Field NotesNews

Our product designers and developers, our product-testing ambassadors and many of our other employees have traveled the CDT and have been inspired by star-filled nights dreaming of ways to evolve camping gear.

You probably know that the Continental Divide Trail is close to our hearts, and geographically it’s located right in our backyard. We found ourselves recreating on the CDT through enough summers to wonder how we could help maintain it.

"At CDTC, we are blessed to work with such passionate and supportive companies and partners. Big Agnes is one of those companies that not only provides support, but they also roll up their sleeves and literally dig in the dirt."

Pizza. Pizza was the first thing on our list as we rolled into Leadville. Being the eighth leg of the Big Agnes/Honey Stinger CDT relay meant we were meeting Section 7 participants at the trailhead to hand off the baton, and their very specific pizza orders from Mountain High Pies in Leadville.

As you can imagine, relocating 14 miles of a National Scenic Trail onto public land that doesn’t currently exist is no small task. First, we have to think about where the CDT could go – how to get from point A to point B if it wasn’t on the road, based on scenic views, natural resources, property boundaries, terrain, water sources, and more.

Something pretty powerful happens, however, when the depth of your vulnerability somehow parallels the level of trust your team has developed in one another. It allows you to feel all the feels: the frustration, the defeat, and the absolute rawness of the accumulation of the days.

Trail adoption is critical to the long-term sustainability of the CDT. Once any trail is built, that is only the beginning of a long-term commitment to the trail.

We understand that gear gets used–often hard–and hopefully for a long time. We want your Big Agnes gear to have the longest, healthiest life it can, and we’re here to help that happen.

We had the pleasure of working with Bob Swanson here at Big Agnes for more than a decade. His business card included the title, ‘The Tent Guy’. And while that was fitting professionally, he meant so much more to us as a friend, role model, sage and pioneer of the outdoor industry.

Sustainability is something everyone is talking about these days. To us, sustainability starts with our staff and our ability to maintain our small company in a mountain town like Steamboat Springs.

We’re firm believers that each of us is born into this crazy world as a dirtbag