Gear stores in Seattle area

Other than Pro Mountain Sports, there are no shops in Seattle that specialize in UL or carry "cottage" gear. I find it very odd considering the hiking activity in the region, but there are very few UL-centric stores in the world. We are forced to go at it piecemeal

Second Ascent in the Ballard area is very good and has a lot of UL products although it isn't their focus. They take used gear for store credit and sell a lot of used gear. They carry climbing, ski, and bike gear too. Nice folk to deal with.

Outdoor Research has a company store in the SODO area and annual parking lot sales. The Filson company store is close by. Outdoor Emporium is a "hook and bullet" store next door.

Arcteryx just opened a store downtown. Patagonia, North Face, Eddie Bauer, Columbia, and Mountain Hardware have stores there too.

Ibex has a store in the University Village mall. Edie Bauer and North Face have stores there as well.

Marmot Mountain Works in Bellevue is a good hiking gear resource.

And of course there is REI.

If you get up to Vancouver, Canada the MEC store is a must see.

Backcountry Essentials in Bellingham is a great small store. Do check out the used gear on the second floor.

The Mountaineers will have a Gear Grab sale 9/30 from 6-9: http://www.mountaineers.org/stories/news.cfm?reader=275

I think I need to do a road trip to Seattle….!

Here’s a link to Pro Mountain Sports (mentioned by Dale)

here

Definitely check out Second Ascent. Small, local shop and lots of gear/clothing items not normally carried by REI and other places (like many montbell products as well as other items from the major brands). Plus, they have used clothes/gear kind of like the REI garage sale section at the Seattle Flagship store…

oh yeah, that reminds me… The Seattle flagship store has a permanent Garage Sale section. To get there, walk in and go to the very far left of the store where the biking stuff is, and there will be stairs leading down to their gear rentals department. There you will also find their Garage Sale section. Every once in awhile, when they have too much inventory, they will slash prices or have half off garage sale items (half off of even the garage sale price). My parent's went the other month when they were getting rid of ALL the garage sale shoes for 10 dollars (9.93 or something).

Next Adventure in Portland carries ULA packs and Mountain Shop carries HMG packs and Six Moon Designs packs, in case you make it down this way.

Most of the shops here are more ski and climbing oriented. You can still pretty much find gear from all of the top brands though, in case you need to buy something in person.

Thanks for all the info. Maybe I need to open a cottage gear retailer!

Slightly off topic for this thread, but since I'm new to the area, I was wondering if any BPLers here wanted to do group hikes. I'd be up for some weekend trips.

For UL down garments and sleeping bags, Feathered Friends is great. They are on Yale St. Half a block from the REI flagship store. They have a clearance rack in the back of the store. They will do custom work and their quality is great.

Edit: Just caught that you already know about FF, so consider this an endorsement rather then a suggestion!

With Portland and Seattle only three hours apart, I thought I'd cross reference the threads for the two cities. Here's the thread for Portland stores:
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=82151&skip_to_post=700020#700020