Discover and Celebrate the Bliss of Sports Equipment and Outfitters in the Asheville and Western North Carolina Area

The Asheville and Western North Carolina area is blessed with having so many excellent outfitters and sources of sporting and outdoor equipment, clothing and gear.

Here are some of our favorite 'independent' outfitters in the Asheville/WNC area. Some specialize in just climbing. Others cover a broad spectrum of equipment from backpacking to kayaking to bouldering and more.

Black Dome
"... folks that bring you the knowlege and service that makes us Asheville's oldest outdoor outfitter. From obscure trail questions to beta for an area crag or advice on fitting the newest gear... with over a century of combined knowlege, our staff will have your answers!..." Two locations, one on Tunnel Road near the mall and the other on Hendersonville Road.

Diamond Brand Outdoors
"... Each one of our staff members go above and beyond the limits of customer service. Why are they so good at what they do? It is because it is their passion in life that they have chosen for their career. Without them, we would just be another outdoor store. We feel blessed that we get to do what we love day in and day out. We want you to feel as welcome and comfortable shopping on our website as you would in our stores. Our website features a wealth of information on beautiful Western North Carolina, National and State Parks and more. We can tell you where to hike, paddle, climb or fly fish in our area or answer your gear questions...." Two locations: 172 Charlotte Street, Asheville and 2623 Hendersonville Road, Arden

Frugal Backpacker
"... Every item in our store and on our website is at least 20% - 75% off the regular price...." This is a 'sister' store to Diamond Brand Outdoors. Located on Hendersonville Road in Arden

Looking Glass Outfitters
".... Since 1985, we've been providing the Brevard area with gear for rock and ice climbing, backpacking, hiking, high-angle rescue and tree work. Looking Glass outfitters is always open unless we're out pulling down sick routes, bagging new peaks, swinging from branches, or rescuing animals from high places..." On New Hendersonville Hwy in Pisgah Forest Map

Second Gear WNC
"... Asheville's outdoor gear consignment shop located in West Asheville. We specialize in quality, used outdoor gear placed on consignment by other outdoor enthusiasts. We also regularly receive dealer samples from some of the industry representatives, including Astral Buoyancy, Under Armour, Patagonia, Thule, Teva, Lowa, and Timbuk2. These are brand-new items sold below manufacturers suggested reatail price..." 444 Haywood Road in West Asheville.

Click on each of the dozens of categories to the left to uncover what makes the Asheville area so vital, so intriguing and so, well, UTTERLY BLISSFUL!

From Rolf Potts' Vagabonding blog:

I've never been one of those uptight literary types who thinks that you have to have actually read a book in order to recommend it to others. So I feel no trepidation in suggesting Eric Weiner's new travelogue-slash-memoir The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World The premise of the book is simple but intriguing-- here is Amazon's description:

Part foreign affairs discourse, part humor, and part twisted self-help guide, The Geography of Bliss takes the reader from America to Iceland to India in search of happiness, or, in the crabby author's case, moments of "un-unhappiness." The book uses a beguiling mixture of travel, psychology, science and humor to investigate not what happiness is, but where it is. Are people in Switzerland happier because it is the most democratic country in the world? Do citizens of Singapore benefit psychologically by having their options limited by the government? Is the King of Bhutan a visionary for his initiative to calculate Gross National Happiness? Why is Asheville, North Carolina so damn happy? With engaging wit and surprising insights, Eric Weiner answers those questions and many others, offering travelers of all moods some interesting new ideas for sunnier destinations and dispositions.

In the imaginary Netflix queue of books-that-I'm-planning-to-read, this one has just jumped to the top. By the way, why has no one started a Netflix for books? This question, and many more, I'll leave for another day.