Latest / The Steep Stuff Podcast / Davide Giardini | Boulder Skimo Founder, La Sportiva Marketing & Pro Ski Mountaineer

Transcript

Davide Giardini | Boulder Skimo Founder, La Sportiva Marketing & Pro Ski Mountaineer · The Steep Stuff Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What's up, guys?
• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Steep Stuff Podcast.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, james Lauriello, and today we're going to dive right into a really fun episode.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: None other than Davide Giardini joins the podcast.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: You guys might be familiar with Davide with his affiliation as a ski mountaineer for La Sportiva.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: In addition, davide works in the marketing group for La Sportiva.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: So pretty exciting, really fun conversation.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: We also dive deep into Davide's organization that is known as Boulder Schemo, the ski mountaineering group that he runs, based out of Boulder, colorado.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: And, last but not least, we talk all about Davide's pro triathlete background.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: The guy has lived a lot of lives.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: He's a super interesting conversation and just really, really interesting character.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: One thing we do talk about that I'm really excited for is my sponsor, la Sportiva, which obviously, like I said, davide is a member of, and their marketing group just signed a big deal with Cirque Series to sponsor and be the main sponsor for the Cirque Series going forward into 2025.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: So we dive really deep into that deal as well as some of the conversations around that.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: So lots of things to be excited for.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Really great conversation.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: I think you guys are going to take a lot of way from this one.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Hope you enjoy it Without further ado.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Davide Girardini, it's time.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, we are live.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Davide Giardini, giardini, giardini, welcome to Steep Stuff Podcast, my friend.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: How are you?
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: Thanks for having me, James.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, man, I've been listening to your podcast a lot and I'm honored to be on it.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: It's an honor for me to have you finally sit down.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: I know we've hung out a couple of times and you know it's a bummer that we're like I'm in, let's see, let's see, I don't know, I don't know.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: I don't think I can afford Boulder dude, it's expensive.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: Well, listen, welcome to the podcast For those so you've done.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: You've lived so many lives in the sport, you've done so many different things.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: For those who don't know who Davide is, maybe just give a little brief background of who you are and just go from there sure, this is the, I guess, the quick recap.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: So, italian origins.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: Uh, I'm from lago di garda, in uh, the northern part of italy, and then came to the us for a foreign exchange program and have been stuck ever since.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: Uh, so I went to college here and my personal background sporting wise I've always, always been super active, um, in different sports swimming, windsurfing, alpine, ski racing and, uh, most recently, you know, the last 10 years um, what brought me to Boulder was professional triathlon and an MBA.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: So both um and uh, when I retired from pro triathlon in 2018, ski mountaineering and uphill skiing has been my outlet, both personally and it became professionally as well.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: And, coming from the Italian heritage, that's that mountain lifestyle of mountain running and ski touring in the winter.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: It's like ingrained in our culture and I've been trying to make that my passion and pursuit here in the US.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: I love that.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: Can you talk a little bit about what you currently do for a living?
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: That's how I got to meet you.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, of course.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: So my main job is I work at La Sportiva specifically for ski marketing and Boulder store activation.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: So we just opened our first North America store here in Boulder and of course it's a big deal for the brand and because my background has been a lot in high level sports but also in marketing, especially with you know, grassroots happy to have found a home that has roots to my home country, um, and also val di fieme is like 20 minutes away from where I grew up in italy, so it's definitely a home, home, homecoming moment for me dude I love it and it's what a cool job.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: I mean, I was laughing the other day because you were like you.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: You're like, oh yeah, friday I get out at one o'clock and I'm like you're off work at one on a Friday.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: I was like, dude, can I work at Las Partidas?
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: Just sort of I don't know, just amazing atmosphere, amazing, um, just everything.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: So it's really interesting about your background.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: So did you go to undergrad in the United States, like I?
