, and it's a 95 Hyde. And the guy says, it's got a little bit of glass damage to it, but I'll make you a deal. We get up there, and it's got a hole, you know, probably about this big in the bottom. And you can see the foam. Yeah, you can see the foam. The phone was starting to rot. And I said, Hey man, that's no big deal. And so he works the guy over and hems and haws them and, you know, classic, this guy, TJ, you know, he's a character, hippie kid from Pennsylvania, but he's a savvy sales guy. So he talks him down, and we get the boat for a good price. We look at each other, and he goes, you think it'll float? And I was like, Oh, I think it'll float all day. Yeah. Let's put it in the water. We take her down a river, and I didn't really know how to fly fish very well. It was my first time, but he puts me in front of the boat. I can cast, but it's not very good. It looked good in the park, but I'm slapping these, these caddis flies down on these guys. TJ is a dry fly guy. So he's making me fish dry flies. And I was having some health complications. I couldn't see real good, my reaction times were slow, and I missed a lot of fish. Sure enough, I hooked up on a nice little rainbow. And that was the first one, but it was on a dry fly, a little caddis fly. And we proceeded to float down the river, and I missed ten times as many fish as I caught, but we caught a handful of fish that day and had a great time. And that was my introduction, to fly fishing. Have you taught your kids to fish? I have. The way I would describe teaching them is. You know, if anybody's familiar with the Green River here in Utah, it's a spectacular place. Like you can see down very deep. And in the fish per mile it's incredible. It's like a couple of thousand fish per mile or something like that. I mean, it's like looking into an aquarium. You can see the fish. It's absolutely stunning. And if you haven't had a chance to fish it, just go float it, is incredible. But for the kids, the way I go about it is like, Hey, let's go swimming, and get them in the boat. And we, we fish between the swimming holes and at the end of the day, they're at the swimming hole going, well, can I just fish here? You know, cause they are stoked for the next. So they do pretty well, but they're kids, you know, they're teenagers, and they, they want to hang out with their friends. So now they know, though, they'll come back to it later in life. How does one go from a degree in resort management and tourism to working in cyber security, cyber threat, intelligence, cloud computing, and software as a service? This is what's so crazy about it, particularly for people in the outdoor industry, they're going to just flip on their head. So I was in Pittsburgh. I have a resort management tourism degree. I switched from a Special Ed degree because I just was like, I got to get a good degree and get out of school. I'll do whatever I got to do, but maybe the outdoor industry sounds fun. I could work off hours, et cetera, and cool. And I could sell if I wanted to, blah, blah, blah. So I get this degree. I have to do an internship. Well, everybody's doing these internships down in Florida at these resorts. I'm like, and I don't want to be around this stuff. I want to be outside. So I started looking out West. I got a couple offers, one up in Oregon, one at Keystone, and lo and behold, I found one in Park City. So I went and did an internship for the Marriott. In Park City and I helped with the rec program. Well, the day I showed up, my manager quit, and they said, you can help with the rec program. I'll help. You know, I'm like this guy making 300 stipend a month. As I'm moving out, I'm trying to find a place to live. So I pack up my little Chevy Celebrity. I lay the passenger seat down. I put all my stuff on it. So it's like a big bench, and I throw my sleeping bag up there, and I figure I'll eat pizza and live out of my car. If I got to do it, I'm glad to do it. You know. Well, on the way out, I had been working at a high-end golf club in Pittsburgh. And a couple of the members found out where I was going. This guy, Dr. Kreps reached out to me and said, Hey, I have this buddy in Park City, he's got a mother-in-law apartment and I talked to him, and you should connect with him when you get in town. He might have the apartment available. So I drive into town, I go to this guy's house, Mr. Baker, and Mr. Baker says, you know, Christian, I'm really sorry, but we just, we just got into a rental contract, but there's another friend of mine down the road. This guy, Peter, that you should connect with because I think he has a mother-in-law. He's trying to rent. So driving down the street, this woman comes to the door, her name's Kathy. Hi, Kathy. How's it going? You know, Mr. Baker told me to come down. You might have an apartment, and she looks at my car and has a Trango sticker. If you remember, the old Trango sticker was a desert