Sure, we all knew how sick Steve Jobs was. But the finality of it really hit me hard when the news came through that he was actually gone. I never even came close to meeting him… from the way he insulated himself, most people never did. But the piece of himself that we all got to see and know was his vision of perfection and elegance. His products were things to behold. Beautiful. Sleek. Simple. But, they were also intuitive and easy to use because Jobs had a way of stripping away all the noise and producing exactly what was required. Nothing more, nothing less.

His was a mind that seemed to envision the perfect product. No focus groups, just a constant refinement of the idea before releasing it for public consumption. Here at  Wasatch Powder Monkeys we aren’t so fortunate to have that omnipotent view, and that’s why we involve you and our entire community in product refinement. But we do share the Apple philosophy that products should be simple, elegant and intuitive. They should do exactly what people need without a bunch of “noise” and hype.

Apple products have a reputation for pricing that is higher than their competitors. But if you truly understand the value of their offerings, in a sense they don’t have any competitors. How do you price a product without competition? A monopoly really. In that case, pricing can be anything the producer desires, but Apple put them within nearly everyone’s reach. An act of benevolence? Perhaps, I’m overreaching a bit.

None-the-less, we hope to keep the Steve Jobs vision alive by constantly innovating, stripping away the hype and producing products that do precisely what they should do. When you have a moment, look through our catalog of products (www.smartcrossbars.com) and let us know how we’re doing. Even better, share your ideas with us. We’re excited to collaborate with our community to design and manufacture simple, elegant, easy to use outdoor products that pay homage to the Steve Jobs’ product revolution!

- Tom (aka: Chief Monkey)

Spring is in the air in the Wasatch Mountains, and I’m sure these April showers are prepping your May flowers as we speak. And that means we’re starting to get our road and mountain bikes out of storage, cleaning up the drive trains and generally getting them ready to ride!

But it also means that many of us still have ski racks on our vehicles, dreading the tedious task of switching them out for bike racks. I’ve changed from ski to bike racks then back again a dozen times already this season. Mountain weather is like that! I take all the attachments off when I’m not using them because, if you’re like me, gasoline prices are killing me. The bigger the front area of each attachment presented to the wind, the worse my mileage gets. Like my former F-18 fighter pilot friend says, “Ski racks are like a gigantic air brake.”

So this Spring, why not take the time you would have used to reconfigure your existing rack to upgrade to SmartCrossbars™? Once your crossbars, ski rack and bike racks are upgraded, you’ll be able to switch out attachments in seconds. With integrated storage, your gear will be ready to go in a moment’s notice, too.

Feel free to give me, the Chief Monkey, a call if you have any questions about this innovative system: (888) 211-7991. I look forward to hearing from you!

- Chief Monkey, Tom Vollbrecht

With snow falling in the right places – Park City, home to the Monkey, Jackson Hole, another favorite, and the golden state of Colorado – it’s time to get your ski, snowboard and tele gear ready for the mountains! Don’t worry, the Monkey makes it easy for you to get your gear there – AND helps you store your gear out of the way until you need it again. That’s the sweet symphony of the quick-release SmartCrossbars™ and fully integrated Smart Storage™ roof rack system!

Wasatch Powder Monkeys makes Quick Blocks for virtually any Thule or Yakima ski attachment, which makes putting your ski rack on your vehicle a 5 second event. The same Quick Block kits make it super easy to put your bike attachments and bikes up and away for the season, too! Once you upgrade to the SmartCrossbars™ and fully integrated Smart Storage™ roof rack system, you’ll never spend more than a few seconds changing out your attachments from one season to another. That means you spend more time enjoying fresh powder!

Wasatch Powder Monkeys is in the business of making Quick Blocks to fit anything that belongs on the top of your vehicle. Tell us what you need Quick Blocks for this ski season – and we’ll help you get to the slopes faster and easier! In Chicago this coming weekend? Come check out the SmartCrossbars™ roof rack system and ski attachment Quick Blocks in person at Skidazzle!

