Where would you go if your house were portable? Would you spend each night in a new spot? Stay camped in a discovered utopia forever? Or would you leave life as a vagabond to the experts?

The Outdoor Research (and CLIF Bar supported) Sidecountry skiers and snowboarders had to answer that question last year while traveling with their 112-square-foot tiny house in search of the ski bum’s dream—the perfect ski area parking lot. 

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Our friend Mark Davies from the CLIF UK field marketing crew was out at Run24, a 24-hour individual and team relay race that took place a couple weekends back. Check out the recap!

Now a 24-hour running race may sound completely alien to most of you and something of an impossibility. However, Run24 is made even tougher as you have to endure the same 5-mile loop throughout the race. Now, I did a jog around the race loop before the race started and it is truly one of the most beautiful courses I have ever ran on. However, this was quickly forgotten due to the sheer toughness of the terrain, and with some strong headwinds while going up the first climb, it was sure to be a tough 24 hours for the competitors. This event was spilt up into several categories: solo, paired and teams of 4, 5, 6, 7 or 8, so there was something for all abilities.

It was clear when we arrived early evening that the weather was not going to be on our side, never is when I go camping. After we had set up all the Clif Bar area we had a quiet flow of people, this was due to most of the people planning to arrive on the Saturday morning. With a band playing in the registration tent, most of the runners had gathered to watch, some with beers in hand, which I’m sure they paid for later on the next day.

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Gary Erickson is the founder and co-CEO of Clif Bar & Company. As Clif employees we’ve come to know and love the story of how Clif Bar & Company was born. And every time we hear it, it’s as inspirational as the first.

Last month at TEDx in Chicago, Gary explains the “White Road” philosophy and how it led him to create a better company, keep it privately owned and more. It’s a fantastically inspirational story and you should definitely check it out.

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Standing atop the south rim of the Grand Canyon for the first time, staring across at the north rim, overwhelms the senses. Your brain struggles to process the scale and beauty of it all. It looks fake as if it had been drawn by hand, the red hues exaggerated for our viewing pleasure. We could see the route we were about to run and it seemed so unbelievably far. Indeed it was far. 23 miles from the Bright Angel trail head to the top of the North Rim. But it appeared more like 230 miles away. The Colorado River, at the base of the canyon was not visible. Just a dark sliver of rock above it that the Colorado had cut through over time.

The Grand Canyon Rim to Rim to Rim (R2R2R) run, or Double Crossing, is a quintessential trail runner’s adventure. A rite of passage. Starting from the South Rim on the Bright Angel trail, we would run some of the most beautiful and treacherous 46 miles of trails on the planet to the North Rim and then back again. Along the way we’d experience close to 2 billion years of geological history, barely registering a blip in its life.

We began our descent into the blackness at 3am. The cloud cover kept any natural light to a minimum. We could see the headlamps of another group of runners ahead and below us. But that was about it. The temperature in our rental car had read 41 degrees but felt much warmer as we descended. Within a couple hours we had made it all the way to the Colorado River some 8 or so miles down. At this point it was just starting to get light and we were ready to stash our headlamps as we had been getting buzzed by bats attracted to the light. 

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Back in May, Clif Bar & Company hosted its first annual Charity Golf Tournament at Sequoyah Country Club in Oakland, which raised $30,000 for the Oncology Department at Kaiser Oakland.

Because this was the first time we’ve ever hosted a golf tournament, we wanted to make the experience memorable for our business partners who participated in the event. All the food was catered by our very own Kali’s Kitchen which included Momofuku Pork Buns on Hole #7, Tacos and Margaritas on Hole #10, and Hot Dogs on Hole #14. 

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