#40 - Dallin Albrecht

Ryan interviews Dallin Albrecht from MTN OPS, exploring Dallin's journey into the outdoor industry, his experiences with hunting, and the impact of community initiatives like Conquer Hunger. 

Dallin shares valuable life lessons learned through hunting, the importance of respecting nature, and how outdoor experiences can foster deep connections. The conversation also touches on fitness, nutrition, and the challenges faced in the backcountry, emphasizing the significance of perseverance and personal growth.

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Transcript

Ryan Uffens (00:00)
We'll let her free flow here. Hey guys, welcome to another episode of the hunt stealth. I was going to say project. I don't know why I always want to do that. Hey guys, welcome to another episode of the hunt stealth podcast. You'd think that after introducing this, this is, this is going to be our 40th episode, Dallin. So, yeah, but anyway, we're here today again with Dallin Albrecht.

who is lucky enough to be employed at MTN OPS He's got like the dream gig there. But, Dallin, hey, appreciate you setting up some time and Dallin is a connection through some friends and partners here, the hunt stealth podcast with Dustin Quinn and Dustin's brother Kolton So anyway, appreciate those guys helping coordinate and getting this set up here. Fun to chat with you.

I'm looking forward to getting to know you a little bit better. We had a chance to talk a little bit before and I have a tendency down to ramble. So at some point you may have to be like, just calm down and let me talk for a minute. But what I'd like to do is just have you share a little bit. Why don't you talk a little bit about your background? Like what led you to MTN OPS and yeah, we'll start there.

Dallin Albrecht (01:20)
Yeah, absolutely. No, thanks for having me on. It's yeah, always fun to make new connections out in the, in this space and this industry. So I appreciate it. And I, I like to talk to, so I don't think we'll have a, a lack of words to spit out here, but no, I appreciate it. I'm like I said, I'm, I'm down from, MTN OPS. I've worked at MTN OPS for about four years and, I always loved sharing how I got into this job because it's kind of funny. One of our core values at MTN OPS is trust.

Ryan Uffens (01:30)
you

Dallin Albrecht (01:50)
And one of the ways that I got into that I got exposed to MTN OPS and got a little bit of time with our CEO and one of our founders, Trevor Farnes, was kind of through a bit of a white lie, actually, which is kind of ironic. But I'll share a little bit of that context. But I'm from southern Utah, so I grew up down there. And in southern Utah, we always talk about it like I would never move up north like.

anything north of like Beaver, Utah, we just called up north and nobody wanted to go there. And it always had like a negative connotation of like, that's just up north. You know, that's the city. We don't, we don't like to go up there unless we, unless we have to, have to, but I, basically was going to school at SUU. Thought I was going to be an eye doctor like my dad and, was basically one class away from getting into optometry school when I got my first sales job and,

After I got that sales job and just with the outlook of optometry and some of those things, I was like, that's not for me. I'm to go this, this sales route. And so basically at that time, I had kind of had this idea in my head that like all the successful salespeople had to move to Northern Utah and work in software. And so that was like how you be successful in sales. And so my wife is from.

Davis County. And so she was stoked about that plan. We met down at SUU, got married down there. So we moved up here and I started working in software and sold my soul. This is what it felt like. What horrible work just so I mean, there's a lot of people that really love it and that's great for them. For me, it just felt so siloed as far as just like, don't worry about anything else that's going on at the company. You just

stay in your little bucket, do your job, make your calls, work your demos and that's it. Yeah, just keep the head down and don't worry about it. Yeah, totally. And so I did that for a few years and I was part of a local youth group and I was an advisor to this church youth group, right? And so our youth group was gonna go to MTN OPS and I'll be like...

Ryan Uffens (03:50)
Keep, keep quiet. Just do your job.

Dallin Albrecht (04:12)
I'd heard of mountain ops, had grown up in the hunting and like hunt, I'd grown up hunting, finished fishing, outdoor activities. And so I'd heard of mountain ops. And I also grew up in, when I was in high school, that was like the peak days of CrossFit. And so it was like, it's that the fitness and the hunting aspect of it. So I was familiar with mountain ops, but I had never gotten any, never met anybody, never gotten deep down the mountain ops path or anything like that. But,

So advisor of this local church youth group and the group had an activity plan to go do what was called a conquer hunger event. So I don't know if you're familiar with the conquer hunger initiative, Ryan at Mount Ops.

Ryan Uffens (04:53)
Yeah,

I'm familiar with it, yeah, for the folks that don't know, why don't you just tell them a little bit about what it is.

Dallin Albrecht (05:01)
Yeah, so it's basically an initiative that was started by our original founders, Trevor Farnes and the Harbertson brothers. And really, it's Trevor's family story. his family was food insecure before MTN OPS was really off and running. Essentially, it's for our statistic here in Davis County, it's one in four kids goes home from school over the weekend without enough food in the pantry. And so that's where we're headquartered. That's our backyard.

You wouldn't think that thinking Davis County particularly, right? But.

Ryan Uffens (05:31)
No, you wouldn't. Yeah, because we're

all in the same neck of the woods.

Dallin Albrecht (05:37)
Yeah. Yeah. And so Trevor basically just said, Hey, when we get to the point where we have this business built up enough, we're going to start giving back and donating meals to this conquer hunger initiative. And the other partners were on board. so conquer hunger was born. Basically it's these, I wish I had on here to show you, but it's a, a pantry pack. People have seen them, you know, that get distributed through local school districts. And so, mountain ops has donated over 7 million meals now.

Ryan Uffens (05:58)
Yeah.

Dallin Albrecht (06:06)
to date. And so the majority of those have come in the last four, four or five years. So it's been able to really ramp up as the business has grown. but we do these events sometimes in person for, different groups and different things. And we've done them with different retailers, which has been a lot of fun. but, I got involved and I was able to attend one of these, a small conquer hunger event and Trevor farms was there. He was the CEO at the time and he'd,

For those who didn't know Trevor just recently stepped aside to become our chief visionary officer. So focusing more on conquer hunger work, the conquer cast podcast and his book and some of the things that he's doing there is more of the passion projects. Right. And so he shared his story at the time and then we packed these meals and I was like, after the event, I'm like, man, this was, this was impactful. Like this guy, I need to get to know this guy. Right. Talking about Trevor, like I've got to get to know him.

Ryan Uffens (06:50)
Mm.

Dallin Albrecht (07:06)
And so I actually told him we weren't we finished at maybe 8 30 at night and everybody wanted to get home. But I told him that basically just said, hey, guys, like told everyone from my group that I was with my wife's plan on picking me up. Like you guys go ahead. I'm going to hang out here. So everybody left and I didn't have a ride. I basically my wife was not coming to pick me up. She had no idea. That's the white lie. Like I.

So then I went to Trevor and at this point I still hadn't even texted and told my wife, but I'm like, Hey Trevor, my wife's planning on picking me up. She's running late. Is there any way you could hang out? Like, could I hang out here with you for a little while while she comes to pick me up? So he's like, yeah, sure. No problem. So we just stayed and talked for a while, just the two of us. And I wasn't looking for a job at the time. I was about to switch software companies and then, and MTN OPS wasn't hiring. So talk to Trevor for a while longer.

ended up going to lunch a few weeks later, just keeping in touch. And then I was, I had signed an offer letter from a different software company to go work somewhere else. And Trevor texted me and said, Hey, we're looking for a sales guy. Would you be interested in interviewing? And so I said, well, I've already accepted this other job. I start in a week and a half. It was like 10 days from my start date. And so he said, just interview, see how it goes.