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: did.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so I did a foreign exchange for high school in Massachusetts and I ski raced for the academy that I was in and it was purely for learning, you know, improving my English.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: And then I got sucked into the US you know high school system, and applied to colleges and all that.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: So I did end up going to a school in Rhode Island for a college.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: Very cool.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: What was it like for you coming over here from?
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: Especially because, like I don't know we've talked about this I have a lot of family in Italy.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: That's where my heritage is from and I've been over to Italy several times for extended periods and the lifestyle is just so different.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: I like it so much better over there.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: To be honest with you, what was that like culturally to come over in that high school era of your life?
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: Like was it a big shock for you, versus like what it's like in America?
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure, the cultures I feel like couldn't be any different.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: And of course, there's region specifics.
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: You know, coming from northern Italy and going to New England, that's certainly been different to you know, I had a stint in living in Hawaii, so that was very different from then Colorado.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: So it's hard to certainly make a generic statement, but the two cultures have definitely, they're definitely very different.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: Um, with that being said, I feel like I'm in a spot where, you know, they're very complementary in my both my personal and professional pursuits.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: Um, yeah, yeah how do you like colorado?
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: yeah, colorado is great, I definitely so.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: So I lived two years in Hawaii working there.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: And what part I lived in, just outside Honolulu, okay, and that's what got me into triathlon.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: And at the time it was my first job out of college and little did I know that I was doing a triathlon every day to get to work and my colleagues were like, man, you're doing triathlon every every day and you know.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: And so when, when I had to go to grad school mostly for, like, immigration stuff, being Italian and so on, it's very hard to remain in the US.
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: Colorado was definitely my top choice for the MBA program and, of course, triathlon.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: At the time I was pretty, you know, cleaning out at all the races in hawaii in triathlon, and I knew boulder.
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: So, you try, the cu triathlon team was top of the nation and all the pros at the time trained in boulder.
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: So that's what originally brought me to boulder and I love the mountain lifestyle and, although it doesn't feel like a hardcore mountain community, what I like is that the mountain access is close enough that it's not super far, yeah, um, and also you have a livability of like.
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: All the amenities are here, all the outdoor brands are here, the community is amazing, so at this point in my life I wouldn't trade it for anything in my life it's a great place to live, man I mean colorado in general is just amazing, but just the access here is hard to beat.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: Like there's just uh, from an endurance athlete perspective like it's there's nowhere else in the country.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: Really, I would ever rather want to yeah it's funny.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: I just got back from hawaii.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: I was in maui for a week and um.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: Unfortunately I got sick.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: I got bronchitis, so I didn't get to explore too much, but I was.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: I was a little disappointed in the trails I everybody messaged me after.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: They're like oh, you should have done this, you should have done that, um, but yeah, hawaii is different, definitely different.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, um, let me ask you this about the triathlon lifestyle how was that being a professional triathlete like?
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: What was that experience like?
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: so what got me into triathlon was the alternative was getting a real job.
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: So that's what drove me every day, yeah, and that was pre-social media.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: Pre, you know, it was still I.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: I became a pro in 2014 and you know there's a whole qualification standards to race as a pro, which is not super hard, um, to achieve, but then making a living at it was was super hard.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: So we're just making by um, but it was.
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: It was definitely a dream.
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, based in boulder was really awesome.
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: What.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: Trying to have the same pro triathlon lifestyle anywhere else, um, including being back home in italy and trying to live that lifestyle was definitely an eye-opener as to how hard it is to make it.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so boulder is so conducive to just like training and like having a very solid training block.
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: Just, the weather is so nice, the facilities, the, the trail system, the road, the, the roads, the, the gravel, cycling.
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: So now I know things have changed in boulder, just because it's gotten more expensive and it's hard to find housing.
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: So I know more triathletes are actually going to netherland.
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: Okay, for training the second guy in kona that won the world championships this year.
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: Uh, the ironman world championships did a big training block in netherland which is up at 2600 meters, meters, 8,500 feet, and then we train down in Boulder.
