Speaking of print features ORDER ISSUE 4 HERE

Anyway I truly think the Adirondacks are so special and unknown so here’s some facts to convince you to think the same:

1. Adirondack Park is 6 million acres of preserved land established in 1892 for “THE FREE USE OF ALL THE PEOPLE FOR THEIR HEALTH AND PLEASURE” - How cool is that. Can you imagine how sick the person who wrote that in 1892 was and how they just wanted all people to be happier and healthier.

2. The park contains over 100 peaks, 2,800 lakes and ponds, 30,000 miles of rivers and streams, and an estimated 200,000 acres of old-growth forests. It is also the largest continuous park in the United States.

3. The range is considered to be “new mountains from old rocks” as it is made from ancient rocks more than 1 billion years old but only formed into mountains during recent periods of glaciation.

4. The high peaks continue to grow at an estimated rate of 2mm per year so on every visit you can expect your hike to get a little bit harder.

That’s all I have for now as well as this little GIVEAWAY for newsletter subscribers :)

To celebrate spending time in the mountains we have a little giveaway from our friends at Cascade Designs and Astral. Specifically MSR DynaLock Explore Trekking Poles, Platypus Quickdraw Filter, Astral High Noon Hemp T Shirt, and Astral Kinisi Hemp Shorts. Winner can choose the size and color of the Astral pieces.

HOW TO ENTER: Reply to this newsletter with hi, or :), or fuck you, or whatever really, and follow this Substack, and you’ll be entered. You can get bonus entries for sending a screenshot of you sharing this newsletter with a friend. Every share equals one entry. The contest goes until August 22.

Trying something new here so we’ll see how it goes. But hopefully this is a way to give a gift and grow the community at the same time without being too annoying.

Also I’m planning on trail running (mostly walking) the Great Range Traverse sometime in October so expect some more Adirondack content then.

The Great Range Traverse is a 22 miles and 9000 feet of elevation gain. It summits 11 peaks in the High Peak Wilderness area of Adirondack Park. It’s considered one of the hardest day hikes in the USA because of all the scrambling and rugged terrain on the trail. Hopefully I can do it in under 10 hours because trail running is just gamified hiking after all.

LINKS

Mill explodes in Jay Maine - This is from a few years ago but someone reminded me of it recently. This is pretty close to where I grew up and if you ever wondered what a Maine accent is like listen here.

Epicly Later’d doc - Doc behind skate doc pioneer Patrick O’Dell

New Ceremony Record - This is just one of the videos for the single but the whole album is out now

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If you haven’t got a copy yet you can order HERE or connect me with your local outdoor or magazine store and I’ll try to get them copies so you can buy in person.

Timeline:

Send to printer

Fly to Paris

Heat wave

See Issue 4 in real life for the first time at News and Coffee release event

Throw party with KEEN at their showroom for Issue 4

Drop copies off for our favorite brands who had showrooms in Paris

30,000 steps a day in 103 degree heat 3 days in a row

Brunch celebration with our friends at Days Cafe

Fly to NYC

Heat wave

Build a wall with an iPad inside to show our Dancing With Shadows video

NYC release event at Pilgrim

Drop copies off at the NYC newsstands

Few days off happen here (even got to go to the beach)

Drive to Maine

Portland, ME release event at Bold Magazine Shop

Start fulfilling wholesale and online orders

Write this newsletter…

Now we just keep the ball rolling…

I also had some new FSP shirts made and built a new website for FSP if you want to check that out. HERE Now that above list is accomplished I should be sewing a little more. So if you want anything send a message.

And some links

Dancing With Shadows - A trail running short by Amateurs Mag

Jerry Hsu B sides - The best faller in the game

This NTS show I caught the other day

White Mountain Bounty - More fun in NH for the trail runners

Neal Purchase Jnr docuseries from his Pilgrim Shaping Residency last year

That’s all for now, tell a friend

-Blair

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I know I’m bias but this issue is the best one yet, and holding it in my hands has even convinced me that it’s a good idea to get on my little computer and get to work so we can do this all over again next year.