I interviewed with our VP of sales and got the offer the next week and told our told the software company, sorry, about four days before I was supposed to start. And so that's that's how I ended up at MTN OPS. I felt bad about it, but I felt like they could replace me pretty easily anyway. So yeah.

Ryan Uffens (08:50)
He saved you. You got saved from the soul

sucking tech sales industry.

Dallin Albrecht (08:57)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. And so at that point, I still didn't even really know what I was getting into. Like I knew I was going to start selling to stores, but I didn't really know what that was going to look like. And so it's been an awesome ride since then. It's been more than I thought it would be. I'm talking a little bit beforehand. It's just that you think about most people in retail, they still the shops and the stores and the chains that they get to work with or have to work with rather.

They're so corporatized there. You know, it's all about data and it's a dog eat dog world kind of, but our, our, you know, as far as our retail stuff goes, it's just think about the stores that hunters shop at. Think about the stuff that are the shops, the outdoorsman shop. And a lot of these, like it's the, it's the cow ranch. It's the, it's the farm store. It's the hardware store. It's the sporting goods store. And the people that run these stores are just awesome people. They're just like us.

Ryan Uffens (09:53)
blue, yeah, blue, blue collar,

hard working people.

Dallin Albrecht (09:56)
Yeah, they're just like us. And so it's the best people that you get to work with. And it's a very relationship driven business, still very data driven and those things. You still get that part of it. But yeah, as we were kind of talking about, I've been able to take retailers on hunts and get to know people and in the field and in ways that that you probably wouldn't get to know people and build those type of relationships in any other industry.

Ryan Uffens (10:21)
That's, that's not a bad, not a bad gig to be able to work in industry passion that you have and be able to go out and share that experience with other individuals. So, I want to jump into that, but before we do that down, tell me a little bit about like, like you're growing up, like what you did as far as hunting goes hunting. I mean, you mentioned you hunted and fished, but, tell me a little bit about how you got started and then,

Maybe tell me about your first deer hunt you went on that was successful.

Dallin Albrecht (10:55)
Yeah.

Yeah, for sure. So hunting growing up, was all about, it was all just, it was, it was kind of old, old fashioned hunting almost like it was all about family. It was all about getting out there together. And we, my whole family is from Southern Utah. And so, I, looking back on it now and it's been, it's been fun just reflecting and talking to my dad about just the different times we went out and thinking about those and thinking about the gift of the gift that he gave me.

And my sisters, I'm the oldest in my family. I've got three sisters, but two out of the three really love to hunt. One really loves to hang out with my mom. That's kind of how I say that. So we got one that hangs out with mom and we got two that really love to hunt with us.

Ryan Uffens (11:37)
That's not

a bad trade to have somebody stay home with mom probably makes mom happy a little bit.

Dallin Albrecht (11:42)
Yeah, it worked out. Honestly, it worked out. We would go hunt and they would go to Gardner Village, that thing in, you know, wherever that place is. Yeah, that Utah thing. basically, that's that's how it was. And so we would basically get out with the whole family. And I'm talking aunts, uncles, everybody. And we would we'd all pick our spots for opening morning. And so we would pick our spots to go.

Ryan Uffens (11:47)
There you go. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Dallin Albrecht (12:08)
We'd park somewhere and go hike into these spots and where we only where we wanted to be at first light. And then if we didn't, you know, successful or not really, you would then meet back up at lunchtime. Everybody would have lunch together and you've got a group of 15 to 20 people probably out having lunch.

Ryan Uffens (12:25)
And

how old were you at this time, like when you first started going on these?

Dallin Albrecht (12:28)
man, it's kind of funny that so young, like young, really young. In fact, yeah, I mean, the first time we took, I took my wife doesn't love, she loves, she'll eat the meat, right, and everything, but she doesn't love to get out and hunt. She lets me do it. She let me take our daughters when they're old enough to go do that. And that's good enough for me. But the first time we took her on an Albrecht family hunt,

Ryan Uffens (12:37)
still wet behind the ears.

Dallin Albrecht (12:57)
She was so stressed because there's kids running around everywhere. There's, I mean, probably anywhere from three to three and up, ages three and up. Everybody's out running around, having a good time. Somebody gets into the elk and they need their deer and they need somebody else to go chase them with. There's, you know, people are leaving their kids with you or the people that don't have tags and sometimes communication's a little foggy and...

sometimes a little chaotic, man, they're good times, you know? And so it stressed her out enough that she doesn't want to come anymore. And it changed over the years, but that's how it worked back then. And sometimes still gets today. But yeah, then we meet back up for lunch with the whole family, right? And then the afternoons are spent pushing patches, right? So you...

You'd get a few people stationed on one side of the trees and six or seven people would walk through the trees and see what they push out to you. And you're, you're lighting up whatever comes out the other side, you know? So that was kind of, that was kind of hunting. And then at night you, again, you pick your spot where you wanted to be at last light. You'd get in there and you'd, and you'd see what you could see. But, it was actually this, these kinds of strategies that got me my first deer and,

A lot of the time it was like, it was really cool if you could get a big one. But the majority of the time it was just, let's be successful. Let's build some relationships. Let's build some memories and let's get some meat in the freezer. so, again, we weren't shooting tiny, tiny, tiny deer, but it wasn't, you know, if you didn't shoot a massive four, you weren't successful, right? Or you were a right? But so not as much.

Ryan Uffens (14:41)
Right. Yeah. You go out, you go out

for the experience with the family and like you said, like put some meat in the freezer, which is what I'm still trying to do. I'm still, I'm still waiting to get some meat in the freezer. I've got some good buddies that keep taking care of me. got a little bit left, but one of these days I'll put, I'll put my own meat in the freezer.

Dallin Albrecht (14:47)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

There you go. There you go. I feel like there's so much pressure and social media has this expectation that everybody goes out and kills stud bucks every year. And there's a lot of people that hunt really, really hard and that are fortunate enough to do that. you know, if that's you, that's great. If it's not, that's great. That's okay. You know? And so that's kind of how it was. Not a ton of pressure, especially on kids. You my first deer was 12 years old in Utah. And we were...

It started that morning, you know, we picked our spot and I'd gotten some opportunities at some decent three points and I don't think we saw for that morning, but I had missed a couple three points and think about, you know, I was 12 years old at the time and 12 year olds are insecure and in their heads enough already as it is. But by the time afternoon came around and my I was in front of my family when I'd missed and I was trying to be the man and stuff. And so I, I was frustrated. I was

I so mad. was crying that morning and all that stuff. And I was pushing a patch with my dad. And so when you're pushing a patch, you're not necessarily supposed to be the people that run into the deer. But we ran into two bucks at like close, like 75 yards with a rifle through the trees. And I was so frustrated and so mad. And I was just at my wits end, you know.

Wanted to give up. It's like dad. Let's I'm done. I'm done. I don't want to do this anymore today. I said, what do you mean? You don't want to do it anymore. There's two deer right in front of us. Just, just there. He ended up saying, I said, and I couldn't see him. There's trees and everything. And I was just mad, you know, but he's like, there's two deer. They're both bucks. Just pick a body and shoot one. And then we went back and forth and had this exchange of like, dad, I don't want to, you just shoot it. You just shoot it and we'll just go home. And he wouldn't.

wouldn't budge on. He's like, Dahl, they're, they're tiny. First of all, I'm not shooting it. It's your first deer. You shoot it. I'm not shooting a buck that small, you know, but, then eventually he made me do it. And, and so really the gift that my parents gave me growing up was just life lessons through hunting. And so one of them was just like, no matter how frustrated you get, no matter how much you want to quit, you know, give up, you just, you just don't, you just stick with it and you stick it out. And so I ended up shooting.

smacked it, deer dropped and it was done. And from then on it was all smiles. Everything was fixed, you know, after that. But I'm grateful to my dad for not letting me just throw in the towel and not, I mean, not just losing his patience with me and saying, fine, you're going to act like this, we're done, you know? So.

