Corey LaForge

USA

I was born in Missoula, MT on Thanksgiving Day.  When I was about 11 we moved to Bozeman, MT. I grew up skiing, camping, playing baseball and mountain biking. I eventually got into climbing with help from my 7th grade art teacher. I went on to continually climb, ski, hunt, fish and play music through high school and college with a solid contingent of Montana dirtbags who are still some of my best friends.  I went to college at Montana State University with summers spent working at a tire shop, doing heavy civil construction, and being a rocket scientist for the MSU physics department. When I could, I climbed and skied around Bozeman as well as other areas of Montana and made trips to Indian Creek, Yosemite, Vedauwoo, Squamish and other areas around the West. After earning my degree in Mechanical Engineering, I did a short stint as a project engineer for a heavy civil and environmental construction company where I only got to climb once in seven months. Quickly, I found that I could not be sucked away from the mountains for months at a time being stationed on construction projects and away from the things that I love. I packed it all up and moved to Salt Lake City to work as a QA engineer for BD. Since then I have been enjoying all that the life in Utah and work at BD have had to offer.

Birthday? 11/27/1980

Year you first started at Black Diamond? January 2005

Memory/story of your first week at Black Diamond? I may be the only person to have to walk up to the Holladay Insta-Care for stitches in my first week of work! I cut my finger on the very sharp fracture surface of a broken Quicksilver while doing a batch test and had to get five or six stitches.

What does working at Black Diamond mean to you? Working at BD means combining my passions with my work. I get to geek out on stuff that I am really into.

If you weren't working for Black Diamond, what would you be doing? Who knows. I'd rather not think about that.

Worst job you've ever had? It has to be working 12 hours a day, six days a week on the night shift running a concrete plant rebuilding a dam in South Carolina. It was a challenging project with a lot going on, but sitting in a control room and monitoring flow rates, moisture levels, raw material inputs, and output rates on computer screens long enough each night to watch the sun go down and then come back up was pretty brutal.

Do you have any pets? None

Favorite sports/activities? Climbing and skiing.

Favorite climbing/skiing area and why? Climbing area: High Sierra. This is the land of splitter granite and beautiful weather enabling big, aesthetic routes. Skiing Area: Central Wasatch backcountry: The various peaks, bowls and glades of Little, Big and Millcreek are the place for beautiful bluebird mornings with sunshine and deep, light powder, and great skiing almost anywhere you look.

Best climbing/skiing experience? Way too hard to decide...but the front runners are any of the more or less successful outings with Rob Trauscht and the all of the various climbing excursions with Tony Brown and Mark Lilly. These are the great folks who climb hard and push me make the best days out.

What's your dream trip? Where? With who? This is a tough one too...highest ranking here would be Denali with Peter Anderson, Sierras or Squamish for a long trip with a special lady, or Saltwater fly fishing in Belize with Jeff, Charlie, Cec, and Jimmy.

Guilty pleasure? What may kill me some day when I am no longer blessed with such a high metabolism: heavy meals consisting primarily of various combinations of meat, cheese and bread.

BD gear you use every time you go climbing/skiing? Climbing: ATC Guide, Skiing: O1 Bindings

What/who inspires you? Being out in the mountains on a crisp bluebird day, feeling strong, moving quickly and enjoying it with a good friend.

What's in your iPod? The Allman Brothers, Derek Trucks Band, Grateful Dead and a whole lot more Blues, Jazz, Country, Rock and Bluegrass.

Strangest place you've ever woken up? In a random person's sleeping bag at Camp Muir on Mt. Rainier with Peter Anderson.

Strangest person you've ever woken up with? Peter Anderson

Three things you'd never travel without? Ipod, flip flops and a headlamp

Superstitions? None, really.

What's your dream job? Director of QA at the imaginary BD Satellite QA Lab in Jackson, WY.

If you could steal one thing and not get caught, what would it be? A Bridgeport Vertical Spindle Mill

If you could have dinner with three people (dead or alive) who would they be? Duane Allman, Alex Lowe and  Doug Fabrizio.   All of these people together would just be amazing.

Do you have any tattoos or piercings? None