Big Agnes, Ridge Merino, and Mountain House Are Teaming Up to Back Three Thru-Hikers and a Bikepacker in 2027
The 2027 trail season is shaping up to be one of the most well-supported in recent memory for a lucky handful of long-distance adventurers. Big Agnes, the Steamboat Springs, Colorado-based outdoor equipment brand, has announced a three-way partnership with apparel maker Ridge Merino and freeze-dried food giant Mountain House to sponsor four athletes — three thru-hikers and one bikepacker — through some of the most punishing and spectacular routes North America has to offer. Applications opened October 1 and close October 31, 2026, giving aspiring sponsored athletes a tight, month-long window to make their case.
This is not the brand's first rodeo with long-trail sponsorships. Beginning in 2025, Big Agnes released a Thru Hiker Sponsorship Program that provided full gear backing and followed three thru-hikers on their adventures. What started as a brand-only initiative has since evolved considerably. For 2026, Ridge Merino joined as a partner, with Big Agnes and Ridge Merino supporting three thru-hikers on their major hikes in the U.S. — and new to that year, a thru-biker. Now, for 2027, Mountain House has entered the coalition, completing a trio of brands that together can outfit a thru-hiker or bikepacker from shelter to skin to stomach for an entire multi-month expedition.
What the 2027 Sponsorship Actually Covers
Gear sponsorships in the outdoor industry can sometimes mean a discount code and a hashtag. This program goes considerably deeper than that. As the brand describes it, "this is more than just a gear hookup — it's a full-season partnership with two brands obsessed with backcountry comfort, performance, and protecting the places we roam." Each of the four selected ambassadors will be outfitted from trailhead to terminus, with material support staggered across all phases of the journey.
Big Agnes: Shelter, Sleep, and Systems
From Big Agnes, each sponsored athlete will receive a full Big Agnes backpacking or bikepacking camp gear kit to support their entire thru-hike, plus trail support from the Big Agnes team. This is the kind of kit that would run a typical gear buyer several thousand dollars off the shelf — tent, sleeping system, sleeping pad, pack. For the bikepacker specifically, Big Agnes makes dedicated bikepacking-specific shelters designed around the unique demands of two-wheeled touring, where panniers and frame bags replace traditional backpacks and weight distribution becomes an entirely different math problem. The brand's history of producing bomber ultralight gear, from their Copper Spur series to their Rapide SL sleeping pads, means the selected athlete won't be experimenting with untested equipment in the field.
Ridge Merino: Head-to-Toe Wool for High-Output Days
From Ridge Merino, athletes will receive a full layering system — including Merino wool base layers, sun hoodies, and accessories built for high-output days and unpredictable weather. Merino wool's performance on trail is well documented: it regulates temperature across a wide range, resists odor far longer than synthetic fabrics, and dries quickly enough after a stream crossing or a rainstorm to avoid the miserable cold-wet scenario that ends so many thru-hike attempts before the halfway mark. For someone living in the same clothes for five to six months — often without access to a laundromat for days or weeks at a stretch — a full Ridge Merino kit is not a luxury, it is a genuine force multiplier. Ambassadors will also receive ongoing support and exposure from Ridge's content and marketing team, meaning the relationship doesn't stop at the gear drop.
Mountain House: Calories That Actually Reach You
The newest addition to the sponsorship coalition handles perhaps the most critical variable of any long trail: food. From Mountain House, each ambassador will receive an initial stash of Mountain House meals to fuel their journey from day one, along with food drops sent to resupply locations along the trail — including some of the brand's newest recipes to keep things interesting — and the Mountain House marketing team in their corner, helping bring the adventure to life across channels. This last point deserves emphasis. Resupply logistics are one of the most underestimated challenges of thru-hiking. Planning mail drops, coordinating with post offices in small trail towns, and ensuring you don't run low on calories during a remote stretch between resupply points is an organizational burden that burns mental energy even before the physical work starts. Having Mountain House handle drops to key resupply points along the trail removes a massive logistical weight from the ambassador's plate and frees them to focus on the miles.
The Routes: AT, PCT, CDT — and Open Bikepacking
For the 2027 season, the coalition is looking for one hiker for each of the legendary long trails in the United States — the Appalachian Trail, the Pacific Crest Trail, and the Continental Divide Trail — plus one "thru" bikepacker who is tackling a long-distance bike trail. These are not casual weekend routes. They are the three pillars of American long-distance hiking, each with its own distinct character, culture, and demands, and together they represent the full Triple Crown of American trails.
The Appalachian Trail
The AT runs approximately 2,190 miles from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine, winding through fourteen states along the spine of the Appalachian Mountains. Its terrain is relentlessly rooted and rocky, especially through Pennsylvania and New Hampshire's White Mountains, and it demands consistent vertical gain in a way that punishes anyone who skimps on conditioning before the start. Its flip side is its community: the AT has the densest trail town culture of the three Crown trails, with hostels, outfitters, and hiker-friendly diners within reach at regular intervals. For a sponsored ambassador whose job partly involves storytelling and social content creation, the AT's built-in audience and accessible points of interest make it an exceptional platform.