Ryan Uffens (17:47)
It's good to have an individual there to push you to learn to kind of fight through the wanting to give up. Because I think of instance myself where I've given up on things and I look back and it's like, man, I could be doing entirely different things right now. And there's a lot of people that go through that where they don't realize how close they are.

Dallin Albrecht (17:56)
Yeah.

Ryan Uffens (18:17)
to changing their life and they give up just out of frustration. so yeah, think that's one thing with hunting. mean, I had told you a little bit about my story. I won't share it with the listeners because they're probably like, okay, dude, I've heard it 40 times now. But just the struggle, like I have fallen in love with that.

Dallin Albrecht (18:20)
Yeah.

We know.

Ryan Uffens (18:45)
and I'm able to apply it to so much more of my life and the things that I'm going through and trying to build. mean, this podcast is one of them. I mean, it's a ton of fun. I love it. I've learned so much from doing this. But this isn't my full-time gig.

I'm not I know the hat says Rogan Haynes. I'm not Joe Rogan. I'm not Cam Haynes. I don't get to do this for a living. I do this because I love it. And I love hearing people's stories and the life lessons that they learn. So I appreciate you sharing that.

Dallin Albrecht (19:21)
Yeah.

Yeah, I'll share one more too on that. It's the same kind of on that same thread, but like we there was another year, a years before that. So at this time, I'm probably probably 10 years old is about the time timeline here and.

Ryan Uffens (19:25)
Yeah.

Dallin Albrecht (19:39)
this was another life lesson learning experience that came through hunting and another one where it's like if as a dad and I've got two little girls now and so I think about how much harder it is to do things with kids now than it is to just go by myself and how much more work and maybe less opportunity to, who knows, shoot bigger animals. Cause I can't get into the places that I would normally be able to get by myself with my kids, right? Or things like that.

the sacrifices that parents make to build these relationships and take these time and have these priorities. But probably 10 years old at the time. And again, we were pushing a patch and I was in flag football at the time and this was an overconfidence moment on my part. And so basically my dad was my coach at the time and I loved flag football. Season was going well, feeling on top of the world for a 10 year old, right?

And we were talking about how this patch of trees was kind of shaped and how we were going to push it. And I said, it's going to go up like this and then we're going to break off and go to the left a little bit. dad, like a post pattern in football, right? We're doing a post pattern. And he's like, yeah, yeah, kind of. Yeah, we're going to do that. And that's how we're going to get through these trees. But he said, don't don't get out of sight of me. You you stay 10 or 15 yards. You stay where you can see me the whole time.

Okay, and so that's the instruction that I got but again, I'm in my head and I'm like post pattern I run post patterns all day, know, we're throwing touchdowns every weekend on post patterns all good so we get in the trees and we start going and I'm executing my perfect post pattern and Before I know it. I'm on my own. My dad's I can't see my dad and I I was lost I was lost lost and I had no idea where I was and

no idea where my dad was and I couldn't remember which way the post was supposed to go. And the whole thing kind of fell apart. And I basically just was lost. And so I wandered for a little bit and then I just got lucky basically or blessed or whatever you want to call it. But I found a, I found a road and the road led back to where the truck was where we were eventually supposed to come back around to. And so I ended up walking back onto the road. met my one of my uncles. Everyone had abandoned.

hunting at that point and was just looking for me. It must've been a few hours. And so ran into my uncle. We went back to the truck and then when my dad came around, he let me have it in a pretty good way. You know, let me have it for, Hey, what did I tell you? You know, you're supposed to stay right by me and you you got cocky and all these things, but it was this lesson of first of all, listen to your dad trust, right?

core value of trust. You got to trust your dad and recognize kind of that dependence that I had, but also to respect the mountain more, respect the outdoors and have some respect for what you're up against and the, I don't know, you just, the daunting task of hunting and going out in the wild and finding meat, you know? And so another really, really good.

Life lesson of just like hey, you're not all that in a bag of chips when you're out in the woods You know, you're you're pretty small and so I remember that to this day and obviously with go hunt maps and on X and those things a lot harder to get lost now than it was then but But man, some of that stuff just sticks with you, you

Ryan Uffens (23:16)
Yeah, it's I've talked about it on a couple of the last shows that I've done how small you can feel when you get out there like when you get into the back country. I mean, it's just it's unforgiving. And, you know, so yeah, there's there's the as you're a little bit older, it's good to be prepared. But to if you're out there with somebody who's done it, you need to listen to him. Most people aren't just

Dallin Albrecht (23:28)
Yeah.

Ryan Uffens (23:45)
telling you what to do just because they're being cocky. They're telling you what to do to try and help keep you safe and protect you. I think that's normal though for being a kid. Like me, I'm a smart mouth, so when I came back I'd have been like, you button hooked me. I didn't know you were gonna button hook me. We were doing a post, you button hooked me. But I just think kids, a lot of times, they're

Dallin Albrecht (24:08)
Yeah

Ryan Uffens (24:16)
They, we think we know best. I mean, I can think of so many instances where I've done that, but it's normal. And I think it's a good thing. I think it's good when a kid can recognize that. And I mean, you're looking back on it, it's like, oh, hey, I thought I was the man, right? Post patterns all day, TD, dad, we're going to get this thing done.

Dallin Albrecht (24:39)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Ryan Uffens (24:45)
And your dad probably recognized it. He's like, down. He's like, stay close. Make sure you can see me. And you're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I got you, dad. I got you. But that's.

Dallin Albrecht (24:50)
Yeah.

Yeah. The cool

thing is just foundational experiences, right? And so it's things that like, still, you know, if I'm, if I've got a new adventure, like, like later this year, I'm, I'm going to Alaska, right? What I'm going on a boat, we're going to be living on the boat. We're going to fish on the boat. And then it's Kodiak Island. They're going to dump us off on an inlet and it's a DIY. It's going to be, go find some sick of black tail to kill and pack out, you know? And so it's a stuff like that. And in the way it, it,

It changes the way I approach even new adventures now, as far as like, you know, you can think you even now with with the experience that I have and the different places I've been lucky enough to hunt all these different things. But, you know, you go to a place like Kodiak Island and you're on your own to hunt. You've got to you've got to approach that with the right level of respect and and respect for the for the wild and then respect of the people that are on the boat that are hopefully going to.

nowhere to pick you up at the end of the day, you know? And so it's, I still draw from both of those of my dad not letting me quit, not losing his patience. You know, when I want to lose my patience with my kids, I think about my dad in the trees with me that day, you know? Or when I get overconfident, maybe going into a meeting that I should have maybe prepared a little bit for that didn't, because I think I know MTN OPS, like the back of my hand, I could tell the MTN OPS story. I know the product. know.

what works, all these different things. But if you don't treat each one of those things, each one of those mountains in your life that you have to conquer, you know, with that same respect and that same, righteous fear or whatever you want to call it, right. Then you can end up in a bad way, you know, so.

Ryan Uffens (26:35)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's. Yeah, I mean, there's so many. There's so much I mean, I had talked about told you, I got this wild hair and I'm only going to archery hunt until I take down like my first big game animal. And it's like, I jumped all in, right? Like, I'm like, here we go. Like, I'm just gonna go do and then now, having not really understanding hunting. I'm like, this is the hardest

possible like hunting that I could have started with. But but when I go out and shoot, like it gives me like a different level of focus that I'm able to apply in all aspects of my life. Because when I go and I've gotten pretty decent at shooting I'm bummed because a month ago, I was doing the flow writer and

Dallin Albrecht (27:10)
Absolutely.

