Happy First Anniversary, The Outdoor Society!
You look mighty fine for being one year old.
Over many beers and on endless hiking trails, TOS founders Doug and Mathias discussed what we felt was missing in the Outdoor Magazine world. We found that all around our beloved Pacific Northwest, beautiful regions and amazing experiences got often short-changed, under appreciated and kept a secret, even to locals.
We had this idea for years: We wanted to create a magazine not focused on ‘pow’ and ‘stoke’. Instead, it would be full of stories about places not centered around Boulder or Yosemite. It would be a celebration of the Pacific Northwest, and help define what that term means to the region. We kicked around the idea, but each time it was mentioned, it was pushed aside for something else.
You can talk about doing something only for so long before you actually make it a reality. So, after six months of dreaming, scheming, and writing many lines of code, we launched this website. The Outdoor Society started, at this domain, in late February of 2015.
What follows is a colorful trip down our short, but eventful memory lane. We’re celebrating one year in business. One year of sharing stories of this beautiful place we call home. One year full of surprising and entertaining articles, which occasionally ruffled some feathers. Just the way we like it.
Over the last year, we’ve had over 20 incredible cover pictures, telling the story of the Olympic Peninsula, along with the occasional image from around the world thrown in for good measure. Each picture is part of who we are as The Outdoor Society, and each image is meant to inspire adventures.
In our first year, we have reached over a quarter million unique visitors. People from over 170 countries and from almost 10,000 different cities in the USA alone have visited our site. Most find solace and inspiration in our adventures, share our posts and interact with us in one way or another, helping our presence and inspiring influence grow.
That’s almost 5 stories per week, with our favorites put into a book we called Summit Book 2016. You should get your first run, limited edition collections edition now! The stories have been expanded, cleaned up and put together in a beautifully designed and fun to read book, once again hoping to inspire and quench your wanderlust. In our articles, we broke news stories that would dominate the news cycle of the Pacific Northwest, from earthquake swarms to trash on the beach and the rainforest catching on fire- we were there.
Last year, The Outdoor Society team hiked, ran, and climbed over 2,500 miles and the Pacific Northwest. From the tops of remote summits in the Olympics, to trails in around and under volcanoes, we explored the region we love.
That is quite a lot, even if I continue to measure my hikes and runs in kilometers.
It might be a slamming a mega corporation that’s forcing the National Park to change the names of historic lodges, or writing an open letter to William Shatner when he wanted to steal our water for California’s swimming pools. Some things need to be said, and we’re not afraid to put them on the blog. If your disrespectful with your actions out in the wild or if you proclaim to own the trails, we’ll call you out. And we won’t think twice about doing it again.
We’re everywhere. Last year, The Outdoor Society visited Glacier, Yellowstone, Crater Lake and, of course, many times the Olympic and Mt. Rainier National Parks. Each trip, we reached further into the wilderness and searched harder for connections to our public lands. We sought out stories, talked with rangers and stood silently in awe on remote mountains.
If there’s a State or National Park, we’re there. We’ve visited dozens of parks and recreational lands in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. And we have barely scratched the surface.
The Outdoor Society has been available on Apple News since Day One, and is one of the top ranked outdoor news sites on the app. If you haven’t added us to your Apple News feed, please do it now!
Last year, when the weather started getting gloomy we started our LIVE events at 3Magnet Brewing in downtown. Cozy, fun and informative, this is the start of something larger: creating an actual society of outdoor enthusiasts and wilderness lovers. Come out to the next one. You won’t regret it!
We produce stuff. Amazing stuff. Beautiful things. Inspiring works. We write awesome guidebooks for the region. Create beautiful calendars. We design rad shirts and will be rolling other cool stuff all year. Support the great outdoors and the Pacific Northwest.
Beyond the numbers, the stats, and the business, there’s a desire to inspire people to join us and experience the adventure that is the great outdoors of the Pacific Northwest. We attend events all across the state, from being hiking experts on the Olympic Peninsula for Washington Trails at REI events, to guest speaking on radio shows, podcasts and hiking events. We want to be inspiring for everyone, and we like to be social.
The first year of The Outdoor Society was encouraging. The hard work is starting to pay off and we seem to have momentum. Our second year will be even greater and we’re working hard on several really awesome things we can’t wait to share with you.
Thanks for being on this trail with us and we hope to see you our Book Launch Party, or the next event in downtown Olympia.
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