tower. She goes, you climb? I said, oh yeah, I climb a bunch, you know? And here I am, like a maybe a hard five 11 climber. I'm thinking I was a cool dude and got all my climbing stuff in the car. And she's like, oh, my husband climbs too. He works for a company called Black Diamond. I said, oh, that's so cool. I'm thinking in my head, like, man, this guy's gotta be a sales rep. He's got a nice house, blah, blah, blah. So she's like, look, I have this woman who's inquiring, she's inquiring about the, the rental. But she'll probably put it off for the summer. She's a teacher. Let me talk to her. So she goes to talk to her. I said, all right, I'll sync up with you later today. So I go to leave, my college roommate calls me and says, Hey, you'll never believe this. But my girlfriend's stepbrother lives in Park City. He said, come on over and stay with him. He's a climber. So I show up, and this guy, Todd, and he says, you can stay with us as long as you need, you know until you can find a place. Okay, cool. We're chit-chatting, and we're sitting down at dinner and talking. I said I met this lady, Kathy, and Peter today, and she said he works for Black Diamond, and I'm like excited, you know, and I'm like, man, I really want to get a job, maybe I can get a job or something with him. And he started chuckling, and I said, what? He goes, it's Peter Metcalf. He's the CEO of Black Diamond. I'm like, you gotta be kidding me. You've been doing that podcast for a while now, right? Yeah. So I purchased the podcast from another guy, Greg Keenan. He had been running the podcast for a while, and he was, like most podcasters, an early adopter, and he, you know, he had to build his audience and all that stuff, and he had, you know, he did a lot of hard grunt work doing that, and he created a good name for the podcast. But, you know, unfortunately, along the way, when you don't have much to offer other than hopes and prayers that the podcast is going to grow, people don't want to pay for advertisement because they're not getting the clicks or the, the impressions or whatever it might be. So he was giving away his product for so long, and it's the fly fishing industry. So it's small. And when he started to gather an audience and was going back, they were like, Hey man, you are, you were always giving it to me free. And I think he struggled with being able to monetize the podcast so that he could keep it sustainable. I have another social media site called dupe a fish, D U P E, like trick a fish. And we've been in the process of developing a platform that is like a payment processor for guides and lodging services and has some other benefits, et cetera, but a different model than most. And I thought I could use that podcast to market that business. And so I did. I ended up making the purchase, which was a year and a half, maybe two years ago. You were diagnosed with Stage Four Hodgkin's lymphoma. I can't imagine the recovery must have been devastating. Yeah, so the best way to describe it is my left lung. If you have a nice healthy lung, it's like, it's like a bunch of grapes. They're all juicy and, but they're empty, and what they do is they collapse like little balloons, and they open up, and it's this real fruitful and just healthy environment. So imagine those grapes being so soft that when you squeeze them, none of the juice comes out, but they deflate. But as soon as you let go, they just open back up and look like beautiful grapes again. Well, my lung, all those grapes, imagine that they got frozen and covered in expandable foam. So they don't work. So it's just scar tissue in there. And what that does is a couple of things. One, it doesn't allow your chest to expand and contract like it normally would. So your body shape changes. My right lung has expanded a little bit more into my diaphragm. So it's harder to breathe if I bend over and compress my diaphragm. You have some pretty amazing entrepreneurial skills. Where do you get those? Well, I appreciate that. That's very kind of you to say. I think it comes from a couple of areas. I always felt like I wanted to be an entrepreneur at a very young age. I wanted to be an explorer. And I think being an entrepreneur is a lot like exploration. Jacques Cousteau was my, you know, guy. I thought that guy was so cool. And then there were a couple of other elements at a young age that really drove me to that. One was my father was a very conservative guy, and he worked for a guy, and it was a small business, et cetera. And the guy that he worked for, he mentored me in a lot of ways, but I had a lot of truck time. It was a construction company, and I worked construction and whatnot for the company to make money for school and whatnot. And I remember sitting in the truck with my father, and he was always telling me 'go to school, get an education, make something for yourself', don't be as conservative as I am. You got to take some