Mm.

Ryan Uffens (27:33)
and ate it and gave myself a grade two shoulder separation. And I tried, it was probably 10 days after we got back. I'm like, we were out, we were actually out just up in Farmington here chasing some mountain lions. I'm like, I'm gonna go see if I can get on some mountain lions. And we came back down and my son was like, have you even tried drawing a bow back since you hurt your shoulder? I was like, no.

He's like, what would you have done if, I'm like, well, like had my gun with me. Yeah, I was going to find out quick, but anyway, I went to drop back and I couldn't drop back. mean, it hurt like crazy. So today was actually the first day, like I brought it in. I'm like, I want to see if I can draw this thing back. Well, I drew it back just fine. And I was like, I should have put an arrow in it and I should have had a target to let it go.

Dallin Albrecht (28:07)
out.

Mm-hmm.

Ryan Uffens (28:32)
So anyway, like trying to like, pull it back and I'm like, oh, that was good. And then like the nerve I'm like, oh man, he's sitting, my boy sitting here watching me as I'm trying to like, let, like, let it go down and it popped and it hurt a little bit, but, um, but I'm to the point where I can start shooting so long as I don't have to, um, let it down. But, uh, but anyway, so I'm anxious to start shooting again, cause it's been a little over a month since I've shot my bow.

But I know I've kind of rambled here, but I do. is, there's a piece that I get when I go out and shoot, even if it's for five minutes. Like when you're out shooting, you're locked on that pin and your target. And you know, I like to shoot outside. so I get the wind and everything that's constantly adjusting and you have to be focused. And that's, that's one of the things as somebody who suffers from ADHD, it's helped me in all other parts of my life. I'm like, well, if I can lock in on this,

and I can figure out how to find my target and focus on that. I'm able to take it and apply it like, okay, whether it's 15 minutes, 20 minutes, like I'm gonna sit down and get laser focused on something and get it done. So.

Dallin Albrecht (29:45)
Yeah.

And just, you can't think about anything other than your process, right? When you're out shooting and that's, that's kind of the beauty of it. And I think just what a, what a gift to be able to give to your, whoever, right? To your, your family, your kids, your friends, whoever, whoever it is that you're bringing into the space or introducing this stuff to you for the first time. Like what a, what a gift. It's, it's a lot of things that are, that are lacking in society today, right? So many things are like, man, I don't, I don't have an outlet that's super constructive.

If I need to clear my head at work, I go to YouTube or I go to social media or whatever. so yeah, I do scroll, right? If I can find an activity that's going to clear my mind and focus me on something that's wholesome, that improves my life and you know, things like that.

Ryan Uffens (30:19)
Doom scroll.

Yeah.

Well, and I have Jackson, you know, to thank for this is because he was the one that wanted to do this and I wasn't fully sold on it. And then after we went out and I shared my first experience, but it was like, I fell in love with it. Like I fell in love with the process. Like the adventure that he and I get to go out on and the people that we've been able to meet and you know, it's

There's so many growth opportunities that come from being out in the field because like we had talked about, like Mother Nature does not care. It doesn't care if you're in sales. It doesn't care if you're the CEO. It doesn't care if you're homeless. Like you better be prepared because it will throw curveballs at you. So anyway, sorry.

Dallin Albrecht (31:12)
Yeah.

No, that's great. I think that's actually kind of one of the cool things that I, that I feel and get to connect with people on and working at, Mount Ops too, at a brand, at a brand like this, where it's the majority of our customers. Like, sure. We make these like nutritional type products that help you be healthier, but

It's the majority of our customers. It's actually 73 % of our customers tell us that they've never had like a supplement or nutritional product in their lives. And so from a fitness standpoint, it's pretty wild, right? In today's world. and so for our customers, when we're their first exposure really to these, like any type of healthier for you type option, right? We get to be part of a bigger transformational aspect of that person's life. Typically, you know, it's

Ryan Uffens (31:43)
That's crazy.

Dallin Albrecht (32:01)
It's typically there's only to share more statistics with you. It's only 16 % of our customers that say that they use our products for the gym. So every other customer that we have is using it for energy throughout their day or for work or for outdoor activities. That's the that's the only other things they say they use our products for. And so we get a really just positioned in a really cool way to be part of this transformational experience for our customer. Right. And so it's a lot of people that aren't.

doing this type of thing and then start and have a really amazing transformational experience.

Ryan Uffens (32:37)
Yeah, well, and I'm still in the middle

of mine, but that's that was one of the things like I mentioned the first time I went out. I was like I was not ready for this. And yeah, I mean you go through and you start eating different and you start training different and.

I mean, I've seen, there's multiple guys that I've seen out there. Nate Ellingsworth, he's like a fun dude to follow. He is a funny, funny dude, but that dude has gone through a transformation. And I'm not saying it's solely because of hunting, but it definitely has fueled him. And I mean, it was crazy listening to Cam Haines podcast.

Dallin Albrecht (33:06)
Yeah.

yeah.

Doro

Ryan Uffens (33:25)
and hear those guys start talking about Nate. But it's a ton of fun to see people transform. And I'm healthier than I've ever been. And I owe it to my desire to be able to go out on the mountain with my son and some buddies and not be the guy that's making people like, we want to go but we can't go because Ryan's still trying to catch his breath. And I've

Dallin Albrecht (33:28)
Yeah, yeah, that's right.

Yeah.

Ryan Uffens (33:54)
I got, I got a ways to go still, but I'm, I'm in way, way, way better shape than I was five years ago for certain, for certain. think it's cool that, that you guys are part of it. That was part of like the, my first introduction. I mean, we were talking about, Matthew Mantell, like he saw me out front, shooting my bow into my back. I'm, I'm out. I probably shouldn't have been doing that, but the, the police department locally is pretty, yeah, they're, they're pretty, they're pretty chill and they're all bow hunters.

Dallin Albrecht (34:00)
Yeah.

Yeah.

residential area.

Ryan Uffens (34:23)
I don't know if all of them are, but the guys that I bump into. But yeah, he saw me shooting. He's like, hey, he's like, let me let me hook you up with some stuff. So, yeah, I've been I've been a fan of MTN OPS for a long time. think what you guys are doing is super cool. And it is it's changing lives and giving back. And it's fun to see that and be able to get a little bit closer to what you guys are doing and and how you're impacting people's lives. So.

Dallin Albrecht (34:50)
Yeah, no, it's definitely a fun space. It's different. It's like I said, it's never where I thought I would. And it's not where I thought life would take me, but I'm grateful that it did, you know.

Ryan Uffens (35:01)
Well, Dallin, since you've been there, like what's been like the most exotic or the most fun hunt that you've been able to be a part of?

Dallin Albrecht (35:11)
Yeah, I've had a couple really fun ones actually. So maybe I'll share a couple experiences of some fun ones that we've had. So yeah, first one I'll share was, well, we've had a couple fun ones actually. I'll share. All right. Well, so this one was about a year and a half ago, almost two years ago. We took a couple of our retail partners over to Maui, Hawaii to

Ryan Uffens (35:18)
Yeah, I'd love to hear them.

We got plenty of time. I'm not in a rush.

Dallin Albrecht (35:40)
to hunt and we were hunting axis deer and these goats that they've got over there. They're just kind of basically like feral goats. They're all over the place, but they're really cool animals. And so we were hunting these axis deer and goats. And so we're in Hawaii, totally different. We're basically on the side of a volcano on the, I'm trying to think it would maybe be the Southeast side of Maui is what I want to say.

and it's just big open it's big country and the trees the bushes are thorny and

Ryan Uffens (36:15)
That, yeah, yeah, that sounds

like you're talking about the right part of Maui. Yeah.