Buy Issue 4 online HERE

Or if you live in NYC we have a release event TODAY at Pilgrim Surf + Supply in Brooklyn from 6:30 to 8:30

Some things you can look forward to in Issue 4:

Barcelona-based photographer Colette der Kinderen captures trail running through the Pyrenees Range.

We discuss winter sport in New Hampshire’s White Mountains with community-organizer Andrew Drummond and photographer R. Perry Flowers.

Ramona Jingru Wang explores the concept of play through a fashion editorial.

Miwa Susuda writes about the legacy of Hiroshi Hamaya through his Snow Land series.

We survey the work of French artist Jean- Luc Mylayne and his meditation on the communion of human and bird.

Alex Kapsidelis offers a piece of fiction around a mythological two-headed trout illustrated by painter Kat Lyons.

Artist-photographer Ashley Peña brings nature to the studio to reflect on texture and form.

Plus much more…

Here’s more info about the NYC event

And here’s some highlights of a few spreads

Also if you live in Maine we will be doing a release event on Friday, July 10th 5pm to 7pm at Bold Magazines in Portland.

I wanted to get back to doing the link thing but haven’t had much time in the past few weeks to check things out. This is all I got.

New Spitfire Thrasher vid

Amateurs Mag NTS radio show

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So here’s my theory. As this new digital economy fills our treat quota the corporations profiting off physical treats suffer. Little Debbie sales are way down. Influence has shifted and now big protein is stepping in. Inevitably in your algorithm at some point you see hot, strong people. The snack companies know this and now they are trying to co-opt your digital treats to sell you more physical treats. They want you to think an Oatmeal Cream Pie with 14 grams of protein or a Dunkin’ protein latte is going to turn you into Mr. or Ms. 6 pack. The problem is all this protein infused bullshit tastes awful. Not only are they trying to trick you to buy a more expensive treat that tastes like ass, but they think you’ll still buy in because the illusion that a 600 calorie treat with 20g of protein will in fact make you into the person you want to be.

Stick with me here. The Treat Economy timeline we are currently in:

Digital treats replace physical treats → Digital treats influence health → New treats created so you can buy health → New treats actually unhealthy → And now the ultimate full circle moment…

The only people who are still freely crushing delicious treats of old like Zebra Cakes and Snickers Bars are the endurance athletes. Ultra runners, climbers, everyone on all day adventures. These are the people who influence you to want to be stronger and fitter, but they are the ones eating massive amounts of nasty calories with no protein enhancement in sight. Candy, Oreos, bottles of Coke, the endurance athletes are eating like 14 year old gammers while we’re convinced we need to choke down a protein matcha.

So I’m encouraging you to put down that nasty protein packed bar and go run, go climb, go on an all day adventure. Pack your pockets with all the delicious treats you want, get your heart rate up, burn some sugar, eat some sugar. Sweat out some salt and eat some chips. Get off the feed for a few hours and enjoy your favorite treat.

I’ll be leaving my phone at home for a long run and coming back to a bowl of Life Cereal. And stuffing some Nutty bars in my vest on my next day in the mountains.

And now just in case you made it through that nonsense that’s been weighing on my mind for the past 6 months and you live in NYC - This weekend on Saturday May 2nd we are hosing a gear exchange in Brooklyn.

If you have any old outdoor gear that’s still good but you are ready to pass on there is the gear drop off Thursday and Friday at 46 Park St for the consignment shop.

Come by Saturday morning at 40 Beaver St. for a run and a park workout with Dominguez Corp and Still Studio

Then right up the street at 46 Park St. we will have the community gear consignment shop open for shopping as well as other vintage outdoor gear and wears from a Rocki and some other friends.

I’ll also be doing gear repair, so if you have anything that needs adhesive patching or sewing repairs bring it by and I’ll get through what I can.

Food and drinks too!

See you then :)

Also Issue 4 coming soon. It’s almost done…

The winter environment changes so much with every visit. We’ve sat on top of Gothics in January without a jacket, we’ve trudged through waist deep snow on untracked linking trails, and this year we got over a foot of fresh snow over 2 days. I got to ski fresh snow and spend a lot of time looking at the grey skies.