The Pacific Crest Trail
The PCT stretches roughly 2,650 miles from the Mexican border at Campo, California, north through the Sierra Nevada and the Cascades to Manning Provincial Park in British Columbia. The 2026 sponsored PCT hiker described the trail's draw as the sheer diversity of its biomes and scenery — from desert to alpine — with major side quests like San Jacinto, Mount Whitney, and Half Dome available to those willing to push a little further. Snow in the Sierra Nevada, relentless sun in the Southern California desert, and the constant logistics of water carries through long dry stretches make the PCT a technical endurance feat that rewards patient, well-prepared hikers above all else.
The Continental Divide Trail
The CDT is widely considered the most remote and logistically demanding of the three, running approximately 3,100 miles along the Rocky Mountain spine from the Mexican border in New Mexico to the Canadian border in Montana, passing through Colorado and Wyoming's Wind River Range along the way. Large sections are unmarked or follow multiple potential routes, requiring genuine navigation skills rather than simple trail following. Resupply points can be separated by enormous distances, cattle fences are everywhere, and weather in the high country can turn dangerous without warning. For the right adventurer, that rawness is exactly the appeal — the CDT is the Triple Crown trail that most closely resembles genuine wilderness travel.
The Bikepacking Route
Beyond the three hiking trails, the program is open to someone planning to bike an established bike route in the USA or Canada. This flexibility is significant. The 2026 edition saw sponsored rider Ben Smolinski tackle the Northern Tier Bike Route with a personal twist: he rode from Cape Flattery, Washington — the most northerly point of the contiguous United States — to Lubec, Maine, at the easternmost point in the contiguous United States. That kind of epic, coast-spanning adventure is exactly what this slot is designed to support. For 2027, the bikepacking position remains deliberately open, allowing applicants to propose routes like the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, the TransAmerica Trail, the Southern Tier, or any other established long-distance corridor they can make a compelling case for.
How the Program Has Evolved Since 2025
The arc of this sponsorship program over three years tells a clear story about how Big Agnes is thinking about brand building and community investment. When the program launched ahead of the 2025 season, Big Agnes, operating out of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, committed to supporting three hikers who shared the brand's commitment to caring for the environment — one for each major trail in the United States. The gear package was comprehensive from the start: selected applicants received full gear kits including tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, backpack, and apparel, with ongoing gear support and trail assistance from the Big Agnes team throughout the journey.
By 2026, the program expanded with Ridge Merino joining the coalition and the bikepacking slot appearing for the first time. Now in its third iteration for 2027, Mountain House's addition closes the loop on what a thru-hiker actually needs — shelter, clothing, and food — giving the program an end-to-end quality that few brand sponsorships in the outdoor space can match. The growth reflects what Bill Gamber, Big Agnes co-founder and president, laid out as a founding ambition when the program launched: "At Big Agnes, it's not just about making gear — it's about fostering a community that respects the environment and celebrates the joy of outdoor adventure. Through this sponsorship, we hope to empower hikers from all walks of life to accomplish their adventure goals while supporting them in raising awareness for the environment. We hope this is just the beginning of a long-term program that will grow and evolve in the years to come."
That prediction has proven accurate. The 2027 iteration — with three brand partners, four ambassador slots, and a gear package that now includes months of resupply food — represents exactly that kind of evolution.
What the Coalition Is Looking for in Applicants
The brands are not hunting for professional athletes or Instagram influencers with massive followings. The spirit of the program cuts against that archetype explicitly. The kind of person the coalition is looking for embodies the Big Agnes, Ridge Merino, and Mountain House spirit: down to earth, dirt-loving, and dedicated to leaving the outdoors better than you found it. Beyond that, they believe that comfort and sustainability can coexist — from a tent to a sun hoodie — and they practice Leave No Trace principles while encouraging others to do the same.
There is also a content component to the role that applicants should take seriously. Ambassadors should love sharing their journey, whether through trail updates, social media, storytelling, or epic sunrise selfies. The brands are investing real dollars in gear and food and logistics support, and in exchange they want an ambassador who will bring the adventure to life for their audiences — not necessarily with professional video production, but with authentic, regular documentation of what life on trail actually looks like. This is increasingly how outdoor brands grow genuine community rather than manufactured reach, and it is a model that has proven effective in the thru-hiking world, where audiences respond viscerally to real accounts of real miles.
Practically speaking, applicants must be based in the USA or Canada and must be 18 or older at the time of application. The brands encourage anyone planning a long bikepack or thru-hike in the U.S. in 2027 to apply, including those in the LGBTQIA, BIPOC, and other minority groups. The program is explicitly designed to broaden who gets to see themselves represented in long-trail narratives.
