Doom’s Featured in Outside Mag, October! And Four Corners Guides Featured as “Success Story” by SBDC
Outside Mag: Doom combines mountain biking, rafting, and climbing
One of the toughest nights of Steve Fassbinder’s life was spent stuck in an emergency bivy on the 19,000-foot Sim La pass in northern Pakistan, waiting out a midnight storm while his fat bike hung from an ice screw two pitches below his tent. Fassbinder and his expedition partner, Andrew Burr, had traveled there in 2017 to ride fat bikes around the Latok mountains. But at that point in their trip, they hadn’t pedaled a single stroke. After spending a week acclimatizing and getting sick at a 15,000-foot base camp, he and Burr spent a full day pushing their bikes through an ice field booby-trapped with deadly crevasses. Then it got too steep to push, so they pulled out their axes and crampons and climbed ten pitches to reach the pass, tugging their bikes on ropes behind them. At midnight, they set up camp and passed out, exhausted. The following morning, they pushed on for four miles, over glaciers topped with a thick layer of slush, a safety rope connecting them in case one of them fell into a crevasse. “It clearly wasn’t a bike loop,” Fassbinder says. He and Burr completed the 110-mile expedition in five grueling days, most of that spent walking instead of pedaling. Read on…
The Southwest Colorado Small Business Development Center – Features Lizzy
Lizzy Scully, CEO, and Steve Fassbinder, Head Bikeraft Guide, co-founded Four Corners Guides, a multi-sport guide service (bikepacking, packrafting and bikerafting), headquartered in Mancos, CO. This dynamic pair incorporated their passion for adventure with the natural wonder of the Four Corners area to offer guided tours and upscale camping experiences (referred to as glamping, glamourous camping) at their Scullbinder Ranch.
Lizzy and Steve first shared their dreams with each other about teaming up to host and guide outdoor adventure tours two and a half years ago. Eighteen months later, those dreams had taken root. Lizzy’s focus and intention was to become her own boss. Steve wanted to supplement his adventure photography career with guiding. More importantly, together, they wanted to share the extraordinary adventure they regularly had at their ranch and in the backcountry with others. Both were employed at Alpacka Raft. Lizzy built the marketing department from scratch. She was seasoned in some aspects of running a business, but not all. On a bike outing with friends, Lizzy met Hannah Birdsong. Read on…
Feature photo by Spencer Harding.