Anyway here’s a little home video from this year’s trip

And some photos from Reggie

Men’s week in Paris has also come to encompass outdoor and running brands, running is hot, outdoors is fashion, the elements are our enemies and we must now look as stylish as possible while keeping the weather from reaching our fragile skin. All these brands being in Paris at the same time was a good chance for us to put faces and conversations to brands we want to work with on future issues of the mag too. (Big upgrade from the typical long email chain)

So the story goes, after a few weeks of menu planning, playlist making, and invite sending we were on an overnight flight with a packed schedule of showroom meetings and dinners.

Over the course of the week we saw some interesting brands, met some photographers, made some new friends, and finally put some faces to ongoing e-mail conversations. If anyone we met is reading this look out for that media kit in the next week or two ;) For nothing else at least these big capitalistic centered events bring people together for real life hour long conversations. And that’s more and more rare in doing business these days.

Despite all of the new talented and interesting people we met we still spent most of our free time with our existing friends who were also out there. There’s something special about getting dinner with someone you live 20 minutes from when you’re both thousands of miles from home, away from the typical distractions of everyday life. So shout out to Pilgrim, Earth\Studies, and William Ellery for being owned and operated by true friends who make it worth traveling 3,500 miles to get dinner. And to KEEN for hiring people who also make it worth traveling 3,500 miles for dinner and believing in the project that is Amateurs.

The only photo I took the entire trip was on the way home flying over Greenland so sorry for the lack of the usually #35mm content, but we did do a little filming on the camcorder so here’s a full influencer recap in 30 seconds.

Also I don’t think this needs to be said but to make it abundantly clear. We don’t support the administration, we don’t support any of the wars or invasions or coups, we don’t support ICE, we don’t support the police. All we want is peace, health, and safety for everyone around the world.

1) Amateurs Mag Dad Hat

The perfect gift for the person in your life who’s can’t get enough print media. Or someone who is just easily aroused in general. This gift should cover most people on your list. If they are a little shy we recommend the black on black.

2) Everything else on the Amateurs Mag Site

All these books and magazine will be absolutely ideal for anyone on your list who doesn’t fit into the first category. All material is educational, inspirational, ____ational …

3) Some crap on the FSP site

There’s a few Color Block Fanny Packs and Lumbar Packs left on there, and also some really nice new nylon caps made from a premium woven in Japan nylon gridstop fabric. These may seem like summer hats to the untrained eye but when paired with a wool balaclava they are in fact the perfect winter hat for running, and when worn under a hood they check all the boxes for casual winter hat.

4) Anything made by someone in your community

In our minds and in our hearts we feel that hardcore music (money we spend) should stay out of big business and stay in the streets where it belongs. Always keep the faith.

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Snow Drifters is a traveling ski and snowboard meeting point and shop, bringing people together to celebrate and bond over snowy mountains.

This year the NYC shop will feature

Gentemstick, Acid Snow Ski and Sport, FSP Outdoors, MTN Bum, Overview Coffee, Pilgrim Surf and Supply, Brothers Rockaway, Wagner Skis, Pa’lante Packs

And the LA shop will feature all of the above and add

Dust to Crust, and Crescent Down Works

So come by, socialize, make friends, look at ski gear, plan adventures, crew up, and hit the mountains this winter.

Here’s the info:

Brooklyn, NY - Thursday November 13th - 7pm to 9pm - at Pilgrim Surf and Supply on 33 Grand St.

Los Angeles, CA - Thursday November 20th - 7pm to 9pm - at Acid Snow Ski and Sport HQ - Atwater, 3003 Glendale Blvd. Plus Noon to 5pm Friday and Saturday.

We will also be showing a new film from Sun Bum

Hope to see you there :)

And here’s some info about the new FSP packs that will be at the events

Avy Gear Pod

This is a little pod that turns any backpack into a backcountry ski pack. Organize all your rescue tools in one place. It’s also waterproof from the inside so you can stash wet skins and other gear in here to keep the rest of your pack dry. Dedicated pockets for shovel, handle, and probe.