risks, Christian. I had an uncle who was a wild and crazy Italian, and he took all kinds of, Insane risks. And he grew up in an era where it was just like, you know, disco mania. He was like my hero. The guy had four Corvettes and like a girlfriend in every state. And I thought he was like the coolest dude on the planet. Big Afro. He was like, Joe, cool. Walked in the room, and the room stopped, you know, and he was an entrepreneur. And my grandfather, owned a radio station. And my uncle took the land. It was in a rural, very rural area of Pennsylvania. He took the land, and he grew up. He did everything. I saw all that risk, how he failed a lot of times, but I also saw all the risk in what he got out of it, et cetera, and so, You know, I took a combination of all those things. Do you have any advice for someone wanting to get into the outdoor industry? The outdoor industry has changed since I've been in it. You can really make a career even at a low level. There's a lot more opportunity because there aren't as many giants, I think, in the industry. I can look back and reflect now and go, okay, yeah, there was more opportunity than I thought, but I was so in love with Black Diamond and that climbing, and I didn't want to move. I think I know a lot of people still in the industry, and they're very successful. They make a great income and have made great lives for themselves and their families. So I think that's not as much of an obstacle as it was. The things that I would say are niche down, become an expert. Become an absolute expert in a niche environment, and you will be rewarded, and that goes for anything in business. How about a couple of your favorite books? Well, there's, there's a couple, there's one book, it's by Seth Godin called The Dip. This is more of a business book, and the concept of The Dip is, you know when you're climbing as an individual in your career path. A lot of people think of it as a linear line, this like line at a 45 degree angle or whatever angle it may be. But the reality is that line goes up, and then it dips below its point. But then after the dip, it usually gains an incremental amount more so than you would if you would have continued in a static line. And Seth's concept on that is, look, sometimes, and in most cases, you will gain a certain stature or knowledge or whatever it may be in the point of your career. Take the dip. Go do something else that's going to add value that you have calculated value that you know you're going to exceed where that point is or was going to be. And you'll see incremental growth. So the dip is one of them. The other one from a fly fishing perspective, there is a book by Rick Halfel and Skip Morris. And I cannot remember the third name (Dave Hughes). There are three guys, and it's called Seasons for Trout. And what I love about it is these three guys. They all have different backgrounds. One's like a biologist, one's like an angler, and another guy has some kind of other fishery degree or something like that. They're all great anglers, very well-known names. They've written several books, but what they do in this book is they go season by season, and they talk about the different hatches in each season, but each one of them gives their perspective on how they fish it and what their Tactical, technical, and observational standpoints are. And then the last one would be more entertaining, and that is, Oh, what is the book called? Pirate Latitudes. I just love, they go through the history of the Caribbean and the, the transportation of people from Europe to Louisiana and the whole people trading and, and then this, this commerce aspect and Crichton is like, you know, brilliant when it comes to describing detail, describes the details, but then he goes into. Did you come up with that piece of gear yet? Yeah. I think the piece of gear I relish probably the most would be my Buff. It is something that has just saved my tail over and over again from a standpoint of, you know, I get sensitive to the sun because of some of the drugs that I'm on for my long-term healthcare. And then also just keeping out of the bugs, wet it down, and cool yourself off. So, dollar for dollar man, whatever it was originally like that that's one of my favorite pieces of gear. The other I would say is, you know, I've always appreciated having just a really comfortable backpack of all the things I've had. As we wrap up is there anything else you'd like to say to our listeners or ask of our listeners? I would say don't get too enamored with the names in the industry. They're people, and they're some of the most real people you'll meet. Follow up If you guys ever want to reach out to me, need some help or advice, you can reach me on LinkedIn. It's Christian Bacasa B A C A S A. Or you can go to the Fly Fishing Insider Podcast, DM me on Instagram, D U P E A fish, like trick-a-fish. You can DM me there, et cetera. So it's not hard to find me.