Dallin Albrecht (36:20)
Yeah,

yeah, kind of dry, some giant ca- like, canyons and different things, but, and then it's kind of, there's the coast and then it's kind of just gradual and then it gets really steep and you're climbing up the, up the volcano basically. And so that's probably the most exotic setting. I've never seen anything like that where you kill a deer and you're looking over the ocean. You know, it was, it was crazy. It's very, very different, but,

different challenges to very the Like I said the terrain very rocky very thorny very thick where it was thick. It was really thick and We tore up a lot of good camo on that trip It was really hot and something that I'm not had never really been exposed to as my first real real hot weather hunt and a couple of the guys that we took that we went with that some heat exhaustion and get back to the

after hiking all day, back to the side by side and had a guy about, just about collapse almost and just sit on the ground against the side by side. And it was so just really cool, really different experience, but went with kind of a local family that lives there on that side of the island and incredible people. so just, again, the relationships formed over a short period of time. One of these things that,

I heard Joe Rogan say it on a podcast once. He said the reason that his podcasts are so long is because you could play a character for 30 minutes or 40 minutes in a conversation, but in hour two or hour three of a conversation, that's when the real you comes out. You can't pretend to be somebody you're not for that long after you're that exhausted of talking that long, right? So I feel... yeah.

Ryan Uffens (38:06)
Yeah, I'd never. I've never heard him say that, but that.

There's a lot of truth to that, yeah.

Dallin Albrecht (38:13)
Yeah, so you I mean you could stick to a script for you know 30 to 40 minutes right but when you're just flying off the cuff having a real conversation with somebody you're you're getting the real stuff after two three hours

Ryan Uffens (38:25)
You can

be exposed is what you're saying.

Dallin Albrecht (38:28)
Yeah, yeah, that's right. Yep. You can be exposed. The real you is going to come out. And I feel that way about hunting too. You know, if you, you think you know somebody or you have a professional relationship with somebody, but when you get out in the field with somebody, it's, it's different. You're getting that person. And so I think that's the cool thing. That's where the value comes for us and being able to hunt with some of our retail partners, ambassadors, business partners, all these different kinds of people, because that's where you see.

you know, I've been at hunt camp with you for, you know, three or four days and we've done six to 12 miles a day, you know, together in the hot heat weather, you know? And so I know, I know who you are. You know who I am. And hopefully we can have a good, better business relationship moving forward now, you know, because of that. But

Ryan Uffens (39:07)
Mmm.

Dallin Albrecht (39:19)
Yeah, now I'm rambling. I'm not sure where I was going with that, but that's probably one of my favorite things. And one of the most fun hunts that I've been on was just the relationships that came out of that Hawaii hunt with those retailers and with that local family. So pretty cool. Yeah.

Ryan Uffens (39:34)
That's super cool. Yeah, that's a lot of fun. Yeah,

you spend a lot of time with people. You get to know who they are. I think that's a lot of people in business like to go golf. I hate golf. I'd be fine if I never golfed again. My son loves it, but I just, I don't, it's not that I can't golf. just, I don't know. It's...

Dallin Albrecht (39:51)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Didn't pick up that habit during COVID like the rest of the world, huh?

Ryan Uffens (40:04)
No, no,

I know I did not pick that up. I mean, I grew up there's a lot of golf in my family, but there's just like, I've got some personal reasons and my I got some family like to golf and yeah, for whatever reason, I just it's not a love for me. But but yeah, but I can do it. Like I can go I'm all right and go hang. I can drive the ball. But yeah, just I don't know. I'd be fine if I never golfed again.

Dallin Albrecht (40:21)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Ryan Uffens (40:32)
I usually end up once or twice a year and people are like, if you played, you'd actually be, I'm like, yeah, well, this is, yeah, this is what I do. I'd rather go shoot, I'd rather take the time to go shoot the bow. And I mean, the other thing too, for the longest time, it's like, you talk about family, right? I coached my son's baseball, coached him in basketball. I had my daughters play basketball, they played soccer. So there was a lot of time that was put towards that type of stuff.

Dallin Albrecht (40:37)
Good.

Ryan Uffens (41:01)
versus golf. yeah, my part of you you had asked before, like, how'd you get into hunting? I won't rehash it with everyone here. But you know, my my kids are older, you know, I started having kids at a young age. And, you know, my oldest is she's 25. And she's having our second granddaughter here this month, and just, you know, two or three weeks and

My boy Jackson, he's married, he's 24. Annabella, my baby, she turns 19 next month. it's just, I sacrificed a lot of time to be able to be with them and experience their things in tennis and like I said, basketball, soccer, baseball, and coaching baseball. was like double headers, like every weekend. And then towards the end, as he was getting ready to go into high school, it was...

we were playing multiple leagues. I mean, we'd have double headers on Saturdays and then three or four games during the week. It was just not a lot of time but but you know, my wife, thankfully, was she like, you should do something that you wanted to do for a long time. And anyway, the hunting thing came up and and we I went out and tried it and I fell in love with it. And she's like, why don't you go into it more so

able to get out there and do a lot of that and spend time with some friends and family and good people. Like you mentioned, you get to know somebody real well if you're with them for more than 30 minutes to an hour. You get to see another side of them.

Dallin Albrecht (42:35)
For sure.

Yeah, sports can do that too, I feel like, right? Like that's why, like I think the format of Cam's like lift, run, shoot format for his podcast in his days at MTN OPS every now and again, we'll have a, we'll do a day to conquer with one of our ambassadors or something like that, right?

Ryan Uffens (42:40)
Yeah.

Hmm

Dallin Albrecht (42:54)
And we're actually lucky enough Eva, Eva Schake is going to be in the office tomorrow doing this type of a day to conquer type of thing where it's a team workout. It's working on some projects that we're all working on together. It's,

a podcast it's all the it's all these different things but something that was cool with with mountain ops as well when i first started after i'd been here about a year or it was it was trevor right at the time that he he was gonna have his 40th birthday and he told the whole team

probably six or seven months before his 40th birthday, he had said, and this came from inspiration from Truett, actually, from Truett Haynes. so Truett had just finished his first world record attempt for for pull ups when he had broken, he had initially broken the record. And then Trevor went to Truett and said, Hey, I need to do something that's going to push me. You know, what, this was an incredible experience. was, I've been able to be at the,

when Truett broke it the second time, I was there and you, it's just the feeling of accomplishment and you could just see the suffering, see the pride, everything. It's just, they are so thick, you could cut it with a butter knife, right? And so it's just this feeling of like, I've got to go do something hard. So that's what Trevor was feeling. And Truett told him, he have you run a marathon? No, I've never run a marathon. all right, start with a marathon.

And so Trevor goes out and he finds one of the top 10 hardest marathons in the United States. It's the Moab trail marathon. so down in Moab, it's all on trails, tons of elevation and gaining and dropping through the canyons and super remote. There's really only spectators at the very end of the race. And so you're not really getting any like lift from spectators or anything for the majority of the race. You're kind of out on your own as people get more and more spread out.

But, Trevor came to us as a team and just said, Hey, for my 40th birthday, we want to, I'm going to do the, I'm going to do the Moab trail marathon. whoever, whoever wants to join me can, join me. You're everyone's invited. And so they did a half marathon trail run as well as a full. so people, people signed up and we had a group of probably 10 to 15 mountain ops people that either went down and ran the half or the full. And.

Ryan Uffens (45:20)
Wow.

