Icebreaker - Pure Merino

Gear to Grow is a great organisation in the US that supports getting people involved in outdoor recreation – exactly what we love here at Icebreaker, which is why we support them with product donations.

They are currently “Calling All Poles” – a campaign aimed to collect gently used or surplus tent poles from retailers, manufacturers, and the general public. The campaign seeks to outfit more than 70 of Gear to Grow’s beneficiary groups across the country with full tent sets.

After recently receiving a generous donation of tents that did not include poles, Gear to Grow have reached out to retailers across the US to serve as official collection sites for the “Calling All Poles” tent pole drive. Those interested in donating may drop off poles at participating retail locations, ship poles directly to the Gear to Grow warehouse, or provide a monetary donation of $10 securely through Gear to Grow’s web site that will be used to purchase new pole sets.

“With this generous donation comes a great opportunity for our program and our beneficiary groups,” said JT VonLunen, co-founder of Gear to Grow. “Through this campaign, not only will we be recycling and reusing tent poles, we’ll help give people the resources to get outdoors.”

The “Calling All Poles” campaign will be open for 60 days from 3 October. Gear to Grow requests pole sets that are either 13′ 6’’ long or between 11.5 and 12 feet. For more information on participating retail locations, please visit www.geartogrow.org or find Gear to Grow on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/DonateGear. To ship directly to Gear to Grow, please send shipping inquiries to contact@geartogrow.org.

So anyone in the US, who can help – go, hunt out those poles!

The following excerpt is from one of our sponsored athletes Jeremy Cronin. Jeremy is an outdoor personal trainer and swimming coach who in his spare time does it all! Jeremy has been wearing some of our Icebreaker gear and loves it.  Read more about what he’s up to and why is a converted Icebreaker fan.

I am an adventurer, it is just what I do, always have… always will.

From the day mum found me on the roof looking at the hills in the distance when I was 3, to running the Speight’s Coast to Coast when I was 23… The outdoors are what motivate me, excite me, they take me to new highs and teaches me how to live the life I want to live.

I guess I use the outdoors as a metaphor for my life. Rain, hail, shine or blustering winds and I am out there. What’s the difference? It’s all beautiful to me! Weather is weather; to me it is how you look at it. I believe the power of your mind will determine your thoughts about getting out there on a hot, sunny, summers day. That same power will get you out of bed early in the morning of a torrential, wet, stormy day to go and run through the hills in high grounds.

All in all for me it is my addiction, there is always something to do, rocks to run, rivers to cross and hills to climb. That is me in a nut shell really. Alongside all of my adventures it makes a difference to have “The Best Gear”. Gear that can keep up with this pressure and push through this environment, gear that will regulate my temperature and keep me going when others are at home sipping their hot chocolate and star gazing in to the warm fire.

I have found it, ICEBREAKER! Say no more! It is the best! Go and get some! Get in it! Try it! Whatever you do… Hard core ultra distance explorer, casual runner, trout fisherman, or if you just want to look like the cool adventurers type at your kid’s soccer game on a Saturday morning. Whichever it is, you will reap the benefits of being warmer and more temperature consistent than anything else. I believe you all need to go and fit yourself out in the most comfortable, warm, durable, breathable, most technically advanced gear you can buy.

Here is why…. I have tried every classic dry fit gear, it clings to my skin with a horrible static feeling, stays cold when wet, too hot in the heat, it doesn’t breathe when you want it to and doesn’t change to keep you warm when it needs to. I would need a dry fit layer for hot days and a thermal layer for cold days. Try and find a fantastic thermal that can keep up with the weather patterns of today, hot one moment frozen the next, imagine having the two in one.  Finally I have found it! It’s been around for a while and you might have already had the pleasure of wearing it, but it is new on my back… Icebreaker.

Icebreaker product is made for athletes, adventurers, casual strollers… Anyone really. It breathes when I am hot, the merino wool is not itchy, it moulds perfectly to my body without crazy stitched seams all over it, it stretches when I reach or bend, but most importantly it keeps me warm in the cold. I need to know if the weather turns on me that I am wearing clothing that will change with the weather patterns.

Icebreaker has shocked me, it is everything in one! I was running in the bush the other day with a GT Performance top, shorts and socks on – my temperature was perfect and my body breathing in fresh air.  And even when the weather made a turn, rain poured down and the wind grew strong, it was like this clothing turned on a switch. I was drenched head to toe and with an hour left in my training route I stayed warm without having to layer up and when I stopped I could feel the heat holding in the wool all over me. Amazed and excited, I am a converted Icebreaker fan now and swear by it! You will too.

- Jeremy Cronin, Athlete

The sky has just started to change from totally darkness towards twilight. The morning hours are upon us, and we’ve been climbing through the whole night. We continue up a steep corner covered with snow and loose rocks, before meeting a new area of compact snow and an other endless uphill. There is not much strength left, but after a short break we start again, putting one foot in front of the other. The speed is slow and we are totally exhausted. A few steps and you’re out of breath forced to take a new break.

But suddenly………behind the snow drift……….it emerges……..a massive pyramid of snow covered with beautiful prayer flags stretched out in all directions of the sky.

WE´VE MADE IT….!!!!!!!!! The summit……..just in front of us………a few more yards and we’re at the top of the world…. A feeling so indescribable that there is no words, which can express our emotions. In a great rush of extreme happiness mixed with laughter and tears, we’re fighting our way the last couple of yards towards the summit and hand in hand we’re climbing up standing on top of the world…..

The sun is once again rising in the horizon and fills our smiling faces with warmth and unveils probably the most beautiful view ever seen by humans.

“People need to climb the mountain not simply because it is there. But because the soulful divinity needs to be mated with the human spirit.”
- Dalai Lama

We are forever thankful for all the great Icebreaker products and support given to us and helping us fulfilling this amazing adventure….

Best wishes from Norway
- Petter Nyquist and Lars Oma Erichsrud, Icebreaker Fans