PathWrangler

Looks like climbing pays after all:

It reads like the opening scene of an “Indiana Jones” movie.

A young man climbing a French glacier finds a cache of glittering jewels wrapped in bags stamped “Made in India” — remnants, perhaps, of cargo from an ill-fated airliner called the Malabar Princess.

The best thing about it? This story is true.

It happened early this month on a glacier overlooking the southeastern French village of Chamonix, Albertville police Chief Sylvain Merly said Thursday…

…Merly declined to characterize the stones, which are being described in French media as rubies, sapphires and emeralds. They’re worth somewhere between €130,000 (about $175,000) and €246,000 ($331,600), Merly said.

I once found half of a rusty shovel, a pair of Ray Ban sunglasses and a half-eaten tin of tuna in the mountains.  Suffice to say, I didn’t feel like Indiana Jones after my discoveries.

Tnooz writes about how Google’s latest travel focused initiatives are causing problems for travel start-ups:

Google is leading the charge on phase four.

Some previously announced projects:

• City Experts – Google is currently recruiting “Local Insiders” for their City Expert program. These individuals will “have access to fun, exclusive events. Free custom swag. Special online recognition”.

• Field Trip – A location aware app that tells you interesting things as you walk around a city. Also acts as a geocoded travel blog aggregator with many travel blogs integrated). Give it a go. Hundreds of travel data providers are involved.

• Helpouts – “Real help from real people in real time”. That’s the tips-from-a-local thing we constantly hear about.

So now Google has experts and a location aware app. Put those two together with its consumer facing traffic streams and you have a insurmountable combination.

For example, imagine you are in a city and you need advice. You could turn on your phone (or Google Glass spectacles), and immediately you are in live video contact with a local city expert. They answer you and you are satisfied.

Let’s face it, this is several travel startups that Google has wiped out, just there. In a flash.

Sounds pretty dire, doesn’t it?  I cannot tell you how many times I pitched PathWrangler to potential investors over the years and heard the question, “What happens if Google decides to get into your space?”  After considering the question, I’d usually say something like, “Well, a there are several options: 1) wet my pants, 2) get mad and write a nasty blog post, and 3) surround Larry Page’s house in the middle of the night with a row of 4×12 cabinets that would make Eddie Van Halen’s ears hurt and jam Iron Maiden’s “Run to the Hills” until his relents and pulls the plug.   Unfortunately, these are all reactionary measures and would likely do little keep big bully Google from crushing my hopes and dreams.

So, what’s happening here?  Google has made some impressive moves here.  They are really good at solving problems that are similar to “boiling the ocean.”  The technology isn’t quite as important as the access to all the data and information that is being shared.   It remains to be seen if Google can gain adoption of these new products, but as we know, these tools are going to be cheap or free as they continue to allow ad-revenue from search to drive monetization.  Travel apps that are in this space have a lot of reason to worry.

Google is attacking an area of the travel tech industry that I think has been taking the easy road, specifically those that are driven by the algorithmic approach to trip planning.  In particular, during the Inspiration Phase.  On the other side are the travel agents who continue to see technology as a competitor to their long-held beliefs that travel is personal and needs live humans see another wave of 1′s and 0′s coming at them.

About a year ago, I wrote a post “Why Tech Companies Suck at Adventure Travel.”   The focus was on how travel tech companies were so heavily focused on automation, that they were in danger of commoditizing a product that travelers want to be far more personalized.  The data backs it up.  The ATTA just released new market research that shows the experiential travel market booming with a growth rate of 65% annually since 2009 to $263 billion.  Because of that, companies that provide travel services such as operators and agents are growing.  However, they’ve greatly lagged behind in adopting technology and view companies with suspicion and fear that they’re going to be put out of business.

The key for travel tech companies who want to compete with Google, while also building a sustainable business model are ones that find a way to humanize their technology.  This doesn’t mean a super advanced algorithm that “acts human.”  It has to automate the parts of travel that don’t require humans, but provides a deeper human touch with the ones who are ultimately the ones responsible for providing travelers with personalized experiences.  The art in solving these ongoing problems is in trying to figure out exactly which is which.  Technology is doing a great job at dividing up the commoditized areas of travel from the personalized ones and there are $263 billion reasons that we can expect the human side of the business to continue and flourish.

The low hanging fruit has been picked.  Tech companies need to shift and find ways to provide value on this side of the equation.  Until, of course, Google starts building clones made from the DNA of Edmund Hillary, Ernest Shackleton and Jacques Cousteau.  Then we’re all in deep trouble.

Since hearing the news of Marty and Denali’s recent passing on K2, the last few days for me have been full and focused around my responsibilities, I really have not had a moment to just sit and be in a present space until now as I write this. I first met Marty Schmidt in 2003 when we were both guiding a trip on Mount McKinley (aka Denali whom he be-lovingly named his son after).  This was my third time guiding Denali and for Marty it was around his 30th.  Up until this time I had never heard of Marty, but after our expedition together I felt that we had spent many lifetimes together.

Upon meeting our group of clients in Talkeetna (your departure point for flying onto the Southeast Fork of the Kahiltna Glacier), it became apparent to me that Marty possessed a presence within him that was unique and completely unknown to me at that time.  His ability to connect with the participants of our group was not from a logical head space, it was directly from the heart.  Marty guided, communicated, and lived his life directly from the heart.  When you were talking to him, it was direct presence, you were all that he could care about in that moment of existence.

Marty walked and lived his truth and he held the space for others to discover within themselves what it was that made their heart sing.  I personally have been mountain guiding for over 17 years, I have had amazing instructors from my early days at Prescott College, and I have had the privilege to have worked alongside many amazing guides at both Alpine Ascents International and International Mountain Guides. But there is one person who has stood alone and who has supported me beyond anyone else.  That person is Marty.  I attribute to my growth as a guide and the catalyst to become a deeper human being from him.