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: So sleep high, train low, yeah, yeah and yeah, pretty amazing place to train.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: Dude, there's something to that too.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: I don't want to get off on like a crazy tangent about that, but there's something to I wouldn't say so much to the sleep high, but the training at least at that 5,000, 6,000 foot, I'd say more of the training, at least at that 5,000, 6,000 foot, I'd say more of the 5,000 foot range.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: So I live at 7,000 feet and when I come down to 5,000 feet I feel like a God and I would imagine people that live much higher same thing.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: You come down and you feel like just the power generation's different, like I don't know.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: I feel so much better when I come and train at 5,000 feet versus higher up.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: So it's interesting.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: So did you know, eli Hemming, when you were in the pro scene for triathlon as well?
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so Eli was pursuing the Olympic cycle and it's definitely a cutthroat, super high-performance environment because only two guys and two girls make it.
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: So I think he missed that cycle and that's when he got into trail running.
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: but I was focused on on um, the 70.3 circuit, so non non-draft 70.3 circuit while he was olympic distance draft legal, um so olympic pipeline, and there's definitely a lot of people that you know maybe are not as much in the spotlight, um, as much as eli with the utmv win and so on.
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: That kind of come full circle, whether it's from triathlon or from cycling, from running, that either get into schema or into trail running, ultra running and so on.
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: There's definitely more and more kind of like light bulbs that go off in my head, yeah, and Eli's probably like the one, one of the prime in the spotlight right now yeah.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: But the, the segue and the lifestyle.
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: You know the sports are they.
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: They seem similar but at the end of the day they're day.
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: It attracts the same personalities to these sports.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: I feel like too, with triathlon, especially if we get a lot of these guys coming over into the trail scene.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: You guys can train all day.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: If you're just training running, for instance, you're going to hurt yourself or burn yourself out.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: But if you can train on the bike, you can train running, you can train swimming like you could just train all day.
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: You could build an enormous engine and also the speed.
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: You know, some of those athletes are like the fittest, fastest athletes on the planet.
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: Like someone like Eli, you know would swim with the top swim clubs in the the country, then ride with the pro cyclists, then run with the track and cross-country runners so crazy and that's like day in and day out.
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: So I think people discount in a in a sport that's still developing, like trail running.
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: I think that people discount like the years that have gone into that and what speed like these people actually like raw speed they can they have.
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, um, like you know, sub 50 minute, sub 40 minute, 5k, sub 30 minute, 10k yeah, that type of stuff, yeah, I wouldn't be surprised.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: I mean like, and the only reason I ask is with eli, because eli is my coach so okay that was why I was like I started putting two and two together and he had said that, davide, you're his buddy.
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: So that's why I was like ah.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: I should ask about that, um, really quick.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: So one of the things you had mentioned was Schemo, something I know you're very active on, obviously, las Portivas ski team.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: Um, you have this organization called Boulder Schemo.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: Can you talk a little bit about that?
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: So Boulder Schemo started two years ago as a way of filling a bit of a niche in the marketplace that I would see and, of course, giving it a local spin, because living in Boulder my my fourth, I feel like is, you know, bringing people together within the local community.
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: I'm definitely not like a huge big picture thinker, so to speak, although I do follow trends and so on.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: So Boulder Schemo just started from the fact that Boulder has amazing groups across all sports, endurance sports, and Schemo to me seemed like such a good sport to do in boulder.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, um like, the access is phenomenal, both to ski resorts as well as out of bounds back country.
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: Yet nothing really existed and and boulder is very euro centric as far as sports go and culture goes.
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: So I decided to start it, mostly selfishly, to find partners and build a bit of a community around it.
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: And education is huge.
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: We see such a focus in backcountry skiing and ski touring in America and especially Colorado, towards avalanche safety, which is, of course, fundamental, but there's so many other aspects of the sport that nobody seems to be talking about that actually, I would argue are almost more important than avalanche safety, just because if you don't have the skills to access avalanche terrain, you're not going to get yourself in a position to be.