Lo Alpine Daypack upgrade

New and improved with better attachment points for skis, ice tools, crampons, and all other accessories. Added a tuck away waist belt and a new top closure with a little zipper pocket under the brain.

This one is special materials for the Snow Drifters collab. Orange grid stop is in person shopping only

And some pouches made out of scraps

All this stuff is at the events only for now. But Lumbar Packs are back in stock online :)

That’s all hope to see you at the events :)

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VOTE NO on PROPOSAL ONE to protect ADIRONDACK PARK.

FOREVER WILD MEANS FOREVER.

NO PRIVATE DEVELOPMENT OF PUBLIC LANDS

Proposal one seeks an exception to the “Forever Wild” clause enshrined in Article 14 of the New York State Constitution. The ballot measure proposes to allow for private development within the protected lands of Adirondack Park, an area that has enjoyed protected status since 1892.

Article 14’s “Forever Wild” provision was the first of its kind in the United States, a groundbreaking law that paved the way for other wilderness areas to obtain protected status around the nation. It has allowed the Adirondacks to remain the largest state park outside of Alaska. The park consists of 6 million acres of protected land including some of the largest old growth forests east of the Mississippi river and many rare species of plants (including the arctic-alpine plants which you can read about in Issue 3).

This ballot proposal seeks to amend the NYS Constitution to permit the government to carve out special agreements for private development of our protected forests. The proposal itself uses deceptive language in an attempt to mislead voters about what is really at stake. At first glance, a yes vote does in fact add more land to the preserve than it seeks to remove. However, by altering the “forever wild” status of even a few acres it puts all of the park’s protected land at risk to future development.

Developers are counting on this ballot provision to slide through quietly. It has received little to no media coverage despite the dangerous precedent it sets for protected lands around the country. In many municipalities around the state without local elections happening, this is the only ballot measure - meaning people probably won’t go to the polls and vote. That means this decision will largely be made by NYC voters who will be turning out in record numbers for the mayoral election.

Please help spread the word to VOTE NO on PROPOSAL ONE to protect ADIRONDACK PARK.

FOREVER WILD MEANS FOREVER.

NO PRIVATE DEVELOPMENT OF PUBLIC LANDS

For other NYC specific issues I find the Soft Power Vote guide is usually a good starting point.

And here’s a few visual reminders why this area is so special.

SPREAD THE WORD

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FOREVER WILD MEANS FOREVER

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The Book Fair is this weekend October 10th to 12th at 180 Maiden Lane

Of course we will have copies of the new issue #3 which you can also get HERE but we are also bringing some fun stuff that inspires us from our personal collections of books and magazines.

If you’re around NYC this weekend come by. Opening night RSVP HERE for Friday (6pm to 9pm free drinks) Or Saturday and Sunday it’s open 12pm to 6pm with out RSVP

And here’s a small selection of some of the non Amateurs books we’ll have for sale

Summit Journal, April 1972

This issue includes a feature on a winter climb through the Adirondacks. It’s shocking to see how much snow there is, and how different some of the mountains look in these 50 year old photos. A must have for anyone from New York who spends time in Adirondack Park. We have a few of these 70’s Summit Journals and most of them feature something in the North East wether it be Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, or New York.

Surfers Journal, 25.1 February 2016

Cover features the iconic photo of Craig Anderson maxing out his 5’4” Hypto. This issue also has a Thomas Campbell book mark inside and lots of other surf content spanning the globe.

Zoom Magazine, November 1982

This French edition of Zoom features an editorial by Linda McCartney with photos of all the Beatles, their children, and even Bob Dylan. This large format magazine also has a ton of other notable photo features as well as what I believe is a section by the guy who shot all the iconic western Marlboro ads (my French is a little rusty)

Raymond Pettibon Surfers 1985 - 2015

Before the more widely distributed Point Break, this was Pettibon’s first book of surfers, a chronological survey of all of his surfer works, it was first available alongside a huge exhibition in 2015.

Natio Masatoshi Another World Unveiled

This book is a career survey of Natio that accompanied his 2018 exhibition by the same name. He spent much of his career studying folk religions in Japan. Natio employed the camera as a “magic tool to perceive the intangible,” and explored folkloric studies as a “camera behind the camera that makes it possible to see an invisible world” (if that doesn’t make you want this book there’s no hope)

Anyway we’ll have a lot more cool stuff too and we’ll be posted up all weekend ready to talk about art books and magazines.

