Shop Talk: Vertical Playground, Oppdal Norway

GEAR:30

BLISTER

Arts, Design, Skiing, Snow, Snowboarding, Sports, Outdoors, Bike, Technology, Gear

4.9 • 809 Ratings

🗓️ 5 November 2021

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Once upon a time, a couple of friends who were scheming to get some gear for their own adventures ended up creating a phenomenal outdoor shop. We talk to Trygve Sande and Rune Kvalsnes about the origins of Vertical Playground; their trip with Hoji where the idea of the 4FRNT Raven was born; the ski touring and mountain biking scene in central Norway; some of their favorite gear; and more.

TOPICS & TIMES:

Vertical Playground today (4:23)
Origins story (8:40)
Ski touring culture in central Norway (14:08)
Hoji, Sterbenz, & the birth of the 4FRNT Raven (19:07)
Touring bindings (35:35)
Mountain biking & summers in Oppdal (43:46)
The future of Vertical Playground? (49:08)
What We’re Celebrating (56:00)

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everybody and welcome back to Gear 30 on the Blister Podcast Network.
0:10.2	I'm Jonathan Ellsworth and you can check out everything we're doing and reviewing over
0:15.7	at blisterreview.com.
0:18.6	Okay, about 20 years ago when a couple of Norwegian friends were trying to figure out
0:25.0	how to get their hands on a bunch of boating and climbing gear, they thought, what better way to
0:31.8	get the gear we need for our adventures than by starting an online gear shop.
0:37.9	Even though they didn't own a computer,
0:41.0	they knew very little about the internet,
0:43.8	and they knew nothing about e-commerce.
0:47.7	But, and spoiler alert, Trigva and Runa's plan worked.
0:53.1	They got the gear they needed, and then somehow over the next 20 years, they also built
0:59.4	a very successful online shop and a brick-and-mortar operation that is flourishing today,
1:06.7	and I promise you, after listening to this conversation, you are going to understand why we are so proud to count vertical playground in Uptil Norway among our recommended shops.
1:21.0	And furthermore, if this isn't all already intriguing enough for you, you are going to get to hear in this conversation about how
1:29.3	the VPG guys met Matt Sturban's and then became very intimately involved with forefront
1:36.8	skis. You're also going to get to hear a phenomenal origin story of the forefront Raven,
1:44.0	which is, of course, a ski that is still very
1:46.1	near and dear to my heart. And you are going to get to learn a lot about the skiing and
1:51.7	mountain biking around central Norway and some of these specific gear that they particularly
1:57.3	like for that given area. Oh, and then at the very end of this episode, you are going
2:04.5	to get to hear exactly why Trigva and Runa really, really have to come ski crested Butte as soon as
2:13.0	possible. And I mean it, and you're going to find out why. Now, we've got one pro tip for you.
	...

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