Fourteen seasons on the ridge
Ridgeline started as a rental counter in the back of a bike shop. The gear wall came later, once we had broken enough of our own equipment to know what deserved shelf space.
A rental counter and twelve tents
Founder Cal Mercer rents tents and stoves to Yellowstone-bound visitors out of a borrowed corner in Bozeman. The twelve tents get returned with notes, and the notes become the first gear reviews.
First Beartooth traverse
The whole crew of four walks the plateau in six days to test a season's worth of packs. Two make the wall. The rest go back.
The gear wall opens
A proper storefront on N 7th Ave with a fitting room, a stove-testing bench and a rule: nothing is sold here that staff would not carry.
Shipping to 48 states
Trail traffic doubles. We start mailing gear, but keep the phone line open so every order still gets a human who has used the thing.
Trade-in and repair bench
Used tents and packs are repaired, re-waterproofed and sold again. Three hundred items a year stay out of landfill.
Still one shop
Eleven staff, one location, and an annual crew expedition that is still the final test for everything on the wall.
The crew expedition
Each September the shop closes for a week and everyone walks somewhere hard. Here is where we have been.