So clean up and wax those skis, strap them into your Quick Blocks enabled Thule or Yakima ski attachment. . . sleep sweet dreams as snow falls. . . and early in the morning you’ll quickly grab your skis and ski rack together off the Smart Storage™ rack, lock them into your SmartCrossbars™, and be first chair in front of the crowd!

Have you ever noticed an Eco-poser? No malice intended, but we find it a bit surprising to see all these outdoor “enthusiasts” driving around with so many empty attachments on top of their cars, they look like a traveling circus!

Sure, you want to rock your style and show the world you’re an animal when it comes to riding, skiing, kayaking… But, and this is a big one, do these folks with everything but the kitchen sink on top of their cars realize how much they hurt the very environment where we all love to recreate? The mileage on the Monkey Mobile drops 20% when our storage box is on top. That’s fine when we’re actually USING IT!!! We challenge you to ask yourself how often your cargo box is empty on top of your car.

Let’s look at the numbers. The average American drives 15,000 miles per year, and the US fleet averages 19 miles per gallon. That’s 789 gallons of gas per person every year. But wait, it takes 2 gallons of oil to make a gallon of gas, so that means on average each of us is burning up 1,578 gallons of oil each year. That translates to nearly 8 tons of CO2!

With over 1 million aftermarket rack systems installed, we know we can do better. If every one of them was converted to SmartCrossbarsTM, even a 5% average savings from our super-aero shape could result in almost 79 million gallons of oil not being consumed in the US! At the same time, we could reduce CO2 emissions by 395 thousand tons!

And you’ll save yourself money in the process. At $3 per gallon, even a 5% improvement will save the average American $118 every year. If you’re sporting a cargo box, the SmartCrossbars™ quick release system allows you to remove and store it in seconds. Those few seconds could improve your mileage like ours, and a 20% boost will save you $473 this year. That means you’ll pay for your SmartCrossbarsTM in 9 months!

So, let’s change the look of a true outdoor enthusiast to an Eco-player. If you’re going to have a rack system on your car, make the choice to upgrade to SmartCrossbars™!

Well, if you aren’t in an area to see the splendors of the season as the trees’ leaves explode in brilliant colors of yellow, red, and orange, Fall is upon us.  For  us folks at Wasatch Powder Monkeys, and hopefully for all of you, that means Autumn adventures; mountain bike rides through breathtaking woods, cool crisp road rides we hope never end, and quick hikes up slopes to dream of the mountains of snow to come!  So we thought, “why not help some Monkeys with their adventures by giving away a $100 AmEx gift card to do just that!”

Here are the details:

Share a photo of you being a Monkey for Adventure on our Facebook wall, tell us where the photo was taken, and we’ll send one winner (picked at random) a $100 AmEx gift card to help pay for your next Fall adventure. We want there to be some fun for all Monkeys, so we have a couple rules:

1. We want to see at least 22 Monkeys for Adventure sharing photos before we’ll award the prize.
2. We’ll include an additional entry each time someone ‘Like’s your photo.  If you don’t have a photo to share, let us know which one you ’Like’!

So be a Monkey for Adventure! Look for that last great photo you took and share it with our community to possibly win some fun $$$.  As for what you do with the money?  Why not help pay for SmartCrossbars™, bikes, skis, shoes, clothing, gel packs, helmets, gloves, energy bars, lucky rabbits feet. . . You name it!

See you on the trail!

Alright Monkeys, the Chief Monkey finally ditched the 2001 Dell laptop for a new dual-core Pentium processor.  The change is almost impossible to describe.  Access to High Definition video, instantaneous program opening, big wide screen… you get the picture.

What’s this got to do with SmartCrossbars™?  Well, having made the switch from traditional rack system to the Wasatch Powder Monkeys evolution is about as stunning a change!  You just won’t believe how easy it is to transition from one attachment to another.  And, the integrated storage just makes your storage area (in my case my garage) so clutter free!

