Steep and Cheap is the bane of my existence lately.

If you’re familiar with the site, you know where I’m going already.

If you’re not familiar, let me explain:
Steep and Cheap is the dark underbelly of backcountry.com. It is a site where they have one item at a time from Backcountry.com which is on a ridiculous closeout deal and is sold until it’s gone. Sometimes that takes minutes, sometimes it takes hours. These items can be everything from jackets, to knives, to tents, to skis, and much much more. Everything is at least 50% off retail, some as much as 80% off.

The problem is that I’ve noticed, over time, that the folks who decide what deals go up at Steep and Cheap have started peering into my soul and setting items in the cue based on that glimpse.

About 2 months ago, I started noticing that I was blowing through all my smartwools at an alarming rate. I hate cotton socks, with all my existence, so I’ve built up a nice collection of synthetic biking socks, and wool hiking socks for everything else. As I like to use things until they die, I initially wasn’t too worried about it, but I said to myself “if I see some on sale, maybe I’ll pick up a pair or two”.

Not more than a week later, hiking smartwools are up on Steep and Cheap. $5.75 a pair. That’s over 60% off retail (usually somewhere around $14-16 a pair). I bit the bullet, ordered 3 pairs, and was a happy man when they arrived a few days later. Based on that (apparently) coincidental deal find, I loaded up the steep and cheap watcher on my computer at work (don’t tell the IT guy, he might burn down the building). Nothing really all that interesting came up for a while, a bunch of headlamps, some knives, a bunch of jackets. I took comfort in the little popup that would appear about 10 times a day on my computer announcing another amazing deal, but didn’t buy anything, as I make an honest effort to try and not buy too many needless things (yeah, right).

This was more fun than woot.

After skiing at wolf creek 2 weeks ago, I noticed that I was down to 2 pairs of ski socks, and they were getting fairly threadbare. I shrugged it off with a confident “they only have to make it another month or so” and didn’t think about it again. . . .

Until smartwool ski socks popped up on Steep and Cheap. $6 a pair, you say? “You Bastards”, I say, as I click on the ‘buy 2’ box. . . .

Interestingly, this purchase happened only a few days after I had posted about their avalauncher t-shirt.

For the first time ever, I was clicking ‘purchase’ on steep and cheap for the second time that day. The avalauncher t-shirt was up, and it was right around $8. I wasn’t willing to buy it for $17 plus shipping, but damn if $8 wasn’t worth it, white t-shirt or not.

The final straw was earlier this week, as I was stressing about what I was going to do for glasses for the San Ysidro Dirty Century this weekend. I have been wearing a pair of oakley fives lately which I found on the side of the trail about a year ago. Unfortunately, they are very scratched, don’t have the greatest coverage, and fog up whenever I stop, so I’m (obviously) not a big fan of them for riding.

I’ve been holding out on Rudy Project to try and get a pro-form, but it hasn’t been looking good.

I can only imagine the evil laughs that came from the deep underground Steep and Cheap lair as they strategically placed a pair of Native Attacks in the cue. “But wait,” they thought. “lets not just put up a pair of sunglasses with ‘ram-air vents’ and replaceable lenses in the cue, that might not hook him. What else can we do? Ah yes, polarized, that should do the trick. And somewhere around 60% off? That worked last time, lets try it again.”

They showed up today. Not perfect, but a giant step forward from what I had, and quite possibly a new pair of riding glasses. If not I can always put them on ebay, right?

Now, I don’t know who is behind this, but I have a hunch. They have an iron grip on my attention, and more importantly, my credit card.

I can’t say for sure, but I’m willing to pin this evil surveillance and wallet draining mission on one person: Rocky Thompson

You bastard.

Even if he isn’t the one operating the evil mind-intruding devices they employ, he’s close enough to it to be a scapegoat for my distress (which comes monthly with the credit card bill and all the backcountry.com/steepandcheap.com charges).

He even goes by “the goat”.

I’m just glad they don’t sell bike components. . . Did I say that out loud? Crap.