Big Agnes’ Salt Creek Named Backpacker 09 Editors’ Choice Green

Big Agnes has been honored as a recipient of a 2009 Backpacker magazine Editors’ Choice Award, the most prestigious award in the outdoor industry, given annually to products in recognition of their outstanding innovation in design, materials and/or performance.

Backpacker Editor-In-Chief Jonathan Dorn and his staff of editors and testers presented Big Agnes with the award at the annual Outdoor Retailer Winter Market in Salt Lake City, Utah on January 22nd.

The Backpacker Editors’ Choice Awards, bestowed annually since 1993, honor the products that Backpacker editors have chosen as the best of the year based on months of trail testing by teams of highly experienced hikers and climbers. With no set categories for the awards and no set number of recipients, the products and the testing process drive the award categories.

Big Agnes’ Salt Creek Recycled 2 tent was one of only 19 innovative products that have been honored with a 2009 Backpacker Editors’ Choice Award. The new Salt Creek Recycled 2 is a free standing, three-season, backpacking tent made with 100% recycled polyester fly, floor and mesh materials and features recycled hardware.

“This year’s winners withstood the most rigorous testing process yet,” said Editor-In-Chief Jonathan Dorn. “Our test team started off with over 50 new products, narrowing them down to a final 25 after months of trail-testing. The finalists were then taken on extreme outdoor adventures both in the mountains and on the coast of Wales, enduring a streak of epic weather conditions from wind-whipped days to rain-soaked nights. In fact, three tents alone were destroyed on this trip. Those that survived have earned the distinction of becoming the 2009 Editors’ Choice Award Winners.”

“Big Agnes is honored to be recognized by Backpacker for our Salt Creek Recycled 2 tent. To be surrounded by such great competition in the ‘green’ category and come out on top with the ‘2009 Editors’ Choice Green’ is something that makes everyone at Big Agnes proud,” says Bill Gamber, Big Agnes co-founder and president. “We hope that our efforts with our Re-Routt collection spur other manufacturers to push the boundaries of what’s possible with green product in the future.”

The Backpacker Editors’ Choice Awards are the gold standard against which all outdoor products are measured, and are a seal of approval that can help put an outdoor company or product on the proverbial map. Each year at the Outdoor Retailer show, retail buyers use the awards announcements as a must-buy shopping list, knowing that their customers will be asking for these products in the spring.

Named for a peak in the nearby Mt. Zirkel Wilderness, Big Agnes®, Inc. is located in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, and produces award-winning sleeping bags, pads and tents. For more information, visit www.bigagnes.com or call 1-877-554-8975.