Back in the day, Flylow started as a telemark clothing company and while we've expanded our horizons since then, our roots still lie in the old-school world of three-pin bindings. But of course, this being the age of social media, the word "Pin" now has a whole new meaning. If you haven't explored Pinterest yet (and hey, we don't blame you: It's hard to keep up), now might be the time, since Flylow recently signed up for an account. You can check out our Pinterest page here. And if you still want more of Flylow on social media, of course we have a Facebook page, a Twitter feed, and an Instagram account (@flylowgear). Happy socializing.

Lucas is an up and coming pro skier residing in NYC, doing anything he can to ski powder...

It was raining as I stepped out of the car and into my first day ever skiing the East Coast. It was also my first competition of the season, and stop one of the Ski The East Freeride Tour at Magic Mountain. Not a good first impression. I walked up the stairs of the base lodge to register, and after taking a minute to silently judge the place, I half expected to find all of my competitors in 1980’s rear entry ski boots and rented helmets. I couldn’t have been more mistaken. It was if the whole place was under contract to wear Flylow Gear and Smith Helmets—like I was walking into the tram at Snowbird.

I got my bib on I went straight to the only open lift. I rode up slowly, coughing as the lift gears hit the rain droplets and sputtered jet-black motor oil all over my equipment. The competition run opened up. It was no wider than a catwalk and there was little snow; exposed patches of grass and rock acted as cliffs, and two small kickers sat right before the bottom face. My season had ended last year with a fall that was a result of letting my nerves get the best of me, so my first concern was to keep it clean. I didn’t have the energy to ski fast—I had bronchitis—so I thought I’d just be as fluid as possible. I had qualified fairly well on the Junior Freeskiing Tour-affiliated Canadian Open Freeskiing Championships the year before, and so my thought process was simple: take a mellow conservative line, stay on my feet, and win the competition easily. The fact that I was competing in a senior division in a much larger group bore no relevance to me—and boy, who knew how big some of these guys could tee off. Backflips and Lincoln-Loops were thrown off the bottom kickers, large airs gapping the catwalks that cut the run into sections were attempted, and overall, some serious skiing went down. My score placed me just into the upper half of the seventy some odd competitors. I was seriously humbled.

The next two competitions brought much of the same—low snow conditions that were plaguing the entire country, East and West, and a Mad River Glen freeride team that introduced some East Coast shredders with serious game. I knew that at Sugarbush and Jay I would have to go big or go home. The icy, fast, narrow, and seemingly endless run at The Castlerock Extreme competition ended up in a yard sale over a bump, and a flat landing at Jay took my feet out from under me and pushed me six spots from qualifying for the finals. Who knew that Magic would be my last competition run that I finished without falling. From there, the tour was history. Keeping up in the conditions was tough, especially with kids who had skied those mountains their whole lives and flew through ice just as easily as they did through powder. I was used to the big cliff-long run out format of the west venues, so the five-foot air to five feet of ice to turn through setup was tough. Every cloud has a silver lining though, and the disappointment that came with my competition season was coupled with some good media exposure and an exciting schedule still to come. Video of the tour and updates coming from Squaw Valley and Argentina soon…

Winter has finally arrived on the East Coast. On the heels of a half-foot of new snow on a week ago today, a large snow storm approached interior New England last Friday. The storm actually broke into two and resulted in a more powerful portion of the storm creeping over northern New York, New York, Vermont and New Hampshire overnight Friday and all day Saturday and into Saturday night.

As the storm exited the region, strong northwest winds resulted in significant additional accumulations which nearly doubled the National Weather Service’s forecasted snowfall amounts. As of Friday at 4 pm, NWS’s forecast for 1,000 ft. in the vicinity of northern Vermont's Jay Peak was as follows: 2-4 inches Friday afternoon; 10-14 inches Friday night; 3-6 inches Saturday.

Between Friday afternoon and Sunday morning, the storm deposited 40 inches at Jay. Another 5 inches fell yesterday, and the northeast is expecting another 10-15 inches tommorow. Buckle up.

-Tim Fater

It finally started snowing in Wyoming and I was there as the storm began. It started a week and a half ago and the flakes didn’t come singularly, they came in the hordes dumping over 30 inches on Targhee over four days. Thankfully my buddy Rudy had the Chalet, an early ‘90’s rustic truck camper, parked on the ridge a mere quarter mile from the Ghee’s lifts. With plush ski in ski out accommodations and the first true storm of the season puking on us it was sure to be a killer few days of pooter hunting. The first day of the storm the Targhee ski patrol and lift crew battled to get the Dreamcatcher, the center point of Traghee, spinning and finally did mid after-noon. While they battled the elements we were farming low angle powder off the Sacajawea lift and dipping into the Toilet Bowl for some faceshots and cliff drops. Once the Dreamcatcher was spinning the Headwall offered up free refills all day thanks to Mother Nature and the fact that most already retreated to the Trap bar for nachos and pints. For the next two days the routine continued; the flakes fell, the ski patrol bombed, the lefties desperately tried to get lifts spinning and we skied. Unfortunately my camera passed on the trip due to high moisture content in the ol’jacket caused by a few  to many tomohawks in the deep pow.  Thankfully a few of the shots survived the ordeal. Here they are! –Ryland Mauck-Duff/MHF

The one action shot that survived.