Dallin Albrecht (45:21)
Yeah, super cool. But after the full, I, man, it was, it was gnarly, just gnarly. I, if I, if I have like a really, really hard workout, my heart rate's elevated for a long time. I'll get sometimes these like stress induced migraines where I'll get the flashing lights and I'll puke and all this. It's just the whole thing. And that happened to me about mile 23 of the, of the trail marathon.

My calf started cramping up pretty bad towards the end, mile 24 or something. And I remember it took me a long time to finish. was like over six hours of this race. And I remember by that time we were one of the later heats to go to. So there were a lot of people, the half marathon was already finished. A bunch of the marathoners were already finished. So people were starting to clear out. But like I said, really only spectators at the, right at the finish line. And so.

There's a part where you kind of came down around and you can see the finish line and there would be some spectators and then those spectators will run kind of shortcut it back to the finish line. You'd wrap around and, then you'd finish. But basically I was at that point where you wrap back around and you kind of come around this curve. And I was going through the basically kind of alongside where the parking lot kind of was. And there was, it was just quiet. So I had seen people and then you go back around and it was just dead silent. And it was like,

It was like a, almost, almost like a spiritual type experience that just the solitude of knowing I've got 30 more seconds to a minute left of this race. That's been just gnarly for me. And a lot of it was my own fault. Maybe didn't train as well as I should have or different things like that. But just that those moments of solitude going up to the finish line where it's just like unlocking new feelings, which was cool that I hadn't experienced before. then.

What was cool as well is afterwards, Trevor had this Airbnb. so he'd say, Hey, everybody come over to the Airbnb for pizza. Got pizza for everybody. And, walking back into that room, into that house, that living room and kitchen and seeing all my coworkers there who I'd only known for like a year was like almost emotional as well. was like, I love you guys so much. Like get over here, you know, and you're like hugging and high fiving and everybody's pumped and

It's just when you, when you have an experience like that, whether it's like, again, like we've been talking about with in the outdoors, the outdoors invokes and brings those types of feelings, sports competition can bring in those feelings. Athletic endeavors can bring those types of feelings, but, yeah, just really cool kind of culture thing, but cool experiences and things to put yourselves through together to be able to strengthen and build bonds that, that otherwise couldn't be built. Right.

Ryan Uffens (48:17)
There's something to be said. think that's why guys that serve in the military are such a tight-knit group. I mean, they look at each other as brothers, right? Because they've suffered together. And there's ways that people can suffer, whether it's running a marathon or being out grinding along the side of a mountain. I had talked a couple episodes ago about like,

a near death experience that we had, my son and I. it's like, it's when you go through that, like the second it gets brought up, like you can make eye contact with somebody who's done that with you. it like, there's a connection to having been through something that's like harrowing and difficult. And it doesn't have to be like a near death, but just like push through something that's hard. Like you feel connected. And I think that's part of why I think the hunting community is such a neat community is

Like you look at guys that are out there, whether you get the IG picture or you just get to see a bunch of pretty views that God's, know, some of these places that he's developed for us, for us to be able to go and see. Like, know they've gone through it. You know the people that have out there, if someone's tried elk hunting, like they've gone through it to some extent. And...

It's and the more I get into it the more I'm realizing like I got a lot more to do in order for me to be able to you know have a successful hunt and Grow but yeah

Dallin Albrecht (49:54)
I think the beauty of it though is that I again, I think this is another Rogan quote, but he basically just said the hardest thing that you've ever done or been through for you is the hardest thing that you've ever done or been through. Like the farthest you've ever pushed yourself, the farthest you ever pushed. And so it's different for, you know, for, Truett Haynes, that might look like breaking the world record of pull-ups in 24 hours. You know, that's might be the hardest thing he's ever pushed himself through. And that's, that's that for him. For me at that time, it was

just trying to finish that marathon, you know, which, which to a lot of guys, like I've been fortunate enough to meet a lot of really cool people. just had, his name's Pete, the CEO of CSU Sanas was just here. He won the Antarctica ultra marathon and just these different things like been able to associate with some incredible people that have done incredible things, but they're all, it's all amazing, right? The, or how far you've been or how far you've pushed yourself.

hunting thus far is just as amazing as how that felt for him. And the idea is you just keep stretching, right? You just keep stretching a little bit further, pushing a little bit harder, and you keep unlocking new levels of those feelings and those connections and different things. And so I think that's the beauty of it. It's just, you know, it's great at all levels. It's not meant to be looked down upon at any level because just like you said, because you didn't have the IG picture of that massive 200 inch mule deer.

Ryan Uffens (51:21)
Yeah.

Dallin Albrecht (51:21)
but

still unlock and experience a lot of the beauty of those same moments.

Ryan Uffens (51:27)
I think part of the beauty in doing hard things is you get to know yourself and you get to see like, if you if you quit, you know, like, in your mind, like, I had more to give like, okay, Goggins, right? Like Goggins talks about how your brain has like a regulator.

on it, right? And it's like, you got way more. And I just think too, like you talk about the human brain, like we're using such a small amount of what our brains are capable of doing. But I think like the subconscious knows like, hey, like you gave up. And you can either use that just to quit in all aspects of life. Or you can use that to push yourself next time.

And I think more and more people, I think you're seeing society come like full circle now to where people wanted it easy. We wanted an easy life. And not that life has to be hard, but you learn to push yourself. And what's the quote? It's like,

Dallin Albrecht (52:28)
Mm-hmm.

Ryan Uffens (52:45)
easy times make for weak men. yeah, so yeah, yeah, exactly. So yes, thank you for finishing that for me. I figured you'd probably know that one. But yeah, but you see that and you see people that are able to push themselves. And like I said, I think if people go out and do difficult things, it's like I...

Dallin Albrecht (52:49)
Men make hard times, then hard times, strong men, right?

Thank

Heard it.

Ryan Uffens (53:13)
I started there. There was a guy I'd come across on social media and he was, I think he was like over 300 pounds. And he was like, Hey, he goes, I started out saying I was going to do a mile for each new follower. And he's like, well, I don't think I could do 5,000 miles this month, but he did over 200 just walking, just walking. And then the next month he did, I mean, I went back and looked in anyway. So his first month he dropped 40 pounds. I think he was like,

Dallin Albrecht (53:30)
Ha

Wow. Jeez.

Ryan Uffens (53:42)
He was well over 300 pounds. Anyway, and I wish I could remember who it was. But but anyway, I I just think it's impressive seeing people go through these transformations and it's like just walking, just walking. You don't have to go around a marathon. You don't have to be an ultra marathon runner. But if you just take action, I think that all of us are surprised at what we can push ourselves to accomplish.

Dallin Albrecht (54:10)
Absolutely.

Yeah, going back to like my growing up and things too, like my, my mom for me is one of the best example of that too. Like I had it, I was lucky enough to have it from both parents. But when I was maybe it was about when I was nine to 10 years old, my mom got cancer, a really aggressive form of, of cancer that the doctors basically told her, Hey, you're, you're not going to make it. long story short, she made it, but her type of cancer was one that affected her.

adrenaline hormone and they basically said, you know, you, you've made it, but you're going to be tired your whole life. You're not, you're going to have, you're going to struggle with energy. You're have to be on medication for it. You're going to have to, it's going to be a lot of sleep and a lot of these other things, basically quality of quality of life is going to be more difficult for you than, uh, the normal, the normal person. And, uh, after that, it was after she had beaten the cancer, uh, it was

It was either only one or two years later, she ended up running a marathon. And it was the Logan marathon. still remember we didn't live in Utah at the time. We actually lived up in Montana where she came down and she ran the Logan marathon by herself. She didn't, my dad didn't run it and it inspired my dad to pick up running a little bit. But, seeing my mom go from, Hey, you're, you're not going to make it. This cancer is too aggressive. You're not going to make it to.