If you are looking for something else to do this weekend that doesn’t require being in NYC or leaving your house - check out the new Thomas Campbell surf movie Yi-Wo online premiere. I don’t really know how it works but I think you log in HERE anytime between the 10th and the 12th and you can stream the video and a Q&A. It will go perfectly with the bookmark from that Surfers Journal issue above.

We (Blair and Rich) had the idea to “trail run” this route a few months ago and finally made it happen last weekend. It’s hard to describe how truly unrunnable this route feels, the 4 hour 13 minute FKT by Jack Kuenzle is shocking with the amount of scrambling you have to do.

But enough excuses here’s how it went.

We left the house at 4:30am to drive an hour and a half to meet someone to shuttle us from the end of the route to the start. We changed into our gear in the dark and rode the 45 minutes to the start, stopping at the gas station to fill up water. Cold start but we warmed up fast as the first few miles was pretty runnable. Then the pace slowed way down. I’m not even sure what the first few summits were, super steep accents and descents and not much for views, the green tunnel was home. The fist time since the beginning of the trail that we got to run more than 10 or 20 steps in a row was on top of Plateau Mountain where it flattened out for a couple miles after a brutal scrambling ascent. It felt like that was the first time in hours we had actually covered some ground. Then we did some more less than note worthy up and down, snacks were going down easy, took a little detour to a spring since all the rivers we crossed were dried up. Fill a bottle, drink a bottle, refill a bottle and go. Of course 20 minutes after the detour we crossed the same spring trickling across the trail. After that more of the same heinous scrambling ascents and loose rock scrambling descents. Eventually we came out at the road crossing that we were calling the halfway point. And from the reports we read the second half was easier if you still had legs. We filled up water from the spigot by the camp sites, refreshed our snack reserves and took a little break to eat some chips and heavier food.

Back on the trail it was more of the same green tunnel, up and down, up and down with very little room to run. Lots of rocks and roots. Our goal was to finish in under 10 hours but we never took it very serious until we were 8.5 hours in, 5 or 6 miles from the finish and totally sick of being on trail. So we started to try to turn it up a little for the last section but the big step loose rock descents were even harder to move fast over after putting 20 miles on the legs. Luckily the last 2 miles was runnable rock, root, and pine needled forest floor and we made it to the car in 9 hours 55 minutes.

The biggest reason we raced to get under 10 hours was because of this thing called the North East Ultra 8. It’s a list of the 8 hardest routes in the North East US and they all have time cut offs if you want to qualify as a Sky Runner, Devil’s Path is 10 hours. Typing that out it feels like a pretty lame reason to do something, but I’ll fucking die to pay 25 dollars to get a patch with a picture of a mountain on it so maybe not so lame after all is it?

Here’s some data and gear break downs.

Probably didn’t need the bag of mashed potatoes but that was mostly a test and for novelty. Also the jerky was grossing me out so could have left that home too but glad I had all the rest.

First real all day test on the Fast Pack but it was great. Didn’t need all the main pocket space for a trip this short and without climate changes, but it was nice that I got to pack a full bag of potato chips without crushing them.

The Scarpa shoes were great. I only had about 40 miles on them before this trip. Had a little arch pain in the first few hours but that went away. Good fit and felt good on the rugged terrain. Fit is true to size and they still look pretty new after 65 miles now.

I’m not good at using poles but they were a knee saver for sure and I kept them out the entire trip just holding them in one hand while running or using my hands for the scrambling sections.

All the clothes felt good probably didn’t need the double shorts but the Miler fabric feels great on the skin and the Mammut shorts don’t have a liner so need something under them.

Had plenty of water with the internal bladder and 2 bottles. Ran one bottle with Tailwind then the other bottle with the filter to refill at streams.

Didn’t need any of the layers but safety you know.

Anyway there you have it the first Amateurs trip report and gear review just like the real magazines do it.

