Going Big (Agnes)

Most bosses would hand you  a pink slip if you told them you wanted to get out of the office for a summer to hike and bike 740 miles. At Steamboat Springs-based Big Agnes, Honey Stinger and BAP, the folks in charge said, “Go take a hike.” In fact, it was the bosses who informed the 120 employees of the three sister brands that they would give them paid volunteer leave if they wanted to tackle all those trail miles and 145,043 vertical feet of climbing along the Colorado portion of the Continental Divide Trail. Seventy took on the challenge, which Big Agnes dubbed the Border to Backyard Quest. On June 11, the odyssey started on the New Mexico-Colorado border. Participants broke the trip down into 24 segments ranging from nine to 84 miles and by late summer they passed close by the home offices in Steamboat, wrapping up the job at the Wyoming border on September 13. Big Agnes also donated $25,000 to the Continental Divide Train Coalition (CDTC).  —Doug Schnitzspahn