Okay, fine. You're gonna make it, but you're gonna be tired and you're gonna be missing your adrenaline hormones for most of your life and you're gonna have to take naps and all these different things and take medication forever to then no medication and you're gonna go run a marathon. And so just an incredible example and it's just nice to be able to have a pile of some of these things that and that's kind of the culture that I want to create in my family too of just like we can

we can do things that are, are going to stretch us. Right. And for me, what a gift to be able to have, you know, go back to that moment in the trees. Like I said, with my dad, it's like, Hey, I know you want to quit. We're not doing it. I know you're, you're mad. You're fed up. You're embarrassed. Whatever the, whatever you feel like you failed, you feel like you failed publicly. All these things doesn't matter. Like just, just do the thing, you know, and then think about my mom too. And to be able to draw from some of those experiences is just what a gift.

You

Ryan Uffens (56:39)
Yeah, no, it's I mean, you've been blessed for sure. And I think it's it's fun to see like you recognize it. I think that's the gratitude part that I think sometimes people forget to express like their thanks right for the opportunities that they've been given. And I think it's fun to see a guy who's so in touch with where he's at and the things that have happened in his life that you're able to recognize that. So yeah, I I mean, I I've

In my family, we've had some hard times in our family. We've had some things that have happened that where people have given up. And I'll save it for another time. But that's one of the things that I do want to try and instill in my kids. And I hope that I have. I I say that, but all my kids are adults now and starting to have their own kids.

but just to have that sense of belief in yourself and just that the mindset of like, hey, like things are gonna work out, like you're gonna be okay. Like whatever comes your way, like you just have to have a mindset of like, I'm gonna go, like I'm gonna attack it. I'm gonna go after it, whatever it is. And I've been blessed to have like the opposite side of that with people that, you know, in my life, like where I've seen like my father-in-law, you know, he had cancer and

it took a lot away from him. But

But he fought, like I saw a guy that fought to the bitter end. And seeing that, that gives me encouragement. To like, okay, yeah. I don't wanna say that I had a rough childhood, because my childhood was pretty good. But it was more in my adult years. I've seen some things that have happened to where people just close to me have given up. And anyway.

Yeah, we don't have to dig into that, I think it's fun.

Dallin Albrecht (58:45)
No, it's impactful,

right? For sure.

Ryan Uffens (58:49)
Yeah, and again, it's just like being self-aware and being able to look at those different type of situations and apply them to your life and try and make yourself be better. anyway.

Dallin Albrecht (59:01)
Yeah, I don't know that

I would recognize those things without my daughters and without being in the position that I am now. I don't think, and I maybe regret, I don't know if regret's not, I don't know if regret's a right word or not, but like.

It would have been awesome to have not missed on those years of maybe not fully recognizing the gratitude that I should have for some of these things that have happened or maybe learning as much from those experiences I could have or different things. But I think having kids and I guess it's one of those things too that just.

Whenever it happens, it's good that it happened. And so trying to recognize it now and recognizing that it was my daughters that taught me that. It's not necessarily me. I don't know if I ever would have picked up on it if it was just me. I'm not.

Ryan Uffens (59:51)
Yeah,

I think I don't think you're giving yourself enough credit, Dallen, because I think it's that's just part of life and growing right where different things happen in your life at different times. And it gives you an opportunity to kind of like reflect back and look at how things transpired and like, this is this is how it impacted me. And this is

here's the good that happened that I want to be able to take and I want to teach like your daughters and how you want your family life to be structured. And then like on the flip side, it's like, here's some things that didn't go right, whether it was whether it was ways you were raised or it was decisions you've made and challenges that you faced, but

You know, it's all part of the plan and I just think it's perspective. As you go through life, you get to look back on things with a different lens and it really kind of puts things into perspective. anyway, well, Dallen, as we kind of wrap up, have a couple questions I want to ask you. And one, this is gear related and I didn't prep you for this, so.

I apologize if I put you on the spot here, but what is one piece of equipment that you won't go into the back country without?

Dallin Albrecht (1:01:16)
Mmm.

Yeah, there's a few that you could, there's a few that I could throw in here. Okay. Well, obviously it's, it's MTN OPS performance bars, our protein bars.

Ryan Uffens (1:01:23)
Let me have him.

Dallin Albrecht (1:01:32)
I slam, I slam those things, right? The hardest thing to do and it's Mount and up slumber gummies is two, two Mount ops pieces for sure that I can't, that I can't live without. the slumber gummies just, it's really hard to get a good night's rest in the back country and I'm not going to slam a ton of melatonin to knock me out and make me groggy the next morning. And so for me, it's, it's the slumber gummies helped me get to sleep, helped me recover. Don't wake up groggy.

Right. So that, and then our performance bars, it's 20 grams of protein, kind of a meal replacement type bar eats like a candy bar. So it's good texture and things. So there's the two, uh, the two mountain ops plugs, right. That I, that I, that I do,

Ryan Uffens (1:02:16)
we're starting it off learning that he's a guy in sales and we're finishing off with the guy that works in sales. But no, that is, I mean, you're not wrong. Yeah.

Dallin Albrecht (1:02:19)
That's right. That's changers. And

then I don't want to do another mountain ops plug necessarily, but our merino wool pieces. So depending on where I am and what season I'm hunting, I've got to my mountain ops merino's. The most game changer one is one that we don't even make anymore. It's a three quarter base layer legging type of deal.

And so it's a merino three quarter leggings that you can drop your pants and unzip the leggings all the way so you don't have to take your boots off when you shed layers. And so you first thing in the morning, it's freezing cold and you're all layered up as it starts to heat up and you're ready to take your nap in the middle of the day after you've been hiking all morning, then you just unzip them. Don't have to take the boots off and you're good to go.

Ryan Uffens (1:02:58)
huh. Okay.

Dallin Albrecht (1:03:15)
Another piece for me is I'm a replaceable blade knife type of guy. And so for me and my kill kit, it's replaceable blades. For me, I'm not patient enough for the art of knife sharpening and it's just not where I choose to spend my time and my effort. so a good outdoor edge or replaceable blade that I can just start skinning and then toss a blade and get a new one is just one of the sweetest things.

Ryan Uffens (1:03:44)
Yeah, I'm with you there. I don't have the patience for it, but I do like a nice fixed blade. You just got to take them into Ace. They'll sharpen all your knives there for you. Now I'm making a plug for Ace.

Dallin Albrecht (1:03:53)
There you go. Yeah, there you go. Hey, Mountain Office

at ACE Hardware, go grab your bars and your hydration and energy at ACE. you go. Plug works.

Ryan Uffens (1:04:02)
Perfect, see?

Okay, so the other side of that is what do you think, Dallin, is the most overrated piece of equipment?

Dallin Albrecht (1:04:14)
Mm.

Probably. I wonder if someone said you ask these questions to everybody.

Ryan Uffens (1:04:19)
You

I've

so I've recently started asking, but we typically wind up about the same place on the last question.

Dallin Albrecht (1:04:32)
I'm wondering if I'm going there already. That's something like, probably your camo pattern. Just like, is that, is that where everybody goes?

Ryan Uffens (1:04:40)
Yeah, yeah, for the most part. think that's...

Dallin Albrecht (1:04:44)
I mean, for me, it's personal preference, you know, how much of a difference any of it makes, whether you're in a red and black checkered flannel or, you know, solids or, you know, whatever pattern have you, it probably just doesn't matter all that much.

