Keep on Giving!

The Holiday Sales just keep on giving.  Three great gift ideas we're featuring this week:

Darn Tough Socks:  Merino Wool, Made in Vermont, Lifetime Guarantee.  Need I say more?  Warm and Comfortable maybe? Save 20%. 

Seirus Boot & Glove Dryers:  Plain and Simple.  The snow is coming, keep your feet warm and dry.  Only $34.95. Save 30%!

Petzl Tikkina w/ CORE Rechargeable Battery:  A basic headlamp good for lots of things.  FREE software download to program the battery for max output or max battery life.  Easy to use.  Only $29.95.  Save $40!

Cyber Monday Specials

It's hard to believe holiday season is here!  Black Friday is over and Cyber Monday is upon us--anyone else had enough of the Walmart ads?  What's harder to believe is that we've never devoted a blog to the amazing Big Agnes Fly Creek UL2 in the 3 years since it won Editor's Choice in the 2010 Backpacker Gear Guide.

You might be reading this blog because you're looking for the perfect gift for that backpacker in your life.  If he or she is really serious--and they don't already have one--they'll appreciate the compact and lightweight Fly Creek UL2.  I won't repeat what Backpacker's reviewers had to say, but at 2 lbs 2 oz. it almost has more in common with a bivy than a tent that most people under 6 ft can sit up in.  And if you want to be really light, this year Big Agnes trimmed down the Fly Creek UL2 with an even lighter Platinum version.

Since not everyone's in the market for a tent, we've put some other great Cyber Monday gift specials on our CC Outdoors home page.  From the Jetboil Java Kit to Darn Tough Socks you'll find some great gift ideas at great prices. 

Momentum Vortech GMT - Right on Time

Our Momentum watch collection just went on sale for the holiday--Thanksgiving that is.  Save 10% through 11/22 on our complete selection including the new Momentum Vortech GMT. 

The Momentum Vortech GMT ($295)  features all the quality and value of a Swiss designer sports watch at a fraction of the cost.  Designed with traveling adventurers in mind the yellow "GMT" hand allows you to track a second time zone.  And with a new Swiss made alarm, Momentum finally offers a rugged watch with a loud alarm--thanks to a new ceramic resonator.  Momentum fans may note that the Vortech looks a lot like the classic Momentum Pathfinder watch only larger and sportier, and with an alarm that's sure to wake you up. 

Outside Magazine readers may recognize the Momentum Vortech as it was picked by reviewer Will Palmer as one of six "Best Watches of 2013" in the Outside Buyer's Guide out last month.   Stock is good at the moment here and at Momentum, but we won't be surprised if supplies run out before Christmas so don't spend too much time thinking before you buy. 

The Outside Magazine Winter Buyer's Guide Picks CCOutdoorStore.com's Products: Sierra Designs Zissou 0 sleeping bag

Sierra Designs Zissou 0 sleeping bag

For years, sleeping bag science has been relatively simple. If you want to save money: get a sleeping bag with synthetic fill; if you want to save weight: get a bag with a down fill. And wet synthetic fill does keep you warm, whereas wet down gives does not.

Excuse my while I blow your mind.

Sierra Designs has created DriDown. Dridown is a hydrophobic membranous finish which bolsters Sierra Designs down to heights never before reached. DriDown absorbs water at a rate 10x slower than normal down, giving its insulating and loft qualities a seemingly untouchable edge over any other down insulator. It doesn't take a genius to figure out why Outside Magazine embraced the Sierra Designs Zissou 0 as its top winter camping sleeping bag.

At just three pounds one ounce (1.4 kg), the Zissou's snuggly warmth rating of zero degrees, paired with its state-of-the-art DriDown technology, make the Sierra Designs Zissou the premier winter camping sleeping bag. The Sierra Designs Zissou 0, equipped with DriDown, made the Outside Magazine 2012-2013 Winter Buyer's Guide with ease.

See Sierra Design's DriDown video: here

$299

The Outside Magazine Winter Buyer's Guide Picks CCOutdoorStore.com's Products: Jetboil Sumo TI Stove

The Jetboil Sumo TI stove will do you right where other stoves have wronged you; sizable meal preparation for group cooking, snow melting, and cooking with a canister in cold temperatures prove to be no problemo for the Sumo TI. In this Jetboil stove, heavyweight meets lightweight. Let me explain the name. Sumo is for its heavyweight stature of a 60oz (1.8L) capacity, and TI is short for titanium, stronger and 45% lighter than steel. In fact, the Sumo TI cooking system weighs in at only 12 ounces!

Although canister-powered stoves have notoriously performed less than optimally in cold temperatures, Outside Magazine attests that the effect was only marginal. Whether you are cooking for a group, melting snow for drinking water, or desire to make meals larger than what other stoves have limited you to, the Jetboil Sumo TI will be your best friend.

It's no wonder that the Sumo TI is one of the most desired cooking systems by adventurers, and it's no wonder how it found its way onto the Outside Magazine Buyer's Guide for winter camping in 2012-2013; the Sumo TI is powerful, sleek and versatile. 

Jetboil Sumo TI stove: $189

Look Who's Sporting His Lowas!

Remember to Vote.  And why not pick up a pair of Lowa Tempest Lo hiking shoes like the President's to get yourself down to the polls? 

The Outside Magazine Winter Buyer's Guide Picks CCOutdoorStore.com's Products: Petzl Nao

The Petzl Nao headlamp is one of the coolest gadgets in existence today. The hands-free, responsive adjustments of the sensor-equipped Nao headlamp gives you exactly and specifically what you need: light, nothing more, nothing less.

Essential for winter use, the Nao will adjust its lumen output on its own, without the user ever having to take off their gloves to brave a button press bare-skinned. The Nao's automatic wherewithal to give its users necessary illumination anywhere from 7 lumens all the way up to 355 lumens(!) makes the Nao, Petzl's "brightest" headlamp.

That is why Outside Magazine selected it as the best headlamp to have when winter camping in the upcoming 2012-2013 season.

Petzl's Nao video: here

$175

Wild by Cheryl Strayed: A Review

All it took were the words Pacific Crest Trail memoir and I was off to the library.  It turns out that Wild by Cheryl Strayed (March 2012) has been wildly popular...and I waited a month and half for my name to come off the waitlist.  Thanks to Oprah, this summer everyone seemed to be reading about long distance hiking on the PCT! 

I'd expected to follow a grueling physical journey punctuated by descriptions of magnificent beauty.  I hadn't read any of the reviews; all it took for me to get excited to read the book was the backpacking boot on the cover! 

But this isn't that type of memoir.  Yes, Strayed emerges from her 1100 mile solo trek as "The Queen of the PCT", but her journey flashes back along an emotional highlight reel that almost got so depressing that I ended my trek after 4 chapters.  I didn't expect the author's travels from the Tehacapi Pass in Southern California to the Bridge of the Gods on the Washington border to share quite so much about sex, drug use, and grief over the loss of her mother.  But Strayed is a masterful storyteller, who grabbed my attention and kept me turning page after page. 

While in the end Strayed completes her travails spiritually uplifted, I didn't quite get the inspiration I'd hoped -- the one that was going to spring me from my day job for my own epic hike.  Strayed's ill-fitted hiking boots, overweight hiking backpack, and lack of physical training contributed greatly to what sounded like a god-awful experience.   Unlike Bill Bryson and his fellow AT thru-hikers in A Walk the Woods, Strayed had the hardest time liberating herself from non-essential gear like her stash of condoms.  But the way she faces down immense physical dangers like rattlers, dehydration and the loss of her hiking boots does make for an inspiring tale of individual courage and perseverance.