It’s always good to see prAna gear on hard jammin bands. Yes that is our hat on Umphrey’s McGee’s Jake Cinninger who according to reports hasn’t taken his hat off for the entire tour (guess it will need a good wash when they get back to the Windy City)!

Consisting of Brendan Bayliss, Jake Cinninger, Joel Cummins, Andy Farag, Kris Myers and Ryan Stasik, Umphrey’s McGee enters its second decade together with their hardest, darkest, and most artistically cohesive album to date, Mantis. A long-time-coming labor of love as well as an inspiring affirmation of musical brotherhood, Mantis is the first Umphrey’s album to consist entirely of material never previously performed on the road, where the band rules the improv-rock circuit and plays more than 100 shows each year. Founded in 1997 in the shadows of the Golden Dome of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, Umphrey’s McGee soon made Chicago home base, and set their sights on becoming one of the premier live acts in today’s touring circuit. Over the course of the last ten years, the band has headlined festivals such as Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza, and continues to sell out shows in the nation’s premier venues coast to coast. They have toured Europe multiple times and performed at Japan’s Fuji Rock Festival in 2006. As their sound evolves with every passing show, the live concerts sold on their expansive music archive site UMLive.net continue to be in high demand by their hungry fan base. The second decade of Umphrey’s McGee is fueled with Mantis in the tank, and the band shows no signs of letting up.

Images from Ben Fullerton

Name: Alex Puccio

Birthday: June 15, 1989

Home Town: Boulder CO.

Height: 5′2″

Sponsors: prAna clothing, FiveTen shoes, Revolution pads

Favorite Climb: Power of Silence, Hueco Tanks Training

Greatest Climbing Achievement: Winning the 2009 Vail Bouldering World Cup.

When Not Climbing: Hanging out with friends, playing card games, and eating tons of cookies and ice

cream! =)

I love to share my passion for climbing with everyone I come in touch with. Climbing is everything to me and it has brought me great things in life. It has given me the opportunity to meet so many awesome people and has led me to cool places around the world. There is noting better then traveling around and getting to climb at different places. There are so many different types of rock and various types of movements and I want to experience them all!

AP

The first annual Canada Goose Cup street hockey tournament supporting The Conservation Alliance was held last week in Salt Lake City at the Outdoor Retailer Winter Market. 10 teams took to the rink donating $300 each to the Alliance. The winning team would take home the Canada Goose Cup (think a smaller Stanley Cup) engraved with their teams name to display at their offices. The cup will be passed on to the following years winning team.

The action was fast and dangerous to both the players and the spectators hovering on the rinks walls. Kudos to all who played and to those who dodged the “Orange Ball of Death” that frequently sped passed their heads. Team prAna arrived with only 1 weeks practice on used hockey sticks but they would not be deterred. What the prAna team lacked in technique they made up with heart and hustle as they advanced all the way to the finals beating the hosts, Canada Goose, and Merrell in route to the finals against Arc’teryx.

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Jeremy dialing it in for the latest prAna installation…  Check it out at the upcoming Outdoor Retailer.

Photos by Randy Braley (www.randybraley.com)

Each season the prAna Design and Development team get together to download from their inspiration trips. These are a few snapshots of the inspiration boards that will help to set the tone and direction of the Fall 2011 collection.

“Design is in everything we make, but it’s also between those things. It’s a mix of craft, science, storytelling, propaganda, and philosophy.” Erik Adigard

Paul Robinson started climbing at the age of 10. In the last decade, he has bouldered V15, and sent literally hundreds of problems in the V14 to V11 range. Not surprisingly, he has won or placed in nearly all of the international bouldering competitions he has entered. Paul is also an accomplished artist and painter majoring in Fine Arts at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He writes a lively blog about his accomplishments, art and his global travels promoting the climbing lifestyle.

Here is the latest from prAna athlete, Jacinda Hunter…

It’s really, really cold.  I want to climb, and with a few changes in approach, I will climb.  I went out last week with a friend of mine and hiked through two feet of snow to get to the cliff.  Steep and overhanging, it was dry but cold, (really, really cold.)  I brought a propane heater, and that seemed to help in the few seconds before my fingers actually touched the rock and froze.   When the wind kicked up it was miserable.  I thought of how nice it would be to climb on the less cold cliffs of Southern Utah, instead of hanging around the not so inspiring crags of American Fork Canyon.  But, American Fork Canyon is near my home, and it is the home of my current project, and life is busy.

I can’t just run around the country without a thought or care and climb where the weather permits me.   Having a family can sometimes keep us a little more grounded.  I’m proud to say that my oldest son has began a new passion of his own, skiing.  Although much more expensive than climbing, we are happy to assist in his pursuit of powder.  So living in a cold winter climate is not so bad for him.  Our daughters have really taken to ballet and the schedule is busy.  Our second oldest son is taking off with guitar which seems fitting being he is the only boy in his entire school with long hair.  I guess he was born to be a rock star, but I really think he likes his long hair because our climber friends always tell him he looks like Chris Sharma. 

So my new approach to climbing is this…  I don’t need perfect weather, or perfect rock.  I just need someone as obsessed as myself to climb and be my belay partner in the worst of conditions.  At the end of the day, whether I send my project or not, I love this stuff.  And even though I may not always get to climb where or as often as I would like I will always love climbing, life is great, and my new down jacket makes it even better.  Happy New Year! 

*Update: We look forward to seeing Jacinda at the Outdoor Retailer show in Salt Lake City competing in the route competition