ROANOKE, Va. (January 14, 2010) – The Roanoke Regional Partnership today launched RoanokeOutside.com – the most comprehensive and interactive resource to learn about and explore the Roanoke, Virginia region’s outdoors. As a result of this launch this blog will no longer be maintained. Please visit the new site for all your outdoor needs.

The new site (www.RoanokeOutside.com) — the first of its kind dedicated to the Roanoke, Virginia region — was developed with hundreds of suggestions from area residents who shared their favorite hiking and biking trails, fishing holes, camping spots, kid activities, gear shops, as well as features they wanted to see on the site. Others employed GPS-equipped phones to map out trails and wrote descriptions of outdoor activities.

RoanokeOutside.com covers the greater Roanoke, Virginia area that stretches from Douthat State Park to Smith Mountain Lake between the James River and New River. The site includes an event calendar, suggested itineraries, list of guides, gear rentals, maps, photos, videos, message boards, blogs, gear reviews, cabin rentals, classifieds, and other features to help make getting outside easy, educational and sustainable.

“With the help of outdoor enthusiasts from throughout our region, we have dedicated more than a year to develop the leading source of information about all things outside to properly leverage the Roanoke, Virginia region’s greatest asset – the outdoors,” said Beth Doughty, executive director of the Roanoke Regional Partnership. “Making the outdoors an important part of our region’s narrative and economy starts with a dynamic Web site that catalogues our natural resources and makes it easier for people all over the world to learn about and enjoy what we have to offer.”

Much like RoanokeOutside.com was developed with the help of the region’s residents, the site will continue to be a conduit of connectivity using interactive blogs, discussion groups and social media outreach using Twitter and Facebook.

“The Roanoke, Virginia region is one of the best spots anywhere for outdoor recreation, and RoanokeOutside.com tells that story in a way we’ve never been able to do before,” said Pete Eshelman, director of outdoor branding for the Roanoke Regional Partnership. “It provides an interactive platform to continue to share tips and connect with people passionate about the outdoors or those simply wanting to take the first steps toward getting outside for fun and exercise.”

Businesses, colleges urged to link to RoanokeOutside.com

To help spread the word about the site and increase global exposure, the Roanoke Regional Partnership is asking businesses, colleges and other organizations in the region to add a link to www.RoanokeOutside.com from their home pages.

“Our new site is an ideal way to show young professionals that the Roanoke, Virginia region is an ideal place to start and build their careers,” Eshelman says. “Having a comprehensive site like ours makes it easy for young professionals to research the region as a place they want to live.”

RoanokeOutside.com also is a great way for employers to showcase the region’s assets to employees, potential recruits and other web visitors. “A link to RoanokeOutside.com shows that a company, college or other organization cares about the outdoors and its impact on economic development in the region,” Eshelman says.

ABOUT THE ROANOKE REGIONAL PARTNERSHIP

The Roanoke Regional Partnership was founded in 1983 as a regional economic development organization for the greater Roanoke area that includes Alleghany, Botetourt, Franklin, and Roanoke counties plus the cities of Roanoke and Salem and the town of Vinton.  Its program of work includes image building, asset development, and business recruitment.  The Partnership has been involved in business locations and expansions that have created more than 13,600 jobs and $1.3 billion in investment in real estate and equipment.  To learn more, please visit www.Roanoke.org.

Weekend Recommendations Dec. 18- Jan. 3

Happy Holidays from Roanoke Outside and the Roanoke Regional Partnership.

The Get OUTSIDE team will be taking a holiday break and will return January 7 with some big news!

Have a Happy Holiday and New Year!

In the mean time check out this awesome mountain bike video of monument trail courtesy of Roanoke’s very own singletrackreview.com

Bouldering Comp This Weekend

Rise Up Climbing gym in Lynchburg is hosting a bouldering competition this Saturday (sorry for the short notice).  Back for its 10th season, the ABS is now the gold standard for national climbing competition series. Climbers from around the region will participate in a number of comps including ours. Do well in the local comps and you could get an invitation to the regional championship and maybe even on to nationals.

Date: December 5 12:00 noon to 4 PM
Cost: $30 ABS members, $35 non- ABS members, add $5 for day of registration.
Format: ABS redpoint.
Divisions: Men’s and women’s

Have you heard about Starbombing?

