|
Climbing Equipment Manufacturing
First and foremost, our reason for being in business is to design and manufacture innovative and functional equipment for mountaineers who climb the high peaks. Our equipment will always have the integrity required to deliver performance, trip after trip, expedition after expedition, in the harsh climates of the world’s most punishing mountains, and used by climbers who are minimalists, and require light, bombproof climbing equipment. Our manufacturing, wholesale and retail distribution line will include hydration systems, cooking kits and cooking systems, two-way radio harnesses, tent stakes suitable for ice penetration, and a variety of accessories. One notable product line will be jewelry inspired by climbers, including men’s and women’s silver bracelets, amulets, and necklaces.
Equipment Suppliers
Besides the Bradley Alpinist line of products, our function is also to serve mountaineers, climbers, and mountain guides all over the world by offering select equipment manufactured by other leading and innovative companies. We at Bradley Alpinist feel that if an equipment item is offered by us, it is the best equipment you can buy for high altitude climbing. In many cases, the good gear we are talking about is hard to find at your local climbing store, or even larger suppliers such as Recreational Equipment Incorporated, Mountain Equipment Coop, or Eastern Mountain Sports. Although much of the same specialized equipment can be ordered by our favorite retailers, it is often difficult for the stores to stock such items based on the customer preferences of a particular geographical location. If you live in Oklahoma, you might not find an ice axe or an avalanche beacon. We trust that or mountaineering niche will super serve the discerning big peak enthusiast.
A Cause or Two
Guides
Guides inspire us, and always climb the hard stuff, and often. Mountain guides see more trips, more summits in a year, than a serious recreational climber will see in five. Guides live that life that eluded the rest of us. At Bradley Alpinist, we celebrate Climbing Guides, and the guide lifestyle. Our sites, media and marketing pieces will support Guide Services, individual Certified Guides, and serve as a resource for our customers to locate a guide to hire. The Hire a Guide section of our website is designed to educate the climber on the benefits of hiring a guide for instruction, climbing partnership, and extensive outings. We will offer our visitors a vast list of guides and mountain guiding services, as well as links to their websites.
Gear Lists
Since gear is gold, gear is wealth, then a gear list helps keep track of what you have, or what you need to make sure you have. Bradleyalpinist.com will continually provide as a resource to our climbing customers, sample gear lists from a variety of trips. We wish to continually compile good gear lists from our guiding friends, and serious enthusiasts, sharing the wealth of information with our community. Don’t leave the rope at home! A good gear list is a part of every trip.
Unique Climbing Jewelry-Cocktail Conversation pieces
And at the end of your excursion, you can adorn yourself with a shower, and accessorize your jeans and pile with mountain fashion, silver jewelry designed by climbers. We offer several classic, timeless pieces of jewelry for both men and women. We feel these will prove to be signature pieces, like the classic Chouinard-Frost Piolet.
Inspired by ideas to improve climbing equipment, Lance Johnson, also known as “Jono” (self-given European nickname), founded Bradley Alpinist in June of 2005 following an epiphany during a climbing trip in the Cordillera Blanca of Peru’s Andes Mountains. Bradley Alpinist is proudly named as a tribute to his father, Col Bradley Johnson, an avid alpine skier, bird hunter, fly fisherman, and a man who appreciated simple, yet purposeful equipment in the outdoors, like duct tape. Retired in 1980 from the US Air Force, Col Bradley Johnson served these United States for 29 years, including service during the Cuban Missile crisis, and in the Korean and Vietnam conflicts.
Lance, a mountain runner, skier, ice climber, rock climber, and alpinist, is the father of two, who are currently undergoing their own outdoor apprenticeships (his son and daughter were each given mountain axes before the age of 8). Lance has enjoys traveling to climbing destinations around the United States, and has also taken climbing excursions to Alaska, Mexico, New Zealand, and Peru, and has ambitions in the near future for climbing in Patagonia, Chile, and Nepal. He is a six time veteran of ultra marathon endurance mountain runs, including finishes in Colorado’s Leadville Trail 100 and Hardrock 100, and Arizona’s Crown King 50. Lance has too many phones, a television that doesn’t get used, a Starbucks stainless steel coffee press, a guitar in his office, and desert turtle named Hoss who has burrowed his way somewhere, and has been missing for several years. His favorite muppets are the guys in the balcony.
In addition to being the buyer, janitor, product designer, and owner of Bradley Alpinist, he also is the owner of Full Circle Marketing Communications, an advertising and marketing consulting company in Albuquerque, New Mexico. A smaller division of Full Circle, called the Direttisima group, works with the mountain guiding community on marketing projects.
Borrowing a quote from a friend, Lance suggests that when it comes to your choice in equipment, “The best is always good enough”.
Click photos of Lance to enlarge
“The mountains have always held a special place in my life. When you on a rock or ice climb, or just up on the mountain, your mind gets clear. Mountain activity just magically filters out the noice, the voices, the stress, and the unimportant worries in the mind. For me, climbing also has a way of fortify my relationship with God, and refreshes the realization that life can and should be simpler, and your relationship with God and your family are the most important. Climbing is a worthwhile and rewarding way to combine fitness, recreation, and renewal of the mind. I think climbing is also why beer was invented. Tilting back a cold beer after coming down off the mountain is just some kind of alright”.
Photo of Bradley Johnson (above)
Photo of Lance Johnson (left), president of Bradley Alpinist, LLC. |