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I, I just wanted to pursue an angle of the sport that nobody was really focused on, and the brands I was talking to and the shops I was talking to always seemed to to say that ski mountaineering and, and you know, light and fast ski touring was not a thing that sells in the US and there's no market and people are not interesting.
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: So I love a challenge and all this conversation just fueled a fire in me and I just want to prove them wrong and I'd love that within two years, the Bullet Schema has grown to 110 members paying members and we have a huge uh partners network, from gear supporters to shops, to other organizations that are related to ski touring, such as um you know, ski alpine, ski uh schools and uh training peaks and, um you know, scratch labs, and we have md as a sponsor for sports and ortho services so amazing.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: Did you guys just get mamut or something like that as well?
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: yeah, mamut not to discount, you know avalanche safety, but you need a beacon, you need a probe, you need a shovel yeah, to go ski touring.
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: So you know, in a way it's like uh, it's a community network, for sure, and we'll see where it goes um, but I love people's um interest in it and I'm I'm trying to trying to see what's needed out there in the marketplace.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: And, of course, working at las pertiva has opened my eyes as to how the industry works and how market trends are created and yeah and and so on.
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: And, of course, being italian, uh, ski mountaineering has kind of come and gone, and I say that in the best way possible.
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: It was all the rage in the 90s and the 2000s and then it just kind of tailed.
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: You know, some poor decisions were made at the federation level and industry level, and so the sport has kind of declined through the years.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: Hopefully now with the Winter 26 Olympics in Milano, cortina, the sport will come back up.
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but yeah, I'm excited for what's ahead.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: I'm excited too, man.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: The reason I brought it up too is just because I'm skimo curious If I lived in a place where access like that so for instance, we have Pikes Peak and there's okay backcountry skiing in that, like in certain times of the winter, um, but if we had a resource network or something like that in the spring.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: So if you ever want to bring it South a little bit, I would totally get involved.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: So it's unfortunate that I live so far South, or else I would.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: I'd be doing it often.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: Um yeah, on the topic of the schema in the Olympics, like I just had cam smith on the podcast.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we were chatting for a while and uh, it's gonna be interesting.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: I'm I'm interested to see the growth of the sport over the next few years and what that olympic cycle looks like, so it should be fun yeah, and I just saw cam at a race we did at a basin a midweek uh race at a basin uh, not the circus, the rise
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: and shine.
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: It was on skis and I think cam, at the very top level, is definitely like top three ski mountaineers in the country.
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: He's a great example of um mountain running, crossing over to ski mountaineering, which in the european mountain culture is like, is like breathing, you know, it's just what you do.
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, in america it still kind of baffles me that more people are not into schema.
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's uh, and and, as exemplified by someone like cam, who, of course, is crazy, talented, smart and and and has been pursuing this for over a decade, it seems.
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: But the complimentary benefits of doing both sports in two different seasons are definitely there, yeah, so it's great to see him having success and hopefully he's definitely my top pick for making the.
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: Olympic team.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: I'm a huge Cam Smith fan, especially after getting to sit face-to-face with him and hang out with him.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: I've actually never raced him, shockingly enough just you, yeah right, I was gonna say one of these days, um, but like just getting to like hang out with him for a little bit.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: Mind you, before he sat down to talk to me I think he ran, like it was like a sub 19 minute incline, which his power generation I mean this is for another conversation, but like just the amount of power he can generate and just so much strength to just get up steep stuff, this is incredible.
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, definitely somebody I definitely admire in the sport for sure.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: So I kind of touched on, I said something about the Cirque series.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: I don't want to bury the lead, because that's something we kind of talked on before the episode.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: One of the exciting things that I'm stoked for as a La Sportiva athlete going into next year is that the Cirque series is now going to be sponsored by La Sportiva.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: I know you were pretty integral in that relationship, so is there anything you can talk about going forward with that?