Unless you live in a cave you’ve probably heard about the StarBomb. It seems to be the most exciting cycling event to hit Roanoke since…well, the Car Less Brit Experiment. It is something you really need to participate in to fully understand.

 

Full Moon + Mini-Bicycles + Mill Mt + YOU = STARBOMB

courtesy of John Hamill Photography

Keep reading to see more pictures and learn more about StarBomb.

Live Longer

What a small island in the Mediterranean can teach us about long life.

Perhaps it’s too predictable: Experts find the world’s longest-living people in a remote mountain village on a tiny island in an exotic sea. They party hard, work into their hundreds, and still have sex into their 90s.

But then the twist: Their secret isn’t red wine or yogurt or young lovers. The key ingredient to living and loving longer, it seems, is growing right in their gardens.

For the past eight years, I’ve led expeditions to regions I call Blue Zones, places around the world where people are living measurably longer. Contrary to popular opinion, genes dictate as little as 2 percent of our life expectancy, so studying the lifestyles in these spots offers clues as to what we can do to live better, longer.

Since 2008, with funding from National Geographic and AARP, my team has been investigating the Greek island of Ikaría, some 35 miles off the coast of Turkey, where more than a third of the residents reach age 90. The locals here suffer 20 percent less cancer than Americans, half the rate of heart disease, and, most surprisingly,

Smith Maze Helmet- Gear Review

In a perfect world, no one would have to wear protective gear. But until that world appears, the next best thing is protective gear that’s so unobtrusive that you can easily forget that you’re wearing it. Kind of like Smith’s Maze helmet.

New for this winter, the company specs the Maze as weighing only 11.5 ounces, making it the lightest snow helmet in the snowsports industry, according to Smith. The company further assures it’s not “just a hardhat or crossover helmet.” Indeed, the Maze is a full-blown winter head protector certified

James River VA

While other Virginia Appalachian Trail hikers are flocking to Grayson Highlands or Shenandoah loops, you can find just as much scenic eye candy and a lot more solitude exploring the James River Face Wilderness.

As the Commonwealth’s officially designated wilderness, the 9,000-acre area sits where the mighty James cuts through the Blue Ridge Mountains, creating a craggy wooded escape that offers picture-perfect vistas and one of the most diverse arrays of vegetation in the region—particularly in the

Hey ladies! Freestyle Ski & Snowboard Giveaway!

Enter to Win the Ladies Elan Speed Magic Skis or the Ladies K2 Luna Snowboard.

No Purchase necessary.

Drawing to be held 12/1/2009

Enter Here to Win!

Be the Coolest Kid at Camp, the “Jetboil Flash” – Gear Review

When the automobile was invented it didn’t have alot of curb appeal. Now we base much of our car buying decision on the look of the ride. The same is true for backpacking gear. Twenty years ago backpacks were pretty boring, hiking clothes came in one color – khaki, and your stove was gray and heavy. Not any more.

The Jetboil Flash is the newest addition to the Jetboil family. When you see the flash the first thing that will stand out are the colors. You can now choose from orange, purple, blue, and black. That’s cool, everyone likes to be an individual. But there’s more to this new system than just the color. Jetboil has added a thermochromic heat indicator on the side. That’s scientist talk for “the logo changes color when the temperature gets up to 140-160 degrees Fahrenheit.”

The Jetboil Flash performed well in testing and boiled in under 2 minutes. It also comes with a translucent lid that has a drinking hole so you don’t spill your coffee down your shirt. Did someone say

How To Pack A Backpack

Rick McCharles over at Best Hike has put together a great little tutorial video on how to pack a backpack, and with all of his experience trekking, he ought to know. Rick has some excellent tips that can be of benefit to just about anyone, no matter if you’re traveling with a backpack for the first time or you’re an old pro.

I’m also happy that I had a small contribution to Rick’s packing process. Some time back, in a passing conversation, I mentioned that he could create a “frame” of sorts for his backpack of choice, the Granite Gear Virga, by using his Therm-A-Rest pad to give the pack some structure. The Virga is an ultralight pack that doesn’t use a frame of any kind, which has its benefits in weight gains, but can have some drawbacks in other areas. I was happy to see that my suggestion was paying off.