Eric Bergdoll

Growing up in Colorado then later Western Pennsylvania, my family would go camping in the mountains most weekends. In spring 2015 I decided to ramp things up a notch by enrolling in a National Outdoor Leadership School semester, which consisted of 87 days in the wilderness. Since that trip, I have fully committed to the outdoors, and couldn't see life going any other way. In the time since NOLS I spent 2.5 years outfitting people for trips around the wold as an Action Sports and Camping specialist at REI, 6 months as a Gearhead at Backcountry, 3 years running the outdoor program at the University of Pittsburgh (building the program from 8 to 30 trips per year in the process) and a year living out of a Subaru Outback and later a 1986 Ford camper van. Since I started up as an expert for Curated.com in August, I have continued my dream lifestyle of Climbing, Backcountry Snowboarding, Backpacking, Canyoneering, Whitewater kayaking and Mountain biking full time while working a little less than full time. I am notoriously tough on gear, have a tendency to push my equipment to its limits and quickly figure out if something works as intended. I am beyond psyched to help you find the right gear for any adventure!