Ryan Uffens (1:05:02)
Yeah, I think when I got started, like I fell into the trap, like I got to go get me camo in order to do this. So Sitka's got me like wrapped in and, but yeah, I think for the most part, this is the conversation around it has just gone like, I think like understanding wind matters way more than the camo. I think it has its place. I think there's certain types of things that you're doing that

Dallin Albrecht (1:05:09)
Yeah.

yeah.

Ryan Uffens (1:05:32)
It has, but I do think that camo can kind of be one of the most overrated pieces. I'm sure I've been talking about it so much the past couple of weeks. I'm sure that there's going to be no sponsors that ever reach out to this podcast and says, hey, we'd like to talk with you about camo, but that's okay.

Dallin Albrecht (1:05:40)
things that people get hung up on.

Maybe

they'll say challenge accepted and they'll say, hey, this is going to make all the difference for you. So there you go.

Ryan Uffens (1:06:04)
Maybe, I mean, I still have all my Sitka stuff. So it's like, that's what I go to. It's because it's, it's, is quality. It's super good quality.

Dallin Albrecht (1:06:08)
fun.

And I'm

gonna say the technical gear is a big deal, right? Like having good quality materials and what's gonna be breathable and what's gonna be waterproof or water resistant and what type of coatings are gonna have things that are gonna make it a really loud piece or a quiet piece or like there's very valid and worthwhile technology in a lot of those pieces. Or if you're in South Texas, like I was last year hunting Audad and you're hiking through everything that wants to poke ya, bite ya.

you know, scratch you all those different things that you find in the hills and canyons and valleys of South Texas right on the Mexico border. It's you know, that technical gear makes a difference. there's there's credit where credit's due on that front.

Ryan Uffens (1:06:47)
Mm.

Yeah,

no, I, yeah, no, I agree. I mean, the other thing too that I look at is, you know, the guys like in the backpacking industry, they've been doing it for a long time. And so like, I always like to wait for the Prana pants to go on sale. You know, because those things are pretty rough. Like I've taken them through some nasty, nasty stuff and they hold up good for me. So.

Dallin Albrecht (1:07:09)
yeah.

Yep.

Yeah.

Ryan Uffens (1:07:24)
Anyway, yeah, I think there's a place for it, but I think that on the scale of getting the job done, it's definitely down to the bottom, at least my personal opinion.

Dallin Albrecht (1:07:38)
Yeah, I'm with you.

Ryan Uffens (1:07:40)
because if it was like a game changer, I'd have an elk rack sitting behind me here that we'd be talking about. But anyway, So, okay, last thing, Dalen, as we finish here is, you had talked about how many people that become MTN OPS clients have never had.

really any type of nutritional supplement. Yeah, they haven't taken that. Like for somebody that's getting into hunting and thinking like, I want to go into the back country. Like what's like a good starting place? I know we talked about the protein bars, but maybe just from like a fitness and just basic nutritional standpoint, what do you think helps people?

Dallin Albrecht (1:08:12)
supplement, whatever.

Ryan Uffens (1:08:34)
see that success to where they keep pushing and stay committed to that transformation that they're going after.

Dallin Albrecht (1:08:41)
Yeah, yeah. So you mean like product wise or like routine wise or what?

Ryan Uffens (1:08:46)
I'm just

like routine, like routine and then just, mean, to me, it's like, I mean, like protein, like I think that's one of the biggest things where people are just completely missing the boat is they don't get the protein that they need. But, but yeah.

Dallin Albrecht (1:08:59)
100 % Yeah,

that's a that's an amazing place to start is just making sure you get enough protein. And so whether that's through protein bars, protein shakes, we've got a product called Magnum. It's a protein BCAA recovery type shake, essentially, they're low calorie, they're high protein, easy, easy, digestible. Stuff like that is going to help. It's probably I remember talking to true it when true it was trying to get in really good shape for his

challenges and different things he's done. He was doing two or three protein shakes a day, two or three mountain humps shakes a day. And so just, just ensure that you're getting enough protein, which is hard to do. one of my favorite people that I would, I'll just refer back to what, what he said is a guy named trail Kreitzer who works at Go Hunt. been a friend for a long time and he, we've been lucky enough to work with him and the whole Go Hunt team. but

trail when our hydrate, our electrolyte product came out, it was good timing. They were doing an Oryx hunt in, I don't remember if it was, I think it was in New Mexico is where they did that. And it was all bring your own, they packed in their own water. They packed in everything they packed in on their backs. And that was right when we released it and having a good electrolyte product, if you're out, especially in warmer climates, but even when it's cold and snowy outside.

Ryan Uffens (1:10:11)
Mmm.

Dallin Albrecht (1:10:27)
People forget to drink water when it's cold. so a good electrolyte product is, is pretty pivotal as well to having a good experience. You won't experience that the headaches, you won't experience the cramping, all those things. so when we talk about being able to push further in the, in the back country or in whatever you're doing, fitness, whatever, at a good electrolyte product and a good protein product, energy is great too, whether it's a pre-workout or, or like our ignite, it's like a healthy, longer lasting energy.

Right. That that's obviously helpful.

Ryan Uffens (1:11:00)
One of the things I like about your guys' products too is I'm not going to name names in the industry, but sometimes you take stuff and you get like, like the, it's like you got bugs crawling under your skin, right? Like yours is good to last like, like for the, all day. I mean, for extended periods of time without hat filling, like you have to.

Dallin Albrecht (1:11:17)
Yeah.

Ryan Uffens (1:11:28)
go get a workout in or you're gonna go crazy. Yeah.

Dallin Albrecht (1:11:31)
Yeah. You're gonna float.

And then, yeah, so then on the, on the fitness side, we've been blessed to work with some awesome partners as well. to shout out a couple of them, Mountain Tough. they do some really awesome exercise programming and different things. Mayhem Hunt is, is a phenomenal partner of ours. going back to my high school, the CrossFit peak days, right?

Rich Froning, considered maybe by many as the goat of CrossFit, the father of that industry and still crushing it to this day.

Ryan Uffens (1:12:01)
Yeah.

And yeah,

and now he's getting into hunting. He's like deep into it.

Dallin Albrecht (1:12:09)
Yeah.

Yeah. We're lucky enough to have a partnership with Rich with developing some products exclusive to him. That'll be Mayhem branded products. We took him hunting last year and just a phenomenal person, faith-based family just aligns perfectly with the MTN OPS brand and culture. But his Mayhem Hunt programming is phenomenal as well and just making sure that things are practical.

and making sure that you have the physical preparedness as well to be able to handle it. Because I have the same thing. I have fear of missing out on opportunities because you can be on one ridge and you've got the spotter out and you spot an animal that's three miles away, but it's down and up and down again. And you can either have the choice to go chase it or you have the choice to call it a day and try to find something closer.

And so I have the fear of missing out on an opportunity to go chase an animal because of my own physical limitations. Right. And so, that's, that's definitely, it's definitely there. I've heard from people firsthand and been with certain people that they're like, that's a great buck or that's a great elk or that's a really cool critter, but we're not going to make it. We're not going to get to it. You know, sorry. And so that's, that's tough.

Ryan Uffens (1:13:34)
Yeah.

Yeah. Awesome. Well, down. Hey, man, I appreciate I think that's I think it's great advice. Everybody will make sure to put links to Mount Knops and Dallin in the show notes. So make sure go give both those guys a follow. And yeah, just appreciate the time getting to know you. We'll have to we'll have to do this again, Dallin. Awesome. Okay. Hey, guys, appreciate

Dallin Albrecht (1:13:57)
Absolutely, it's been fun. Yeah, I appreciate it,

Ryan Uffens (1:14:01)
you sticking around listen to this if you would and you listen to the podcast go hit subscribe and stay safe and God bless.