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so the press release went out, so I'm super excited about that.
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: When I retired from triathlon and I got into schema as an outlet to, you know, utilize the snow and and still keep active.
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: Um, cirque series was the cirque series.
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: A basin race was one that I had on the calendar as a way to like scratch the competitive itch after my my retirement, and I went to that event at a basin and it was one of the best sporting events I had attended.
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: Um, you know, the format is awesome you start at the base of, uh, the ski resort, you go to the top and your audience, I'm sure, is super familiar with cirque and, and what I really liked was Julian himself.
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, just, you know, coming from the, the pro extreme sports, um, you know, I feel like those guys.
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: They're light years ahead of endurance sports when it comes to content and just swagger he's a wild boy.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: I love, love.
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: But also very like smart, and you know the conversations we've had around.
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: Um, you know cirque series, like he definitely portrays the image of wild guy, but he's definitely on it, um, and you can tell from racing his events.
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: It's such a good production, dude, it's amazing best in the like, amongst the best in the country, yeah for sure, and that was actually my the first race I paid for for like in 15 years probably, and I gladly gave him my money because I had a great time.
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: You know, the community was awesome young, old pros, beginners and just everybody, just you know, going out for a sub two hour effort, 90 minutes effort, the expo area was amazing.
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: So I got to meet him and he was super nice and kind and friendly and super open and, um, we kind of reconnected and then I raced it a couple more times after that, just the one at a basin, and of course I knew he was, you know, the one of the most recognized figures in in free skiing in America and so we just had a conversation about, you know, what would it take for las pertiva to get involved, and he was super keen.
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: Um, so the rest of history I guess yeah, we'll see how history develops.
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah but you know it's a match made in heaven.
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: You know, coming from from italy, las pertiva is one of those historic mountain brands that started from humble beginnings of a need that Italian soldiers had in World War II for going to mountains, and then, with the boom in the outdoor industry and the ski industry starting after that, it got developed into mountaineering boots, climbing boots, and then running is not as much like a bit later, but you know, super renowned for rugged activities in the mountains and um, so yeah, it's a match made in heaven yeah, I'm so excited, man.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: Um, yeah, I don't know if we can talk about this.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: I mean, I can cut that, probably won't cut this out, because this will come out probably after I heard that there's a North.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: I mean, you probably can't announce this because it hasn't been announced yet, but there's a Northeast race that they're going to announce soon.
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: Oh, I think they announced it.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: Did they announce it?
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: today Straton Stowe.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: Did they announce it?
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was announced.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, that's so exciting yeah and who knows things go?
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: you know he, I know he loves to ski personally, um, in the winter, so he likes to, you know, do his things in the winter and plan for the cirque series in the summer.
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: Who knows that, maybe one day in the future there'll be like a ski touring connection with cirque, or would that be?
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: a schema connection.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: Um, you know, just it's been done before in europe.
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: It's been done in italy, like la sportiva has supported some super awesome year-round, uh, mountain running cup and epic ski tours, yeah, um, events.
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: So maybe it's just a matter of like putting heads together and making something happen there I mean the wasatch would be so perfect out here would be.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: I was a little bummed we got rid of um.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: I raced brighton last year and it's not going to be one this year, but I know there's discussion to bring it back next year, um, but like that would be such an ideal, like for a schemo race, um.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: And I know they've done some, because I think it was Ray Kobo who told me that they've done Schemo races at Brighton in the past.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: They do.
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: So we were.
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: Schemo Co is the best retailer in the country for light and fast ski touring gear, and Utah Schemo is an organization that puts on midweek races at Brighton, solitude and other ski resorts and I was lucky to attend one of them last year for la sportiva and I'll be going there in december.
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: It's amazing.
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a youth schema club called silver fork that sarah cookler runs.
