We're Humbly Stoked to Celebrate 1 Year in Business!

Ben and I started 2^nd Tracks in the wake of the 2008 recession. Lone Pine closed its doors 7 weeks after we opened due to a global pandemic. We had no idea how the coming months would unfold. Our family’s inside joke is about the choice of timing when starting new businesses! All joking aside, as we look back at our first year our feelings are of overwhelming gratitude mixed with a bit of luck. We are grateful for the support of our community, to those who continue to support us year after year and for those who are just learning about us for the first time. We are grateful for our dedicated staff who have committed themselves to keeping each other, our families, and our community safe by making good choices. We feel lucky to have chosen to be part of an outdoor industry that values recreating in our outdoor spaces –even more so during difficult times.

Ben and I have always been brick-and-mortar folks thru and thru. We would both rather be customer facing than behind a computer any day of the week. Our focus is on creating welcoming and friendly customer experiences in our shop. We closed Lone Pine’s doors voluntarily before the Salt Lake shutdown was enforced because we thought it best to learn more about what COVID 19 was. While it was one of the hardest business decisions we have made, the silver lining of the decision was that it forced us to build a website. We learned how to efficiently list all of our gear live time – something pretty unique for a consignment shop that handles all 1 off products! (Side note: Have you checked out our Consignment Gear Feed? It’s pretty rad). Our team took a crash course on website navigation, online fulfillment, and learned how to package products sustainably. We set up contact free pick up and installed a drive thru window at our coffee shop. Our gear repair department was repurposed to make and donate hundreds of masks to local Salt Lake Organizations. Closing our doors for a while actually diversified Lone Pine’s sales channels and made us stronger. We stayed relevant to our community.

Lone Pine reopened full time in late summer and committed to “Staying Safe to Stay Open”. We built an outdoor shopping area to keep social distance norms. We rearranged the shop, set caps for the number of customers allowed in our store at a time, and hired staff to help us adhere to all the new COVID policies. Since our staff belongs to a demographic most likely to be asymptomatic COVID carriers and were interacting with thousands of customers regularly, we hired a nurse to come in and rapid COVID test our staff weekly. We conservatively quarantined according to all CDC guidelines and then some, choosing to always air on the side of caution when it came to a possible exposure. It left us short staffed most days.

2020 was a hell of year, and the start of 2021 doesn’t seem any lighter. We are still fraught with the weight and toll of the ongoing pandemic, systemic racism, and of a violent insurgence. We are still frustrated with the lack of meaningful climate change measures. We constantly wonder if we are doing enough and how we can do more. But if we singularly look at how Lone Pine performed during these times, we exceeded our performance metrics and adhered to our company’s ethos. We are humbly stoked! Lone Pine Gear Exchange was built with the belief that small acts can have big impacts. We planted more trees than we dreamed possible in our first year (10,027!!! 1 for every invoice), our gear repair department kept 416 pieces of gear in circulation, we kept 555 single use plastic items out of our oceans, and donated hundreds of masks to those in need. We prioritized our staff’s and community’s safety above all else. Our team at Lone Pine has emerged from our first year a bit tired, but proud that our core values remained intact. We are excited for our year ahead – one that will hopefully be just as busy, but not as eventful!

 To celebrate our 1-year anniversary, we are offering 20% off any one item in our shop all weekend long. We are also running some fun promos: Free Function Test Friday: come get your ski bindings checked and function tested from 9:00 am – 3:00 pm, Saturday Morning Joe: all coffee and specialty drinks will be on the house from 8:00 – 3:00pm – drive thru included! Ski Tune Sunday: free tunes all day! We look forward to throwing a more traditional party in the future!

Stay Healthy and Happy! And thank you for all your support!

Katy Jackson