Big Agnes Launches Field-testing Partnership with Rocky Mountain Youth Corps

August 19, 2024

Program expands on long-standing partnership

Steamboat Springs, Colo. (Aug. 19, 2024)/OUTDOOR SPORTSWIRE/ – Big Agnes, the Steamboat-Springs-based outdoor equipment brand, has launched a field-testing partnership with Rocky Mountain Youth Corps, ensuring the brand’s gear is put through the paces during field work in the Rocky Mountains. The partnership will allow more Rocky Mountain Youth Corps participants and staff to sleep comfortably in the outdoors during field work, while providing valuable product feedback to Big Agnes.

Rocky Mountain Youth Corps (RMYC) serves over 850 youth and young adults through its Youth Corps, Conservation Corps, Natural Resources Internships, and Yampa Valley Science School programs. Last year, RMYC had over 235 project weeks, improving 1,621 acres of public lands, including 705 miles of trails. These projects span from Colorado’s popular “Fourteeners” to wildfire sites, and each team hikes and camps for the duration of the project. For the second year, RYMC also fielded an all-women’s chainsaw crew, which last year headed into Wyoming’s rugged Wind River Range for a month-long trail-building project.

“Our adult crews spend most of their summer outside 24/7, sleeping in their tents every night for up to 16 weeks and using their backpacks every day to transport their gear,” says Mark Wertheimer, chief operating officer at Rocky Mountain Youth Corps. “They’re exceptionally hard on their equipment, with it exposed to an array of weather conditions. One week a crew might be removing barbed wire fencing in 95-degree heat and the next they’re hiking and camping in hail. And our fall programs often work in damp, snowy conditions.”

“For all the years we’ve worked with RMYC this might be the most exciting of them all,” says Big Agnes Marketing Events and Sponsorship Specialist Rob Peterson. “We’ve partnered with them for a while to get their crews gear so they can camp safely and comfortably in the outdoors, and we donate camping gear for their annual fundraisers. Now we get the bonus of receiving valuable feedback on how that gear works from those that live and work in the outdoors all season long, which we will share with our product development team.”

To learn more about RMYC and its mission to engage the strength and potential of youth and young adults in the outdoors, please visit www.rockymountainyouthcorps.org. If you are interested in viewing the Big Agnes products being used by the Rocky Mountain Youth Corp teams, please visit www.bigagnes.com.

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About Big Agnes: Named for a peak in the nearby Mt. Zirkel Wilderness, Big Agnes®, Inc. is located in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, and celebrated its 20th Anniversary in 2021. The company produces award-winning sleeping bags, pads, tents, insulated apparel, camp furniture, and backpacks. For more information, visit www.bigagnes.com or call 1-877-554-8975.

For more information, contact:

Max Krapff, Backbone Media
Max.Krapff@Backbone.Media