Our Denali trip was amazing.  Just being with Marty made you want to work harder and Denali is a working person’s mountain..something you cannot learn any other way outside of shadowing more experienced guides who pass their experiences onto you.  I learned more from Marty in those three weeks about being a mountain guide then I had in the 5 years proceeding..it was a quantum leap in guiding from the heart.

We were one of many teams that had been stuck at 14,000 ft Camp (aka Adv Base) on Denali for about 8 days.  As a result their was a backlog of over 120+ who were planning to move up High Camp at 17,200 ft.  For us as a team, we were unable to transfer any of our load carries up to 16,800 ft at the base of Washburn’s Thumb due to the inclement weather.  When the weather forecast became apparent that their would be a window of opportunity for us to get higher, we were still without any loads up high.  Our team was strong and we were well acclimated after spending the last 8 days battling the weather up at 14 Camp, so physically we were ready for a move up high..but so were the 120+ that were waiting there with us!

Marty’s plan was to hang back at 14 while the rest of the teams broke trail and waited in lines at varies bottlenecks between the fixed lines at 15,600 ft and high camp at 17,200 ft.  Instead our plan was to go ‘alpine style’ with the clients which meant paring down all of our group gear, personal gear, and food.  We took exactly what we would need for the next 6 days.  Our plan was to wait in the sun cooking quesodillas, and once the last group were to clear the bergshrund at the base of the fixed lines..we would then depart.

Our destination was not for the 17,200 ft camp, but for the snow caves that reside on the backside of the top of the fixed lines at 16,400 ft.   It was smooth sailing as we ascended the lines with efficiency and ease..although upon reaching the snow caves we found that Mike Roberts (another amazing veteran  guide) had already inhabited the caves with his crew.

We had a total of 7 grown men on this trip and we paired our shelters down to Northface VE-25 tents.  So Marty’s backup was to cut a ledge on the protected leeward side of the West Buttress overlooking the Peter’s Glacier 3,000 feet below.  We worked hard, cut out a secure ledge, setup and anchored our tents by running a matrix of ropes around and through our doors almost like a portaledge, and put the 3 biggest guys in one tent and the rest of us (including Marty and myself) were in the second.

The next day we moved without crowds up to high camp and dug in for the next 2 days.  When it came for our summit window, us, along with 120 other persistent climbers departed the security of our tents and left for the summit..although this time Marty made sure that we were in front.  After safely reaching the summit with all of our clients, we arrived back into our tents twelve hours later..right as the snow was beginning to fall again.  We then spent the next 3 days weathered in our tents, Marty, myself, and our clients spent the tent bound days listening to NPR, playing cards, and making food..we spent this time getting to truly know each other as fellow human beings and most importantly we laughed.

After this trip Marty Schmidt became a fixture in my life.  We stayed in touch the best that any mountain guides can do, but existence would constantly cross our paths.  For instance, I would be walking down a street in Mendoza, Argentina..stop at a street crossing, and look to my left and their would be Marty.  Or, I would be walking up a side valley in the Himalayas, look to my right..boom..Marty!  In these crossings our connection just deepened and he became a rock in my life.  Marty and his son Denali were living their truth with trust and totality.  They were the creators and artisans of defining themselves as true human beings living in balance and flow with existence.

During his final visit to Seattle last summer, I had the opportunity to have Marty spend most of the week with me at my place.  I would never had guessed that this would be our last crossing in this life.  My heart and laughter now long for the next.

New integration allows travel software company to provide form options to tour and expedition leaders.

Indianapolis, IN (July 29, 2013) – Formstack, an Indianapolis-based form building company, announced a new partnership with San Francisco-based software company PathWrangler today. The integration through PathWrangler’s travel software will empower travel guides and expedition leaders to quickly create Formstack forms for their customers and trips.

PathWrangler’s online app allows users to create and host the files they need to organize outdoor expeditions and guided tours. Through their accounts, trip leaders can create, share, and host the data for traveler registrations, itineraries, packing lists, and more of the many aspects of operating an expedition.

With this new integration, customers can create a Formstack account, build the forms they need, and host them on their unique trip page without leaving the PathWrangler app, eliminating the need for PDFs, emails, and spreadsheets to collect traveler information.

“One of the chief frustrations of tour operators is the limited means that they have available to do basic operations such as requesting client information and taking payments,” says Doug Heinz, CEO of PathWrangler. “With our Formstack integration, not only do operators have a single place where their clients can get everything they need for their trips, but they can significantly reduce the workload required for simple business operations.”

This unique partnership provides PathWrangler customers with an entirely cloud-based solution when organizing group expeditions and guided tours, making their data more accessible and accommodating their on-the-go lifestyles.

For more information about PathWrangler or to start planning your expedition, visit www.pathwrangler.com. Simply put, PathWrangler makes building and storing experiences easier than ever before. Planning an adventure trip or an outdoor excursion is like herding cats. We’ve built a collaborative web tool that makes trip planning not only easy, but fun. The goal is to empower you so that your only limitation is your imagination and sense of wonder. It can be used just as easily by professional guides running recurring expeditions to the Himalayas to just a handful of avid outdoor enthusiasts planning their next hiking trip in Yosemite.  Contact CEO Doug Heinz with any Press inquiries at info@pathwrangler.com or 415-309-2242.

Created in 2006, Formstack is an online form builder that has become a leader in creating, managing and hosting online forms and surveys. Formstack provides businesses of all types and sizes an easy-to-use online form building tool, allowing them to capture the customer/client information they need without having to spend a lot of time coding their own Web sites. For more information about Formstack please visit www.formstack.com

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