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🌟 A day in the life of our Talent Acquisition Partner, Sarah Elton! -Before my day with Backcountry gets its start in our Park City office, a few folks from work and I enjoy a slice of the many bike trails in PC for some morning endorphins! -Upon arriving at the office, I settle into my desk greet her office pal Lizzy (we love a #petfriendlyoffice!). -In the afternoon I helped out the Owned Brands and Creative teams with our most recent Model Meet and Greet in The Studio. -To close out the day, I did some prep for the following days abundance of interviews. I do recruiting for all of our corporate positions which keeps me busy to say the least! We so appreciate all you do for Backcountry, Sarah! Keeping the energy high in the office and hiring the best of the best to fill it!
We are so, so excited to welcome Miranda McWatters to the Herd as a Retention Marketing Analyst. Miranda joins us from Bass Pro Shops with a strong background in data analysis in the retail credit card industry. She's got a strong skill set around data and numbers and a passion for the outdoors- we couldn’t ask for a better fit for the job! Miranda is stoked to have migrated west from Omaha Nebraska to Salt Lake City to work with Backcountry. Miranda has settled into the office and can be seen petting all the desk dogs on her way to and from grabbing a coffee in the break room!
A day in the life of our Chief of People, Ben Gross, here at Backcountry! - Morning: Priority one when arriving to our office in Park City is brewing myself a strong cup of Yerba Mate because not all caffeine is created equal. I stop-and-chat with my Executive Assistant, Casey Conway, poke my head into our CEO, Melanie Cox’s office before settling into some prep for the day and checking my emails. Given my two substantive roles here at Backcountry means I have two fire hydrants of emails pouring into my inbox. - Mid-Morning: Meetings galore. I spend much of my mid-morning meeting with the ELT, Legal Team, and having 1:1’s with folks on the Talent and HR teams. Pictured is my Golden Retriever, Lizzy, helping me prep for a Zoom meeting. - Mid-Day: Lunch time is running time- a habit I’ve kept for about 20 years. I usually get out for anywhere between 5 to 7 miles. If I’m not out for a run, I’ll be in the Jim (our gym in the office named after former Olympic ski jumper and Backcountry founder, Jim Holland), doing some yoga. - Afternoon: Afternoon is when I do all the work. Reviewing documents, interviewing candidates, managing situations. I’m energized by the lunch run, so it’s the most productive part of my day. - After Work: Nearly every evening I hike or uphill ski with my three retrievers. It’s a good time to decompress or wrap up calls with colleagues on new, in-flight or resolved matte
This weekend is the 5th annual Salt Lake Criterium held in downtown Salt Lake and Sugarhouse Park. The pros and armatures come from far and wide to race these iconic tracks! Competitive Cyclist’s sponsored team, L39ION, will be making yet another showing at the race and we’re beyond stoked to see what they can pull out of their hats!
Backcountry is proud to tout that we have a causal work environment when it comes to wardrobe. And when we say we have casual dress at the office, we mean it!
The Herd is in the midst of our annual Adventure Contents! This is a fierce competition amongst the entire company where outdoor activities have points associated with them and the person who has logged the most points, wins it all! So far, the Herd has cumulatively logged 2,617,129 vertical feet, 29,600 miles and 4,790 hours of duration since the contest start on Memorial Day!
Our powerhouse Owned Brands team made an annual visit to the Outdoor Retailer Conference in Salt Lake City. Huge shoutout to our Owned Brands Production Manager, Kaitlyn Dobbins for speaking on the ‘What about the S in ESG?’ panel hosted by Fair Trade USA. We are so proud of our Owned Brands team for all the progress that has been made around sustainability here at Backcountry!
Perks of the job! Backcountry purchases a number of Gold Passes each year that give unlimited access to 15 resorts in Utah. They’re called Gold Passes because they’re the golden ticket to the best downhill skiing, cross-country skiing and downhill mountain biking the area has to offer. Gearheads can sign out a gold pass for a day for a free day at the resort! It’s no small coincidence that Backcountry was founded in the greater Salt Lake area- it’s ideal for work but even more for play!
Backcountry loves to see our Herd get out and get after it! We offer race reimbursement for folks who are looking to get their competitive fix and test their limits. This time last year we had a number of Gearheads make their way to Brighton resort to race in the Cirque Series. These races are not for the faint of heart and that’s our Herd! Pictured is our Assistant Buyer for Footwear, Kate Loughlin at Brighton Resort!
Our mission here at Backcountry is to connect people to their passions and that mission includes our Herd! To make that a reality, Backcountry has what we call, AdventureLeave. With up to two months of unpaid leave, members of the Herd are encouraged embrace the spirit of adventure to paddle across the South Pacific, trek along the Appalachian trail or cycle across Europe. What would your adventure be? Our Hard Goods Merchandise Manager, Alex Quitiquit, took advantage of Adventure Leave nearly 10 years ago. In Alex's words, "After receiving the Mountaineering Fellowship Award Grant from the American Alpine Club, I travelled to the coastal mountains in Northern British Columbia in search of a rarely seen granite dome in the area outside of Kitimat, BC Canada. We were attempting to climb the dome via a first ascent and explore the surrounding area.". Things didn't go quite to plan but Alex and his friends spend nearly a month exploring the British Columbia backcountry and travelled in some places rarely ventured by people.