The Cost Barrier That Makes This Program Matter
Thru-hiking the Triple Crown trails is not cheap. Gear alone — a quality ultralight tent, a sleeping bag rated for high elevations, an insulated sleeping pad, a pack, rain gear, and footwear — can easily run $2,000 to $4,000 before a single mile is walked. Food costs across a five-to-seven-month hike can add another $2,000 to $3,000 depending on resupply strategy and dietary preferences. Factor in permit fees, town stays, transportation, and gear replacement for items that wear out mid-trail, and the total financial burden of a complete thru-hike is substantial enough to make it realistically inaccessible for a significant portion of the people who dream about doing it.
Long trails demand not only time, but also expensive gear that most people can't just pick up overnight. The idea of hiking hundreds or even thousands of miles can remain something kept tucked away in the "someday" drawer. That is precisely the gap this program targets. A 2024 PCT-sponsored hiker described the moment of seeing the application in her social media feed as a pivot point — a chance to turn "someday" into a specific departure date with a loaded pack. With the program's support, she shouldered a lightweight pack filled with gear that could stand up to every storm, every climb, every rocky mile of the Pacific Crest Trail. That hike wasn't just a dream realized; it was a turning point, one she couldn't have reached without Big Agnes.
That kind of testimony is what separates a marketing campaign from a genuine community investment. The barrier to long-trail adventure is rarely ambition or fitness — it is money, access, and the chicken-and-egg problem of needing expensive gear to do the thing that would justify spending money on expensive gear. A full sponsorship package from three serious brands breaks that loop entirely.
The Broader Industry Trend: Brand-as-Community-Builder
Big Agnes is not the only outdoor brand running ambassador programs, but the structure of this particular partnership — three brands, four athletes, multiple months of full support across gear categories — represents a more sophisticated model than the typical discount-and-tag arrangement that passes for sponsorship in much of the outdoor space. By aligning shelter, apparel, and nutrition under one umbrella and committing to field-level resupply support, the coalition is treating their ambassadors more like expedition members than influencer-marketers.
This approach reflects a broader shift in how outdoor brands are thinking about community. As a company founded by people who live and breathe the outdoors, Big Agnes has always believed in the power of nature to inspire, challenge, and connect. The sponsorship aims to support individuals who share the same passion while promoting responsible trail use and environmental consciousness, with the intent to support community members who not only enjoy the outdoors but advocate for protecting and making them more inclusive for future generations.
That positioning is deliberate. The outdoor industry has spent the last decade working to diversify the trail — to make the image of a thru-hiker look less like one demographic and more like the full range of people who are, in fact, out there walking. Programs that explicitly encourage underrepresented groups to apply, that lower the financial barrier to participation, and that provide ongoing marketing support to amplify the selected ambassadors' stories are one of the more direct tools available for moving that needle.
How to Apply — and What Makes a Strong Application
Applications run October 1st through October 31st. That's a narrow window, and given that the program has grown in visibility with each passing year, competition is likely to be stiffer in 2027 than in prior cycles. Applicants planning any of the Triple Crown trails — the AT, PCT, or CDT — or a major established bikepacking route in the U.S. or Canada should gather their materials and apply without delay.
The strongest applications will almost certainly be the ones that communicate genuine intent and specificity. Saying you want to hike the PCT is not enough — the brands want to understand why this trail, why this year, and why you are the person who will represent their values in the field and bring the experience back to an audience in a way that inspires others. Trail experience helps, but prior thru-hiking credentials are not listed as a requirement. What the brands are describing is a personality and value alignment first, with athletic capability assumed to be present if someone is seriously planning a multi-month Triple Crown attempt.
The bikepacking slot, which is the newest and perhaps most wide-open of the four positions, may attract a more specialized applicant pool — riders who are already embedded in the bikepacking community, who understand route planning, gear selection for two-wheeled travel, and the particular kind of self-sufficiency that long bike tours demand. The 2026 experience of the Northern Tier rider demonstrated that the brands are willing to support creative, non-standard routes, which opens the door to applicants with genuinely ambitious and original plans.
Looking Ahead
By the time the 2027 trail season kicks off — with most northbound AT hikers heading north from Springer Mountain in late February or March, PCT hikers departing the Southern Terminus near Campo starting in April, and CDT northbounders beginning their New Mexico miles around the same time — the four selected ambassadors will be among the best-equipped and best-supported independent hikers on any of those trails. Not elite athletes backed by corporate machines, but regular people with extraordinary ambitions and the gear, food, and community support to actually see those ambitions through.
That is, ultimately, what makes this program worth paying attention to — not just as a gear sponsorship announcement, but as a signal about how the outdoor industry is maturing in its relationship with the people who actually use the trails. The partnership between Big Agnes, Ridge Merino, and Mountain House is not trying to build professional athletes. It is trying to build the kind of ambassador who remembers what it felt like before the gear arrived, and who can tell that story honestly and compellingly to the thousands of people still staring at a map with a dream they keep calling someday.