We missed UK Proms in the Park last year, much to our disappointment. So we were delighted to be invited to come along to this year's event, set at the West Mids Showground.The UK Proms in the Park is an open-air classical concert featuring a wonderful orchestra lead by Alex Postlethwaite and conducted by Joe Davies. When is comes to culture, classical music is the engine that drives it. Whether it be operas, TV shows, cartoons or movies classical music is the perfect companion to all media in general.So, Alex was in his absolute element running around with a microphone speaking to musicians, organisers and sampling music too (including a beautiful solo by the one and only Katy Rink!). We tried to get a lengthy interview with organiser Peter Metcalf but he was here, there and everywhere doing his thing. We spoke to conductor Joe Davies, leader Alex Postlethwaite, the beautiful voice that is Samantha Oxborough and compare/singer Rodney Earl Clarke.WORD-UP! Ok, so we implemented a new game on the show (at probably the worst time) We asked for a list of random words that had to be wedged into conversations that took place on this podcast. We had 46 words, but how well do you think Alex did shoehorning them into his interviews?The UK Proms in the Park is a tour and there are 3 more shows to go in Warwick Castle, Bath and Windsor so if you would like tickets, we highly recommend taking a look at the website for more information and ticket sales - https://www.ukacgroup.com/ukpromsinthepark-1
Coming to you from Cups Coffee in Shrewsbury Town, AL is taking on both father and Biscuit duties as he speaks to Peter Metcalf about the exciting Shrewsbury Proms in the Park event. On the 10th of September the West Mids Showground will erupt with classical music, featuring the stunning voice of Holly Teague and a 40 pieces orchestra. First we need to find out more about our guest. How did Peter get into this line of work? What were his first events to create and what is a more important motivator, failure or success? We discuss what people can look forward to with the proms and how Peter keeps a cool head when it comes to planning an event like this. We also speak to Nikki, owner of Cups Coffee to find out more about her business. 6s16UTBegqVgPsHGjvRk
Listen as Black Diamond Equipment's founder, Peter Metcalf, tells the amazing story of surviving the first alpine style ascent of the south face of Alaska's Mt. Hunter.
O2 Utah presents O2 & You! This week, David will be joined by Peter Metcalf, O2 Utah Board Member and the Leas Co-Founder of Black Diamond Equipment. Together, they will discuss the impact climbing has had on Peter's life, his work in the both the outdoor industry and land stewardship spaces, environmental advocacy in business practice, and more!
YourSkipper Podcast - with superyacht captains and professionals
A few years ago I posted a job for a relief skippers position for St Hilda Sea Adventures skippering Sea Horse II for charters around the West coast of Scotland. Peter took the position and we have since become friends. He has a fascinating career starting in dinghies in Ireland as a kid, and then… The post Interview // Peter Metcalf appeared first on Delivery / Relief Skipper - Cameron Springthorpe.