This video is from a year before Humanity Is the Devil came out but some context never the less

For events this week we have a release for issue 3 in Bozeman Montana at the Beringia House on Thursday the 25th with a reading from contributor and mountaineering legend Mark Twight

And a FSP pop up at Homme Essentials in Richmond VA. We’ll have some magazines there too as long as they clear customs this week (fingers crossed)

AMATEURS ISSUE 3

Now it works so if you tried to buy once hopefully you’ll try again.

And here’s some bonus pictures because, well that’s really all I have as a online peace offering. “Please don’t be upset with me.”

AMATEURS ISSUE 3

If you live in NYC come celebrate the release with us in person Thursday the 28th in Williamsburg at Pilgrim Surf + Supply 6pm to 9pm

Event activities include:

Seeing and buying the new magazine

Great conversations with new and old friends

5k run with KEEN and Point B Movement for those who want a little movement (and maybe a free pair of the new KEEN trail running shoe)

Free burgers from 7th Street Burger (meat or veg) for the first 25 customers

Great music all night from one of our favorite DJs and music artists Rahill

Delicious date bar snacks from our friends Dirtbag Bars

Beer from Kirin and lots of other NA refreshments

Make your own bookmark station with Amateurs themed stamps

If you need a little convincing to come in person or to pick up a copy online please read on.

Since you are seeing this newsletter I assume you already know the general Amateurs Mag vibe so I’ll skip that and dive right into 5 reasons to check out the new issue...

1. In this issue we cover every good outdoor activity - Running. Hiking. Surfing. Cycling. Climbing. Mountaineering.

2. It’s 160 pages, that’s hours of entertainment and inspiration especially if you read the words not just look at the pictures.

3. Nudity. That’s right we have nudity, try finding that on the internet.

4. We cover things you may have never heard of. From an artist who’s uses tents to explore the way humans live through crisis, to a valley in Pakistan where local women are training to be the next generation of Himalayan mountain guides.

5. Everyone will think you’re more interesting if you have magazines in your house

   ---

And if you’re still not convinced here’s some pictures of the mag

Believe it or not those aren’t even close to the best pages so here’s the link again

AMATEURS ISSUE 3

Other than that I dug through some old hard drives and sorted out all the outdoor related content from old negative scans. Sorted into folders “OldHike” “OldClimb” “OldSurf” “OldCamp”. After a full day of this I made my way to more recent stuff sorted into “NewHike” “NewClimb” “NewSurf” “NewCamp” and a new category for me “NewRun”

Here’s one picture from each “Old” folder we can do the “New” folders next time.

In other news our friends at Miler Running just hosted a really cool running event in NYC linking 4 parks with trail running across Brooklyn and Queens. They led a group of almost 100 runners from the trails in Fort Greene Park to the trails in Prospect Park, across Brooklyn and into Queens to find dirt in Highland Park then Forest Park. With this connection and efforts of their Dirt City programs they are showing runners in NYC that pavement isn’t the only option, as well as lobbying the city to provide more green and brown spaces for recreation around the city. Here’s some pictures from their event. Don’t miss it next year. And in the mean time Miler is doing weekly 7am dirt runs in Prospect Park. DETAILS HERE

All photos by Keith Montero

Going to try to be a little bit more consistent with this email thing so any feedback is and sharing is welcome :)

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The white hats are made of a light weight 3.4oz nylon. You can slightly see the red binding through the white fabric. The brim is flexible so you can fold it and stuff it in pockets or waist bands and it pops back to shape. There’s quick adjust stretchy cord adjuster on the back so it’s fast to tighten it up in high winds and loosen for comfort. You can turn it inside out in a rescue situation and the red binding will help you be spotted. And they are made right up the street from here in Ridgewood, Queens. :) Link HERE

And a fun little vid

And some stills

And on the bag side of things here’s a new ultra light travel roll. Link HERE

Holds all your little life and camping things, can hang from a branch or tent or shower rod. Also it rolls up like this:

And can hold all this stuff and more

Here’s how it looks out in the great outdoors too.

So that’s the big summer product releases for now. I have some fast packing bags coming soon next few weeks so look out for that too.

