During the last half of 2006 the planets must have aligned as accolades from PC Magazine, Internet Retailer, Inc Magazine and the Inc. 500, Biz Rate and featured articles in Forbes and other first tier publications came pouring in.

While these awards and recognition are flattering and confirm we're heading in the right direction there is little time to pat ourselves on the back with the Holiday season right around the corner. It's a time to prove our worth and measure up to the awards and accolades. As our CEO said in one article, "It's go time".

The people were clamoring - "More deals! More goods!" Items on SteepandCheap.com were selling out in a matter of hours, even minutes and those poor east coast fans were being dealt a lousy hand. So we took the wheel that Woot invented, rolled forward and unleashed Bottomless SAC with sick deals back to back all day long.

The roof was raised, the masses were momentarily calmed and Bottomless SAC lives on.

Not in our wildest snowboarding dreams did we see this one coming. Just one year after launching Dogfunk.com, the world's most complete snowboarding shop, it goes Platinum. That's right, one million in sales in one month! What took the mighty Backcountry.com six years to accomplish Dogfunk.com stomped the landing coming up Platinum in under 12 months.

Another milestone for Backcountry.com comes as the total product count reaches 6100. When accounting for all the different sizes, colors and styles, total product count actually exceeds 25,000. Along with the growth comes the announcement of yet another warehouse move - this time to a 207,000 square foot facility. Despite the business growth and the array of products that are sold, Backcountry.com employees still find time to explore all ends of the planet using all, well most of the 6100 products available to them.

From the idea machine that is John Bresee's mind came the notion of launching the first "deal of the day" website that would focus entirely on quality outdoor gear. Then came the insane expectation of building it from the ground up and launching with a time frame of three weeks. Insane deals commanded an insanely fast launch.

On a cold February day just three weeks after the light bulb flickered in Bresee's mind, while most Utah locals were skiing and snowboarding, the "on" switch was flipped and SteepandCheap.com was born to a humble three posts in the forum (one was a rookie double posting) and a conservative amount of Rome Emblem Gloves being sold.

As more and more manufacturers take notice of the growth at Backcountry.com, and with the addition of Tramdock.com, Dogfunk.com and BackcountryOutlet.com, the total number of brands offered on all sites exceeds 200. This is a milestone considering there were 4-5 brands a mere 9 years ago.

Tramdock.com, the first ski only online retail site, is launched by Backcountry.com. Dedicated to skiers 365 days a year, Tramdock is where it all begins and ends for all things skiing.

Contrary to character, that of being frugal, Holland and Bresee shell out $75,000 clams to own the URL Backcountry.com. This solidifies the company's ownership of the name in the category in which it had become the leader.

Why spend that kind of loot when BackcountryStore.com was working? Bresee said the answer was simple. “We’ve coveted the Backcountry.com domain name since we began in 1996 and we finally had enough money squirreled under the mattress to seal the deal." That must have been some mattress.

Due to our inability to accurately anticipate square footage needs, and thanks in part to some unprecedented growth and an ever expanding inventory, Backcountry.com moves into a 47,000 square foot state of the art warehouse in Salt Lake City, Utah. Although HQ remains in Heber City, Utah, the products continue to find their way to our customers home from Salt Lake City.

2003 was a year of sustained and continued growth. More products came into the warehouse than ever before, and more left the warehouse than ever before. In Heber City, HQ grew as the marketing and buying departments added key individuals to the team. Table tennis was still a regular lunch time activity and the company snowmobile continued to come in handy for regular company trips into the Uintas and Wasatch mountains. Indeed the longtime motto "We use the gear we sell" rang true despite the growth and many changes.

2003 marked the first year that BackcountryStore.com sold alpine skis in large numbers. Selling alpine skis and snowboard equipment successfully would lend to the eventual creation of Tramdock.com and Dogfunk.com.

With the Heber City warehouse fast becoming a tight squeeze for employees as well as inventory, the decision to move shipping and receiving to a larger warehouse is an easy one. The decision is made to move product fulfillment closer to the shipping hub in Salt Lake City, Utah. The new 16,000 square foot location seems all too big, for about a month or two, as the company continues triple digit growth.
Jeff Carter, an expert in inventory and warehouse management, joins the team just prior to the big move and is critical in overseeing the transition to the new facility.

While on a pilgrimage to the homeland, Vermont, John is a personal witness to the rarely seen but often spoken of in ski lore - the garbage bag skiers. Impressed by this phenomenon, John concluded that there are core skiers and outdoor enthusiasts everywhere that Backcountry.com must embrace. This event would change the focus for the direction the company would take in launching sport specific sites like Tramdock.com and Dogfunk.com.

With a last glance over the shoulder, BackcountryStore.com bids adieu to the garage that was the shipping/receiving and HQ location and says hello to it's first warehouse - located in Heber City, Utah. This move marks the beginning of a trend that would repeat itself many times in the future as the business continues to expand and grow, necessitating the more space for inventory and employees.

Y2K marked a new beginning for the BackcountryStore.com team. The first full time web developer was hired, relieving Jim of his webmaster duties. Additionally, Dustin Robertson was hired as the Marketing Director to chart the course for putting BackcountryStore.com on the map.

With manufacturers still ice cold to the idea of selling gear online, Christian and Jim put the final touches on the first physical store front in Heber City, Utah and build the garage - the site for shipping, receiving, packaging, customer service, you name it. The second full time employee, Bob Merrill, gives up his dream job of pounding nails and comes on board.

Until this point the primary brands offered were Kelty, Life Link, Voile, Atomic and Black Diamond with a sprinkling of items from a few others. Brand acquisition begins in full force once the retail location is finished and now that Bob Merrill, Mr. Gear Guru himself, is part of the team.

After much discussion between Jim and his wife about taking over the extra bedroom to make way for inventory and an employee, BackcountryStore.com hires long time Park City local and gear fanatic Christian Gennerman. With Gennerman on board, Bresee and Holland now have an enthusiastic buyer and gear expert that can help shoulder the load.

After a year of hard work and a bit of luck, not to mention a steady diet of ramen, BackcountryStore.com barely squeaks out a profit. This would mark the beginning of growth that would soon reach triple digits.

Someone needed a Pieps 457 avalanche transceiver bad enough to take a chance on our new site. Although it wasn't a seamless transaction by all standards, it was the first.

After a series of brainstorm sessions and research, and a healthy dose of backcountry skiing, Holland and Bresee dig deep into their collective bank accounts and pony up a $2,000 investment to launch BackcountryStore.com. The goal - create a retail site where backcountry skiers can get the best gear at the best prices.