When Joe Vernachio joined Patagonia as a product line manager in the late eighties, it didn't dawn on him that 30 years later that he would be at the helm of a yet-to-be conceived brand named Mountain Hardwear. His time at Patagonia led him to Nike, where he expanded his product and business expertise and he eventually returned to the outdoor industry in executive roles for Roots Canada, Spyder, and The North Face. A resident of Marin County, when he's not cheering on his son at football games or daughter at volleyball games, he's doing casual stuff any executive does . . . like train to summit Everest. Facebook Twitter Instagram The Outdoor Biz Podcast Please give us a rating and review HERE Show Notes Tell us about your attempt to climb Mt Everest, did you top out? No, we didn't. We went in the fall, last October. The mountain hadn't really been climbed in about six years in the autumn. The conditions are tougher, it's getting colder, it's getting windier, and the Icefall was in really rough shape. It took us almost a month just to get through the icefall. And then when we did, there was a huge Serac overhead, right in the same spot that took out many of the Sherpas a few years prior. It was just way too risky. So we backed off, but it was awesome to be back in the mountains and on that mountain specifically. The Mountain moves around a little bit more, I think than it does in May. We're just looking at the jet stream and just seeing when it's not on the top of the mountain. So we could time our summit attempt for when we had a good window when it wouldn't be so windy. We'd never really even saw that window. So it just made the most sense to not put anybody at risk more than we needed to. What was amazing was that there was nobody on the mountain. It was just three of us. There were maybe 20 people in base camp versus a thousand people. How were you introduced to the Outdoors? The classic story. My dad was a woodsman, a hunter, and a fisherman and we'd go canoeing as a family. So I was introduced to the outdoors that way. When I was about 13, this guy named George Willig climbed the twin towers in New York City. And I lived just outside of New York City. There were lots of articles in the newspaper about this guy and this thing called rock climbing. And this place that he climbed called the Shawangunks up in New York. Being close enough to it, I made my way up there and got exposed to this thing called rock climbing. I just became fascinated with it and did what I could on my own as a kid. Then I went to the University of Wisconsin, and there was a climbing area out there called Devil's Lake, which is just a nice little top roping area that I was able to hone my skills and, and learn quite a bit about it. How does a guy with degrees in biochemistry and biology get into the outdoor industry? After I got out of school, I just had no idea what I was going to do with any of those degrees. I got a job at Erewhon Mountain Shop in Madison working for Jeff Weidman. He was the store manager and I loved it. I just loved being around the product. I love opening the boxes when they came in and I just couldn't wait to see all the new stuff. I think our Patagonia rep at the time was Rock Horton, who's a long time outdoor industry employee with Black Diamond. I think he just retired just recently. He made some introductions for me. At the time Patagonia and Chouinard equipment were very, very small. Peter Metcalf said come on out and I'll give you a job. I think there were about 12 of us at Chouinard equipment at the time. I worked in the area attached to the original Patagonia store. You've been with an impressive list of brands, which of your roles has been most inspiring? I would say my education in business and how to make great product was Nike, no doubt about it. I was there from ‘89 to 2000. It was just the skyrocket of growth and just the culture and how to make great products while still growing business very rapidly. The culture there was, was fantastic I've always admired Mark Parker. I think he just recently stepped down as president, CEO. But Mark was part of the team back then. It was just an amazing group of talented, people there that I got to work shoulder to shoulder with. I definitely learned the product side of it and the design and the respect for the process of design from Nike. My time at Spyder was really valuable and just understanding the financial side of it. Running a company on a line of credit, going deep in debt, and then coming out of debt, much like a retailer operates was really valuable. And then there really isn't a day that goes by that I don't rely on some of my memories at outdoor industry retailer Erewhon working on a store floor and what that feels like. Having a rep come in and, and engage with you as a store kid and how it really just grabs you and makes you a brand champion. How is Mountain Hardware navigating the current environment? We're all working from home. We're on video conferences all day long. We were able to do a couple of weeks of prep prior to it. We could kind of see it coming. So we did some prep. So it was a nice transition. It wasn't that abrupt. Our motto to ourselves is we're not surviving. We're preparing. We're not just trying to figure out how to survive this thing. We're actually trying to make sure we use this time to hone our outdoor industry product positioning and our brand messaging and our values to make sure we come out of this really strong, really sharp. We just feel strongly that people are actually going to probably have more of a connection to nature and to the outdoors and appreciation for it than they did going