The Chalet's hi-tech gear drying system.

Storm skiing!

Skinning up to go shred Mary's Nipple.

The Chalet and the Mountain High Freeride Yota after day one.

So, zippers. We have the pants pocket zippers close down and the jacket pockets close up. On the jackets having the zipper pull at the top of the zipper works better with pack staps and so forth.

On the pants, have you ever worn pants that were too small in the upper thigh? The result is that a lot of pressure gets put on the top of the zipper closure because your butt sticks out when getting low on skis or riding the lift. The result, your pocket opens if the zipper closes up. Solution 1: locking zipper head? the problem there was that we were shredding the teeth on the coil zippers we were using. Solution 2: zippers close down. The pressure at the top of the pocket does not effect the closure since the pocket closes in the downward position.

So far so good. what do you think? am i crazy? It is the time old question though.

Every fall little companies like Flylow and our friends at Trew have to wait patiently for our gear to arrive. We make ends meet with Ramen, dinner at our parents houses and we think about when the gear will finally get here. Some times there are delays because larger companies take precedence over our orders, or maybe things happen like a horrible earthquake and tsunami in Japan that cause delays at the YKK zipper factory (amongst more pressing issues for them of course). Or sometimes the shortage in cotton slows down the production of our nylon or a snow storm in Denver keeps the train from getting to town on time or... you get the point. We try so hard to get the gear to fit right, work right and look right. And in the end sometimes it just does not show up on time.

50% of our inventory was shipped via air this season for all of the above reasons. But, the mother load just rolled in. So the back order tags on our website will get lifted and we are officially, fully open for business!

So, we are sorry for any delays. They delay is over!

See below, Flylow's Director of Operations Molly Miner checking inventory. Welcome to work Molly!

Here is our Dynamic Individual, Ben Hitch, crushing order for all you good people.

I am in Seattle, sitting in a hot tub playing angry birds on my Iphone. Just kidding (kind of).

-Dan

Well, it is that time of year again.  When the magazines we all love reveal their decisions as to what gear is the best performing and looking in their minds.  What most people may not know it that this process began 10 months ago before our trade shows.  And is followed up with a lot of testing and Fedexing gear to and from the magazine offices.

One of the most important and well respected gear guides is the coveted Outside Magazine Winter Gear Guide.  To be mentioned in this mag is an honor.  to be mentioned two times (as we were this year) is down right flattering.

So thanks for givings us a shot again this year Outside, we will keep trying to make the gear better for you next year too!

Flylow's growth and new designs have raised a lot of eyebrows over the past few months. After our most recent success winning the Something Independent Entrepreneurs Award last week we were ready for the final round of the Rising Stars fashion show.

To get the gist of the situation we defer to Denver Post's Sarah Brown:
"It seems that just about anyone with a good idea and a sewing machine is whipping up a fashion business in Colorado these days. They are creating leather bags and wedding gowns, 1930s-inspired sport coats and fine jewelry, to name a few.

But to make a success of it, style entrepreneurs have to have a well-defined market and a solid plan to reach it. A number of those who are showing such promise have caught the attention of Fashion Group International of Denver, which on Saturday presents its biennial Rising Star awards. FGI, a group of fashion professionals in retail, manufacturing and related industries, solicited entries in the competition last spring and selected 13 companies it felt have the potential to build national business."

We were flattered to be invited to participate in this new competition, and although we did not win this time, it was a great experience and provided us with great exposure.

As told by The Denver Post's Jason Blevins

"The contest, organized by the independent enterprise collective Something Independent, drew 25 entrants, with a host of ski makers, movie makers, gear designers, websites and even a meteorologist competing for the award...The governor hailed innovation as the spark that will unite and grow Colorado. And the state’s rowdy collection of like-minded snowlovers working together to elevate their core qualities can feed that spark, Hickenlooper said."

Among the competitors were our friends at Loki and Folsom Custom. We were very flattered to win this awards. Thanks to Something Independent and the great state of Colorado!

Th read more follow this link to Jason's entire article: click

At this time of year, ski films just keep coming through our towns. It's like the holiday season, just substitute the family and insert your ski family.  I run into my favorite ski 'tunah,' that random guy that always drives to A-basin in his 60s VW wagon (I know your name Tele Dave), the guys from the Bent Gate and my posse from Loveland.  Ski film premieres become my number one thing to put on the social calender.  On, Oct 15, KGB Productions' "Wyoming Triumph" will premiere at Jackson, Wyoming's Pink Garter Theater. And although I won't make this one in Jackson, I wish I could.  Chris and Pop always put on a good show and have a great time doing it.  Cheers.

-DA