[pct-l] sponsorship and bias

[ned at mountaineducation.org]

There was a time, about 40 years ago, when the idea of being "sponsored" was a new and "cool" thing. Can you imagine, you get new gear For Free to use on your hikes and expeditions??? Back then, it wasn't so hard a thing to acquire, especially from the well-established manufacturers. Today that is different.

At this point with Mountain Education, we select the gear we are willing to test and, if it passes the scrutiny of our demands, we endorse it and encourage its use. Bias? Based solely on the product's performance, absolutely. Just because someone gives us something for nothing doesn't mean that we encourage others to use it. If it falls apart when they subsequently use it, where would be our credibility? 

People ask us all the time, what do we think of this or that, and unless we have actually tested it out, we do not comment on anything other than design, since we do not know yet how it performs in the conditions in which we teach our wilderness skills. We do not advertise and we do not profit from a manufacturers success. We are not backed by their "special interests" that our students do not know about. 

We do not charge for what we teach, the Snow Courses we offer, or the memberships we do not require. We make no money teaching the 100+ students  over the course of the 30+ days and nights on-snow per winter unless our students want to say "Thank You" by contributing voluntarily. We do this out of our Passion and Pocket, to make sure hikers know, personally and through on-snow experience, the realities of snow travel so that they may have a safer future trip because of it. 

Sponsors help us provide the Courses to teach hikers the skills they may need to know and have practiced before their next encounter with snow, say on an early-season thru hike. Since we have no other income to subsidize this instruction, it wouldn't happen otherwise. We have no financial sponsors. How BPL does what they do is their business.

Now you know...

At your service,


Ned Tibbits, Director
Mountain Education
1106A Ski Run Blvd
South Lake Tahoe, Ca. 96150
    P: 888-996-8333
    F: 530-541-1456
    C: 530-721-1551
    http://www.mountaineducation.org