into this. I don't see any indication that it's going to go the other way What are you hearing in the last weeks or six weeks as we've gone through this that inspires you? I think that the thing that's most inspiring is just the really good outdoor industry retailers, the really good brands and the really good factories are all linking arms and realizing that we all need each other. And if we are mean to each other and disrespectful to each other through this process, it's not going to work. I think in situations like this, the best come out and people, and that's what we've seen. We've seen mostly cooperation and understanding, and everyone just trying to find stable ground to stand on and I feel like six weeks into it, it's kind of where we are. And today, we're starting to hear about some stores that are starting to open around the country. So we'll take a look at what that looks like and see what this feels like. I don't think we're under any impression that outdoor industry doors are just gonna be wide open and everyone's gonna rush in. Just some movement, I think we'll start to make people feel a little bit better and set us up for probably early next year to start to get a little closer to whatever the new normal is. How do you think it's gonna impact the outdoor industry supply chain? I lived in Asia for seven years, work directly with the factories while I was with Nike. So I've had a number of years in Thailand, Singapore, and Taiwan and know the factory side of things as well. If I learned anything during that time, it's just how resilient and how customer service focused the factories and mills are. We certainly had some disruption when China shut down and now some of the other countries are shutting down. But boy, their ability to recover is miraculous. And, while we've had some disruption in the supply, it's not that impactful. I'd say it's just a little bit worse than a normal season where you always have some problems somewhere in the world that you're dealing with. But nothing we can't recover from. The biggest challenge in this whole event will be inventory and where does it pile up and how does it get dispersed? That's the game. I mean, retailers, they're trying to reduce their pile. Brands are trying to reduce their pile and factories are trying to reduce their pile What about the future of outdoor industry trade shows? I was in the sports and fitness industry when the super show is going on in Atlanta. That was a show was maybe the biggest and everyone thought that would never end. And it did and the industry went on and you worked out other ways to do it. I think there's a much bigger cultural component to it for us in the outdoor industry. So, on a personal level, I would hate to see it go away. On a business level, I think there are ways to do it. They're not as personal and there's not as much comradery around it, but it still gets the business done. I mean, we're going to do it this year. But I really, really hope it comes back and that we can all get together again and, create that culture that really existed. I mean, you just get to see so many more people than you would have otherwise. Suggestions or advice for folks wanting to get into the outdoor adventure business or grow their career? I think my advice to get in the outdoor industry is just to get in with a retailer or a brand that you respect and admire. What I say to young people is to be sure you understand the company's values before you join. Because if you don't align with their values, then you're not going to like a lot of the decisions they make. So that, and a lot of companies won't be able to articulate their values, if they can't articulate them, then that tells you something too. Other things we talked about Favorite Gear under $100: Mountain Hardwear Kor Pre Shell OR Banner: “Be nice to each other” Find Joe on Linkedin Subscribe HERE to The Outdoor Biz Podcast and get every episode delivered right to your inbox.
Directly southeast of Glacier National Park, you can find the Badger-Two Medicine area of the Helena-Lewis & Clark National Forest. In the early 1980’s the land was leased for energy development.Since 1984 the Glacier-Two Medicine Alliance has advocated for the cancellation of these leases, and they've been successful on all but one, which is still held by an energy development company (at the time of this transcript). Alongside the Blackfeet nation, nationwide and statewide conservation groups, The Glacier-Two Medicine Alliance has helped prevent any energy development of the land thus far.Peter Metcalf serves as the Executive Director for the Glacier-Two Medicine Alliance. He talks about trying to create cohesiveness among the various interest groups and conservation efforts, what it looks like to be the sole employee of such an important organization, and how his variety of work has prepared him for his current role. Check out the Glacier-Two Medicine Alliance at: https://www.glaciertwomedicine.org/Feel free to also check out the: Flathead Beacon Article Here from Jan 24, 2020.
Matt has an informative chat with Peter, founder and CEO emeritus of Black Diamond, focusing on the relationship between outdoor recreation companies and environmental activism. Peter talks about the company’s history, why Black Diamond moved to Utah, and how he has fought to leverage the outdoor industry’s influence to help protect Utah’s natural environment. They conclude by talking about Bears Ears, and Peter’s work to urge President Obama to declare the region a National Monument. To learn more about Black Diamond’s environmental efforts, visit the sustainability section of their website.