And of course new issue of Amateurs is out pretty soon like a month or so. Get ready :)

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FSP led a 10 mile trail run from the camp site up Arizona Mountain. It was 3 people’s first ever trail run and it was truly a joy to share that with other runners. After a grueling uphill section I was running next to one of the first time trail runners, flying down a downhill section, and she said with a huge smile “it was all worth it for this.” Big smiles all around.

Amateurs led a foraging walk around the lake picking wild plants and herbs that we used to brew a healing tea on the last morning of the trip. Seeing the amazement on peoples faces when they looked under the grass and wild flowers in a field we had been walking around in for 2 days to find wild strawberries was truly awesome.

On top of all that we had an amazing dinner from Chef Chloe all fresh food cooked over the fire.

So in summery I think the trip was a huge success and was an in person realization of what we are trying to achieve with the print magazine - encouraging people to think and interact with nature on a deep personal level, sharing what we love about the natural world through philosophy, mysticism and sport. More to come.

And since we’re talking about the magazine ISSUE 3 is almost done! It’s been a year in the making and we can’t wait to share it with you.

And here’s some photos Reggie took over the weekend

And some I got some too

And in other news:

Western States 100 starts Saturday the 28th - Live Stream Link

And on the subject of Western Sates Killian has been posting some videos leading up to the event that are pretty good. In the latest vid something that really stuck with me was him talking about how we are all born scientists, questioning and investigating everything and how it’s important to keep that curiosity.

Anyway stay a scientist. - LINK

Another cool thing I saw a few weeks ago is this analysis of Dylan Rieder’s (big RIP) best showing at Street League - LINK

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I know community is all the rage right now, run club, climb club, open studios, cycle team, and on and on but you know what, the world fucking sucks, everyone with power is evil and maybe one of the ways to rebel is to get out of the phone hole into the world and do something. Wether it’s something new or something you’re good at or whatever. Just fucking doing anything, see who you meet, maybe have some laughs.

So here you go outdoor people of NYC and Brooklyn - EVENTS

All these cool NYC based brands for you to check out in person, come talk to the owners, try stuff on, and make some friends.

And on top of all the local favorites our great friend Yuki is coming all the way from Tokyo with his made in Japan line of menswear SUPER SHURB SUPPLY. This is the only place you can get any thing Super Shrub so don’t sleep. Plus we made a special FSP X Supper Shrub Supply tote bag collab with some amazing woven in Japan canvas.

After that big community rant maybe you’re thinking, wait a second that’s just a big shopping mall, well not so fast with the judgement because we have:

That’s right non stop events too. To attend any of the events please RSVP to amateursmag.studio@gmail.com

First to kick it off Friday is the Miler Running 5k loop you can preview the route with the Strava Link

Then Saturday at 11am we have training for Mountaineering in the park. This is going to be a 1 hour strength and mobility class for all levels led by STILL STUDIO NYC

Then Saturday at 3pm we have workshop to learn ding repair from Kings Glassing. Bring a board and learn how to fix it your self with a little help from the pros.

To close things off at 7:30 as we clean up we’ll be screening a very cool movie by Brazilian artist and musician Ricardo Lua

See I told you community building, reasons to get outside, and reasons to talk to people. But we’re not done yet.

A huge reason for doing this market is also to give second life to outdoor goods. We are organizing a community second hand store or - gear exchange. So if you have any outdoor gear you aren’t using please bring it by and we’ll try to sell it for you. The most important thing is to help people spend time outside, this is a way we can all help each other. Clean out your closet and fill up someone else’s. We already have collected tons of gear from our friends at Field Mag and our personal collections but more is better so bring it on.

To arrange a time to drop off gear please email Amateursmag.studio@gmail.com or DM Amateurs on instagram at @Amateursmagazine

So there you go whole weekend planned. See you soon, bring friends :)

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But that brings us to the conversation of how to survive winter. Usually by this time I’m so sick of the cold I want nothing to do with it, but this year I embraced winter - if you can’t beat them join them tactics. I went skiing for the first time in years and then a few weeks ago headed to the Adirondacks for some winter hiking.

