Andrew McLean at the Great Outdoors Retail Store

In December, 2011, the GreatOutdoors retail store in Bend opened its lecture series with an appearance by world-renowned skier Andrew Mclean. Andrew arrived from his home in Salt Lake City to do two separate presentations: one by invitation only, and another on Saturday, December 3,which drew a near capacity crowd to gather around the big screen to hear the presentation.

 

Mclean, just returned from Antarctica, regaled the audience with images and video from not only the just-completed Antarctica trip, but another trip he made doing first descents in Alaska, and yet another ski journey to the wilds of Arctic Europe near Spitzbergen. Once called by Powder Magazine the greatest skier of all time, McLean did not disappoint those who came to hear his remarks. His images and lecture about the joys of skiing in remote places resonated with the other skiers in the crowd.

 

It was fitting that McLean was the inaugural presenter at the Bend retail store, as he also serves as GreatOutdoors.com ski correspondent, writing about everything from skiing at his home resorts near Park City, Utah, to describing what it was like being featured in the iconic ski film, Steep. And, while skiing in Alaska to make first descents, McLean reported in daily to GreatOutdoors.com on the action by satellite telephone.

 

Few mountain athletes have matched McLean's accomplishments. His career highlights include:

 

-First Descents on all seven continents
-Skiing off the top of Denali
-Kite-skiing and couloir crushing on Baffin Island
-Climbing 5 routes on El Cap
 

For more on Andrew, see GreatOutdoors.com editor Peter Potterfield’s profile of Andrew McLean. And stay tuned for information on other speakers who will appear at the Bend retail store this spring and summer. The GreatOutdoor stores hopes to bring a number of climbers, skiers and backcountry travelers to the new retail store.