Matt has an informative chat with Peter, founder and CEO emeritus of Black Diamond, focusing on the relationship between outdoor recreation companies and environmental activism. Peter talks about the company’s history, why Black Diamond moved to Utah, and how he has fought to leverage the outdoor industry’s influence to help protect Utah’s natural environment. They conclude by talking about Bears Ears, and Peter’s work to urge President Obama to declare the region a National Monument. To learn more about Black Diamond’s environmental efforts, visit the sustainability section of their website.
The US president is ending protection of vast areas of wild land in two national monuments. The decision led to outcry but not everyone in Utah is against it. Peter Metcalf, the man behind Black Diamond mountaineering gear, is on the trail. #NationalMonuments #BlackDiamond #Route66
In 2016, we conducted an extensive series of interviews and surveys to find out how OIA—the outdoor industry’s membership trade association—can best support outdoor companies. What we learned is that our members see us as a convener—the unifying entity best equipped to galvanize the industry around three important issues: policy, participation and sustainable business. We then identified individuals who are already working to move the needle on those issues within their respective companies. Ever wonder how CEOs of big outdoor brands started their careers in the outdoor industry? We talked to Casey Sheahan of Keen and Peter Metcalf, formerly of Black Diamond, to find out. Turns out in this line of work, leadership is about more than business savvy and work ethic. Peter and Casey are utterly respectful and personally dependent upon public lands. They infuse that sentiment into every business decision they make. If you want to know authenticity in the outdoor industry, you need to know Sheahan and Metcalf. Want to learn more about these individuals and the work OIA is doing to foster collaboration throughout the industry and to catalyze change? Visit outdoorindustry.org/outdoorist to subscribe to our weekly newsletter and our Audio Outdoorist podcast.
Peter Metcalf, founder and former CEO of Black Diamond, shared mountain story with the IMR. He called this talk "Alpinism, Entrepreneurship and Environmentalism" and includes a lot of valuable information for anyone interested in business, environmental issues and mountain life! This is a live recording from a fireside chat.
Peter Metcalf is the CEO of Black Diamond Equipment and a board member of the Outdoor Industry Association. He wasn’t always all business though. He has climbed audacious routes in Alaska, one of which is a first alpine ascent of the Central Rib on Mt. Hunter’s south face. Black Diamond was started when Chouinard Equipment filed for bankruptcy and Peter and some other passionate climbers scrounged up enough money to buy out the assets.
On Episode 90 of the Enormocast, I sit down across the table from Peter Metcalf, CEO and founder of Black Diamond. Peter discovered his love of the mountains on the East Coast but quickly found himself in the Alaska range testing his teenage mettle against the Last Frontier’s gnarliest peaks. After sating his youthful obsession with … Continue reading "Episode 90: Peter Metcalf- Big Peaks and High Stakes."
Peter Metcalf is the CEO of Black Diamond Equipment and a board member of the Outdoor Industry Association. He wasn’t always all business though. He has climbed audacious routes in Alaska, one of which is a first alpine ascent of the Central Rib on Mt. Hunter’s south face. Black Diamond was started when Chouinard Equipment filed for bankruptcy and Peter and some other passionate climbers scrounged up enough money to buy out the assets.
Episode 32 is HOT! No really, it's just really hot outside and the Gear Fix Duo is definitely feeling the heat. On this week's episode Mike and Tim discuss the Tour de France and the latest news from Lance Armstrong and Dope-Gate 2012. A discussion on Peter Metcalf from Black Diamond resigning from the Utah Ski and Snowboard Industry Working Group leads to the Duo getting a little caught up in Utah politics. Sierra Designs is making sleeping bags that are afraid of water and the Duo wraps things up with some tips on how to enjoy the outdoors when it's crazy hot outside. All this and more on episode 32 of Gear Fix.