REI has acquired Adventure Project Inc, a Boulder, CO company that has compiled one of the most comprehensive and popular online databases of climbing routes worldwide, an REI spokesperson confirmed.
“Late
last week we announced to the Adventure Projects admin community and REI
employees that we have made a significant investment in Adventure Projects because we think that what they have built in the last few years is amazing and we want to help them scale the service they already offer to the outdoor community,” said Megan Behrbaum, REI manager, strategic communications and programs for new ventures.
“The information and advice that Adventure Projects provides to the outdoor community is impressive and unmatched it’s a living digital guidebook for anyone who loves to explore outdoors off the beaten path,” Behrbaum added.
Mountain Project is a hub for the climbing community to talk about and discover the best spots to climb around the world. Behrbaum described it as the definitive resource for more than 3 million climbers, featuring more than 125,000 climbing routes. Started in 2000, the company has spawned four other Adventure Projects sites that help people of all abilities enjoy the outdoors mountain biking, trail running, backcountry skiing and hiking (MTBProject.com, TrailRunProject.com, PowderProject.com, HikingProject.com).
“We plan to help the Adventure Projects team remain very focused on what they do,” said Behrbaum. “We believe that REI can support the Adventure Projects team in Boulder to do more of what they already do brilliantly, and hopefully reach even more of the outdoor community. We have been very clear that we are approaching this as a partnership because while technically REI now owns Adventure Projects, they will be operating largely independently apart from some of the back-end services that will speed up their work. Adventure Projects has now joined the REI community and that’s exciting for both organizations because there is no doubt that we share the same values.”
