TuTwo magazine

Yessi Ye (Ye Chan) works for an outdoor gear retailer chain in China called Tutwo.  When we finished our Annapurna circuit trip in Nepal, they ran an article with writings from both of us and a few pictures of our adventure.

Yessi Ye, TuTwo magazine cover we created.

Now they have requested Yessi do some more writing on her adventures here in America.  Besides her interest in outdoor gear design, Yessi is turning into quite an outdoors woman.   Beyond simple hiking and backpacking, we've started looking at climbing gear and Kayaking gear.  Though much of the gear is the same, each sport has it's special gear. This next week well be climbing Glacier Mountain and Kayaking in the San Juans.  Two of the best trips you can do in the Northwest and extra delight to be had after the grueling 210 miles of trails we hiked in Big Sur/Ventana over the last 3 weeks.

Pictures of dbBrad and Yessi, on the wall behind the TuTwo sales counters.

We both have a bit of a dream of working for TuTwo together, as a team, helping them to become the REI of China.  Improving product design, product testing, refining the selection of gear they offer, leading workshops and hiking adventures for employees and teaching them how to have fun outdoors and how to use the gear they sell, and of coarse having TuTwo promote and publish  our new book, Backpacking simplified.

dbBrad and Yessi hiking the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal in 12 days.

And if you're curious about the gear company Y-B blue products, this is Yessi and My gear company name.  It would feature the color blue and Y is for Yessi and B is for Brad.  And Y-B blue, when you can use our gear and head out into the wilderness!!

From our Book, Back Packing Simplified,  the introduction:

Yessi and I met in New Zealand.  At the time she had very little experience hiking and had never been backpacking.  I on the other hand have been hiking, kayaking, biking, country skiing and, mountain climbing for 35 years.  We met in a McDonalds the day before I was to finish a 5 month trek, The Te Araroa Trail, which is a trail crossing both North and South islands of NZ..

Yessi was the first time in my travels around the world that I’d met a Chinese woman going solo, working and hitching her way across New Zealand.  Very brave and very sexy!  We met again in Wanaka and hitched together to Christchurch where I departed for San Diego, CA.

The next 5 months was another hike for me.  This time I was hiking home to Seattle from Mexico on the Pacific Crest Trail, some 2650 miles (4000km).  Yessi followed along on my Blog.

Having finished my second major thru-hike this year, I decided I was in for one more adventure and Yessi wanted to come.   We went to Nepal each with a 10kg backpack and hiked a 300km loop called the Annapurna circuit.

There was a lot of coaching and shopping to get Yessi outfitted for this trip.  Thirty years of experience poured out of me over the following weeks as I told Yessi everything she needed for a successful trip, and why.  And we flew to Kathmandu and hiked high in the Himalaya Mountains in fresh snow and reached Throng La gap at 5413 Meters (17,800 feet). We did it safely, we stayed warm, we were light and fast and we had lots and lots of fun.  And here’s how we did it...