The “safety meeting” is a sacred speakeasy sort of tradition on the slopes. You might call for one because your legs are sore from shredding so much gnar and you need a break. Maybe you call one because the crowds are crimping your vibe. Sometimes, you don’t even need a reason at all — you just feel like a safety meeting is necessary.
Whatever the motivation, there’s an unwritten rule in the mountains: When you hear those magic words (“safety meeting!“), it’s time to dip into the nearest trees, huddle up with your friends, bust out the safety kit, and spark up. You mellow out, slow down, find your flow state, and tickle your après appetite with a light green buzz. And suddenly, everyone seems to be skiing a little better.
The folks from Dad Grass and the Mountain Gazette are really into this kind of safety. They want to make sure that all the “shreddy and heady girls and guys who make mountain towns tick” can stay safe out there without drawing too much attention to themselves, and without getting too safe that it becomes a hazard (if you know what we mean).
So the mountain culture alt magazine and the organic hemp flower pre-roll company joined forces. They came together and dreamed up the ultimate safety kit for skiers and riders — a decoy sash kit, stocked with Dad Grass Hemp CBD or Mom Grass CBG pre-rolled joints, and disguised to look like, well, an actual safety kit.
And they can ship them to you anywhere in the US.
Mountain Grassette Safety Kit With Dad Grass
As you’ve probably caught on by now, we’re talking about weed here. Or rather, in the case of Dad Grass’ pre-rolls, we’re talking about hemp.
“[Dad Grass] is based around this simple idea that today’s weed gets you too damn high,” explained Ben Starmer, the co-founder of Dad Grass. He likens it to alcohol: Occasionally you want a strong cocktail or a shot — but not always. Sometimes you just want a light beer. And unfortunately, almost every strain of weed coming out of recreational dispensaries today is in the 20-30% THC range. Which is enough to knock almost anyone on their butt.
“We set out to create a really high-quality product that was much lower potency. And we did that with smokable hemp,” he said.
Which, thanks to the 2018 Farm Bill, is fully federally legal. Hemp flower contains less than 0.3% THC, so when you smoke it, you get all the cannabinoid benefits, without the psychoactive effects that send you to the moon. It’s like having a light beer instead of a shot of tequila, Starmer said.
“It just kind of chills you out and relaxes the anxieties of the day and puts a nice wide smile on your face,” he said. “They give you a nice little head shift.”
And that makes them perfect for an on-mountain safety meeting. But, the idea for this safety kit didn’t fully form until Dad Grass and the Mountain Gazette came together.
A Collab Made in Hemp-ven
If you aren’t familiar, the Mountain Gazette is one of the baddest-ass, most down-to-earth, mountain news and culture magazines ever conceived. It’s been revered by dirtbags, ski bums, river rats, granola bars, and generally outdoorsy types since it was established in 1966. That was back when weed was actually more similar to hemp than it was to the high-potency bud coming out of dispensaries today.
“Our mission with the magazine is to go back to a simpler time before the internet when you got all of your quality news from a print publication,” said Mike Rogge, editor and owner of the Mountain Gazette.
And when one of his subscribers and one of Dad Grass’ customers connected him with Starmer, he realized that their goals lined up perfectly.
“It’s not a throwback or being kitschy. It’s more like borrowing something from the past that makes a lot of sense today,” Rogge said. “I tried Dad Grass and felt like it was a really complementary product to what [the Mountain Gazette] is making.”
So it was only natural: The two businesses got together and started brainstorming. What would make for the coolest stash pack collaboration between a mountain magazine and a hemp pre-roll company? Dad Grass makes a lot of them — some look like blank cassette boxes, screw containers, or cans of sardines — but none of those made sense for this budding “Mountain Grassette” collaboration.
“We tossed around a bunch of ideas. Ski wax being one, hand warmers being another, this, that,” said Starmer. “And then we were like, ‘Wait. What if we made a safety kit?’”
Fireworks exploded, light bulbs lit up, and the two entrepreneurs knew they’d hit the nail on the head. So they started designing what would become the official Mountain Grassette Safety Kit with Dad Grass.
What’s in the Kit?
Five to 10 Dad Grass pre-rolls are inside the safety kit. But it’s not so much the contents that make this Mountain Grassette Safety Kit so rad, as the package itself. Because the small cassette-size tin looks just like a small first aid kit. If you left it on your coffee table, or it fell out of your ski backpack in public, no one would bat an eyelash. It’s a covert little joint carrier that won’t raise suspicion, no matter who you’re around.
The back of the tin is pretty hilarious too. It’s got tips, tricks, and advice from the Mountain Gazette’s own Jaded Local column. It explains in perfect detail when to call a safety meeting. Like during “wind holds,” when you need to pop into the woods for a break from the weather, or as a “tourism tolerator,” for those days when gaper traffic is out of control, etc.
“Everything that we do, we try to put a smile on people’s faces and we try to have fun,” said Starmer. “And by bringing two awesome, fun companies together like us and Mountain Gazette, I think we’ve achieved that.”
Jump onto the Dad Grass website to check out the Mountain Grassette Safety Kit, and order one to keep with all of your other ski safety equipment. So, the next time you and your friends need to talk safety, you’ll be prepared with a legit kit full of giggle bush, made just for the occasion.