On top of all that, I had to figure it all out myself!  But, we’re here to help make the upgrade to SmartCrossbars™ a super-smooth transition.  So what are you waiting for?  You’re going to have to mount up your ski rack soon anyway. Jump on over to the Monkey Shop and order up a pair today.  We’ll have ‘em on your way in a week or so!

- Chief Monkey

Well, the kids are off to school and we Monkeys are savoring the last of the biking season.  Just now, there’s a few days lull to catch up on sleep, innovation, and connect with the growing Wasatch Powder Monkeys community.  This is a great time to reach out to folks and answer any questions you might have.  While everyone is amazed when they first see this evolutionary system work, there always seems to be a few questions on the SmartCrossbars™, SmartStorage™ racks, or how the quick-release, fully integrated system works with existing components.  If you have any questions, be sure to check out the Monkey’s FAQs where we’ve covered some of the basics.

If there is something more you are wondering, know that you always have the Monkey’s Attention.  Be sure to reach out to us via the blog, our Facebook wall, or email us at info@wasatchpowdermonkeys.com.  We’re also open to Feedback from the Contact Page. Just drop a line and we’ll get right back to you.  In the end it is YOU that makes Wasatch Powder Monkeys a great community, so we’re happy to help.

And to follow that up, we want to reiterate just how serious we are about helping everyone everywhere get to their points of adventure faster.  We stand behind our products with the following Monkey Warranty:  If you’re not as happy as a monkey in a banana tree, we’ll work with you on any issues you have. If we can’t resolve it, return the product for a full refund. It’s as simple as that!

This promise, and the promise that you have our attention, comes when you join the Monkey community, buy into the evolutionary SmartCrossbars™ rack system, and hit the trails with your own Monkey spirit driving the adventure!  So go out and Be the Monkey!

The Wasatch Powder Monkeys team is gearing up for Saturday’s Labor Day mountain bike race in our local Park City, the PCP2P! With 78 miles and 14K feet of elevation gain, it will be a wild one for riders. The Monkey is excited to be there to represent the one thing that should be easy – getting folks’ gear to the start We’ll also have plenty of Monkey Bling and Monkey gear to get everyone smiling.

This is a tough race to get in on. It sold out quickly and then a special block of entries released this summer filled up just as quickly. So if you have a chance to ride, savor the challenge and be a monkey on the trail. If not, make your way up to Park City and head out to the trails to cheer the riders on! And while you’re out there, look for the Wasatch Powder Monkeys and become a part of the community. As a reminder, we’re getting the word out to everyone that our pre-inventory 25% discount only goes to the 12th of September so be sure to take advantage of the early savings when you Shop the Monkey.

We’ll look for you at the event, support you on your ride, and cheer with you if you’re there to support riders as well. The only question remaining is where to have the Après beer The Monkey will raise a cheer in a passion for the outdoor adventure the PCP2P takes us on!

The Wasatch Powder Monkeys team is gearing up for Saturday’s Summit Challenge 100, a great opportunity for cyclists and outdoor adventurers to support an excellent cause!  Events include a 15-mile route, a 50-mile route, and the treasured 100-mile route.

Participants have been raising pledges for the grand event, all to support the National Ability Center.  The National Ability Center is committed to the development of lifetime skills for people of all ages and abilities by providing affordable outdoor sports and recreational experiences in a nurturing environment.  That’s right up the Monkey’s alley – seeking development and learning through the outdoors.

We’ll look for you at the event, support you on your ride, and cheer with you if your there to support riders as well.  If we can survive the ride, the Wasatch Powder Monkeys may make it to the BBQ after

If you can’t make it but love the cause, be sure to make a donation and join the Monkey in a passion to bring the outdoor adventure to everyone!

Hey Monkey fans!

Click here for a great article the Monkey thought was a fun read and stirred the creative juices. Does it give you any ideas for the Monkey?