Breathing Room with Caley Fretz of Escape Collective

Small tremors and more rattling seismic activity have tossed and turned the outdoor media landscape for several years at this point. For example, if you are a core surfer, cyclist, and skier, you know the drill—legacy titles, both in print and web-based, have morphed and may not resemble what you recall.

There are many examples of niche and aspiring for just-beyond-niche publications that meet the needs of more core audiences while being reader-supported. Adventure Journal is one example of high-quality print. Escape Collective, which went live on March 1, is a site focused, for now, on the world of road cycling, with a minor footing in the gravel scene- they, too, are setting a high bar with a reader-supported model.

The High Route Podcast focuses on making turns on snow: the human powdered kind involving skinning and descending on skis or a splitboard. The High Route’s website focuses on the same. And we aspire to be a reader-supported entity.

To the point here, Caley and a few others gathered steam after the Outside Media Group pivoted in a new direction with their cycling publications last fall. By March, Escape Collective dove into the media scene headfirst. By the end of July, they had covered the Tour de France from France and were on their way to viability.

As backcountry skiers—and for what it is worth—you need to do something in the summer, and trail runners, climbers, bikers, whatever, you’ve got to take some calculated risks in your adventures. So you know what we mean when we say Caley and the Escape Collective staff took a chance. And so far, they have nailed the landing as a reader-supported website with moxy.

Are we nervous about starting The High Route? We are. But in a good way. And it’s good to know that Caley and his staff have forged a path.

In this episode, the first of The High Route Podcast, we converse with Caley to get his perspective on the world of outdoor media and how Escape Collective navigates the stormy media-space seas and has made a go of it.

The bottom line is that they and their earnest efforts have inspired us. By learning about Caley and his experience, you learn more about why and how we’re trying to make a go of it ourselves with The High Route.

Thanks for listening.

You can find the Escape Collective @escapecollective.com

You can find us at the-high-route.com: yeah, two hyphens for redundancy, which is a good policy in the mountains. For weight weenies, hyphens weigh next to nothing.

The theme music for The High Route Podcast comes from Storms in the Hill Country and the album The Self Transforming (Thank you, Jens Langsjoen). You can find a link to the album here—there are so many good songs on this album. And if you think you've spotted a UFO in the past or visited the 7th dimension, "Beautiful Alien" is a good tune to begin with.