In a twisted turn of events after heading deep into the Adirondack high peaks ready to suffer we instead experienced unreal weather (50 degrees and sunny.) Even on the top of Gothics at 4,700 feet we were still just in base layers, sitting behind a rock, out of the wind, eating PB&J, soaking up the sun.

And this is when I realized that no matter how hard you try to make the best of uncomfortable weather it’s still a lot nicer when the sun is out, it’s 50 degrees, and you can get out of the wind.

That PB&J was one of the top 10 lunches of my life.

And then on further reflection I realize that with out the acceptance of uncomfortable weather and situations it’s impossible to experience the true joy of everything lining up perfectly - Sitting on a rock on top of a mountain with your friend, letting the sun warm you, looking out at countless snow covered peak, sharing a sandwich, not having seen another person for hours - that’s as good as it gets.

As we get older and busier and more beat down by the horrors of the modern world it’s important to remember to say yes to winter, to the cold, and to suffering because you never know when the sun might come out on top of a mountain.

And some links

MSR Lightning Ascent

The Finisher : Jasmin Paris - Documentary about the first women finisher of the Barkley Marathon. She was one of 5 finishers in 2024. This year there were no finishers.

King of Moab - Documentary about Max Jolliffe (spoiler) winning the Moab 240 in 2024. Other than the skating (can’t every 30 year old from southern California do a kickflip) to the liquor store part in the beginning I thought this doc was well made and fun to watch, and he is a total bad ass, insane, and seemingly very humble person.

Ty Andrews: 9 Hours on Manaslu - Documentary of Ty attempting a FKT on Manaslu the 8th highest mountain in the world. Ty also just announced he will be attempting a FKT on Everest and FSP made made a custom bag for him for the Everest attempt this summer.

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And that is exactly how something like this Gear Guide comes to be a printed book. We started this project last August documenting the shape of hoods of down jackets. Those photos sparked conversations about how we see outdoor gear, how it allows us to connect with nature, and how we shop for it. From there the idea grew and grew until it was this 184 page book that we have today. We only printed a fraction of what we print for the annual magazine and it won’t be available through our stockists so grab it while you can.

Check out the Gear Guide and Purchase it HERE

If you’re in NYC we are doing a release event at Pilgrim Surf + Supply this Friday 2/28 from 5pm-7:30pm. If you can't make it Friday, we'll also have the Amateurs Bookstore (our vintage outdoor media archive) set up at Pilgrim and available to shop on Saturday 3/1 from 11am-7pm.

It’s hard to explain what this book is because I don’t know if it has ever existed before, at first glance it resembles a brand look book, but through the 3 sections we feature almost 20 different brands (none of which paid us, sadly). All of this was only possible because of our disconnect from the outdoor media landscape. No one with any experience would take on a project like this and pay to print it into a book with their own money. But here we are, and with this freedom we put together a book we think is beautiful with no restraints, our only goal was putting as many good pictures together as possible. The cover and interior was designed by Bettina Garofalo. And all the photos were shot by Reggie McCafferty. We hope this book brings enjoyment to people seeing outdoor gear in new ways. We hope it sparks conversations about how we shop and what value gear can bring to our lives.

Amateurs will remain a once a year publication but we hope to do more random print projects like this to supplement the big widely distributed annual issues of the magazine.

Here’s some videos if you have more time to blow

Legends of the Konbini - Pow adventures in Japan

The Cordillera - Hard Pack Mag going deep in the mountains of Peru

King and Queen of Corbits top runs - Womens // Mens Ski // Mens Snowboard

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Straight from the summit to the car.

Ok moving on from cold winter activities and the failure’s of modern technology. How about this surf video

Dion Agius // Sponsor Me by Former

Just all around so sick, the vibe, the soundtrack. Surfing doesn’t make cool stuff that often but this one hit for me.

And this is just an epic adventure for all us east coast people proving you don’t have to go far. I’m inspired

Backcountry Skiing The Dry River Wilderness

In other news FSP Fanny Packs are back in stock in black and green

And Amateurs will be releasing our first anti capitalist gear guide - 180 something pages of winter gear just in time for spring.

Stay tuned

-Blair

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