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: She's the head of sport for usa schema now and they have 70 kids that come out with headlamps and the courses are amazing.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: It's all in and out of bounds, um, and super well marked with, with, with blinking lights and hazard uh lights and so on.
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: So such a cool scene, yeah it's amazing, dude, I love the sport.
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: Are you gonna be?
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: Because I'll be at.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: I mean, you know this, I'm probably gonna be racing.
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: I know I'll be at aliaska this year.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: I'll probably do the northeast one, depending on what date it is.
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: I know I'm gonna go to washington, um, for the washington one and I'll probably go to alta, um.
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: I think there's a conflict with a basin one.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure, but are you gonna be at most of them this year?
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: Will you go or?
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: you know, my main focus for las pertivas is ski touring of course.
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: Um, as far as, uh, my summer season goes, I'm I'm definitely busy with the boulder store yeah activations and so on.
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: But, um, as much as I can with the rest of the team, we'll try and have a solid presence there with athletes and media and and generally, just, you know, show people how cool the brand las pertiva is, if they don't already know it.
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: Um, have people try different shoes, like we have evolutions of the prodigio coming out, um that that would be perfect for the circ um events, and then, yeah, we'll see where the ski touring connection goes.
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, future years I'm so excited.
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: Well, listen, man, I hate to wrap this up, but I've got another one we're going to be doing soon, so this is not going to be the last one time you and I talk.
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: We'll talk a bunch more um, but this is a great first edition of hopefully many conversations, and I want to thank you so much for inviting me into your home and having a conversation.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: I really appreciate it.
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, thank you for having me, james, and I think you're hitting on the head with the Steep Stuff podcast.
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: I think that there's a place right now, with evolving consumer demographics and consumer trends and sporting trends, to push more of this sub ultra content.
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: So keep at it.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: Thank you, I appreciate that and hopefully we can bring more schema into it in the future and stuff like that would be really fun.
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: It is steep.
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true, it definitely helps.
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: Well, Davide.
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much, man.
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: Thanks, James Yep.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: What'd you guys think what a fun episode?
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: Want to thank Davide?
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much, man.
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: Thanks, James Yep.
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: What'd you guys think what a fun episode?
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: Want to thank Davide so much for coming on the podcast.
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: I know this conversation was a little more condensed and a little short but, like I said, this is just a better opportunity to have him on again in the near future so we can talk more.
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: Like I said, I could have done a four hour episode with him just a really like a serious wealth of knowledge and just a super interesting guy.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: Um, like I said, he's lived a lot of lives in the sport, so pretty cool.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: Uh, I really want to thank Davide for coming on.
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: Um, guys, before you get going, do me a favor.
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: We've got a lot of plugs here.
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: First one is hop on Instagram and you're going to give Davide a follow.
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: Um, his handle is endurance pro guides.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: You can also find that by typing in Davide Giardini.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: That's G I A R D I N I.
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: Um, or, like I said, endurance pro guides.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: Give him a follow.
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: Um, while you're at it, hop on and give Boulder Schemo follow as well.
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: If you were in the front range area, uh, if you happen to be in the greater Boulder area and you are curious about Schemo and wanting to get involved in the sport or just need any tips, whatever, hop, hop on Boulder Schemo, give them a follow and, you know, if you're just interested, give them a follow and sign up.
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: Davide does a lot of really cool, interesting things.
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: They're partnered with a lot of cool brands and on top of that, there's a lot of resources.
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: They do all kinds of stuff in the preseason during the season at Eldora as well as a basin, and then postseason as well as they build into the next Schemo season during the mountain running season.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: So lots of really cool stuff there, lots of fun resources, and it's just awesome for the community to start to learn more about the great sport of ski mountaineering, especially as it starts to make uh, make waves this year, uh, ahead of the 2026 Olympics, um, yeah.
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: So, guys, I hope you enjoyed this one.
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: Like I said, it's a personal favorite of mine, looking forward to having Davide on again soon.
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: Um and yeah, have a great rest of your week, thank you.