High Camp Flasks | The Story

30th June 2025 | Words by Matt Jones @ WildBounds HQ

“Just because we’re outdoors doesn’t mean we need to drink like animals.” It’s a philosophy that might sound flippant at first; but dig deeper and you’ll find it captures something essential about the modern outdoor experience. This isn’t about roughing it for the sake of it, nor accepting that time in nature means sacrificing the finer things in life. Instead, it’s about recognising that our most memorable adventures deserve to be celebrated properly – with craft spirits, quality barware, and the kind of thoughtful ritual that transforms a simple drink into a meaningful moment.

That philosophy sits at the heart of High Camp Flasks, a brand built on the belief that nothing completes a day's adventure quite like a celebratory drink. But this isn't just another outdoor gear company that happens to make drinkware. High Camp represents something more: a bridge between the craft beverage world and the great outdoors, creating solutions that transport your favourite spirits to any environment without compromise.

A campfire epiphany

The eureka moment came, as so many great ideas do, around a campfire. Nic Barisone was camping with his brothers at Wright's Lake in California's Desolation Wilderness in late October. "I'd brought a nice bottle of Lagavulin single malt to share," he recalls. "I pulled out the glass whisky bottle, along with my favourite Scotch glass, which was a little mini Mason jar that I used to drink out of at home. And I sat at the campfire and I poured myself a drink." When he passed the bottle to his brother, who produced his own Mason jar, everything seemed perfect. But then his younger brother across the fire asked if there a glass jar for him too. "He was like, I don't want to drink Scotch from the same mug I drink my coffee out of!" That simple moment sparked everything that followed.

The seed of an idea began to grow. "I started thinking. I looked at the jar, I turned it upside down, onto the bottle, and I thought, you could make this more packable. You could make it look cool," Nic explains. The vision was immediate: a stainless-steel canister that could securely transport a couple of tumblers for exactly these types of adventures. "The whole concept was that this thing had to really look cool, if it was gonna work. I had this idea that the tumbler should look like a six-shooter revolver." The aesthetic wasn't arbitrary – Nic wanted to create the perfect pairing for campfire drinking. "For me, the most quintessential campfire spirit is whiskey. And what goes with whiskey? The frontier, the wild west, the six-shooter revolver and bar glass aesthetic."

His business partner materialised at a friend's engagement party at Clear Lake, California, in July 2016, where Nic met Whit Gautreaux. Whit, a Montana native and engineer who'd recently moved to the Bay Area, was looking to make friends who shared his passion for surfing and biking. "Here, in Silicon Valley, everybody has all these ideas they throw at you, but there's certain people that just do things, and Whit was able to make an idea come to life," Nic reflects. The two instantly connected, and as Nic shared his vision for the flask, Whit saw both the potential and the technical challenges that would need solving. His obsessive attention to detail would prove essential as the pair worked through countless iterations of what would become the Firelight Flask.

The challenge wasn't just about creating a better flask – it was about reimagining what outdoor drinking could be. Traditional hip flasks, descendants of Prohibition-era bootlegger design, were built for concealment rather than celebration. They were too small for sharing, too crude for craft spirits that distillers had spent twelve years or more perfecting. High Camp's founders wanted something different: vessels that honoured both the spirit inside and the moment being shared.

Design without compromise

Their quest began with rethinking outdoor drinkware from the ground up. "We want to create gear that still serves a purpose when you're not outdoors," Whit explains, articulating one of their core design principles. "We all spend a lot of money on outdoor gear. Unfortunately, a lot of that gear is used maybe once a month, if you're lucky, or a few times a year, and then it lives in a big plastic container in your closet."

Their solution started with the ultimate backcountry tumbler – it had to be big enough for a proper grip and robust enough to handle anything the outdoors could throw at it. The result was their 11fl oz Six-Shooter Tumbler, inspired by Nic's vision of frontier aesthetics meeting modern functionality. Next came the flask itself, where the team's commitment to quality became non-negotiable. Absolutely no plastic would touch the interior, which meant stainless steel throughout – infinitely recyclable and with an electropolished interior that imparts zero unwanted flavours. The microscopically smooth surface preserves the integrity of even the most complex single malts, ensuring that a twelve-year-aged whisky tastes the same whether it's being poured in a distillery tasting room or around a remote campfire.

The path from concept to production proved arduous, involving multiple Chinese manufacturers, failed prototypes, and moments of near-disaster. Their first Kickstarter campaign was famously shot using a 25-pound solid metal prototype that cost $800 to make. "It looked great. But it weighed 25lbs and it wasn't functional," Whit remembers. "If you watch the Kickstarter video, I don't know if it's noticeable or not, but we're trying to look natural, pouring out of something that weighs 25lbs. You're looking pumped, trying to hold it in one hand!"

From rock bottom to breakthrough

The lowest point came midway through their crowdfunding campaign when production samples from their second manufacturer arrived. "I opened the box and I almost cried," Nic recalls. "Squeezing the side of this flask was like squeezing a bottle of 7UP. It was so soft and terrible and nothing looked even halfway presentable." Faced with the choice to cancel their campaign or bet everything on a third manufacturer with higher minimum order quantities and costs, they chose to push forward. "We're sitting there. I was in San Luis, Obispo... having a panic attack. I was on the phone to Nic like, should we cancel the campaign?"

They persevered, and that decision proved transformative. The third manufacturer delivered quality that matched their vision, and their successful Kickstarter campaign sold over 700 flasks. But the real breakthrough was understanding their unique position in the market. As Nic puts it: "We're focused on one area, alcohol. Other people that are doing stainless steel are gearing towards coffee and water and juice and soup. We're saying, keep your soup, keep your coffee. We'll focus on booze."

The original Firelight Flask proved the concept, but High Camp's innovation didn't stop there. The brand has since expanded to serve different adventure styles and group sizes. The sleek Torch Flask offers a more compact option for solo adventurers, with its beer-can profile hiding a sophisticated 6oz vessel and magnetic shot glass. For those who prefer wine to spirits, the Parkside Flask series brings the same magnetic tumbler system to vineyard-quality experiences, with vacuum insulation that keeps your favourite varietals at the perfect temperature for 24 hours.

The brand name itself came from one of Nic's sales trips to the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, where he stayed at an off-grid backcountry ski resort called Scottish Lakes High Camp. "It was this off-grid resort with kerosene lamps and wood-fired hot tubs," he recalls. The name resonated immediately – High Camp perfectly captured the elevated outdoor experience they wanted to create.

Quality time

What sets High Camp apart isn't just the engineering; it's their understanding that great gear enables great experiences. "We tried to make something to create quality time with friends and family," Nic explains. "I think quality time is more important than just time. Getting outside, to me, is quality time and sharing a drink outside gets those other conversations flowing." Their flasks aren't just containers; they're conversation starters, ritual enablers, and quality guarantors that ensure the drink matches the moment.

The entrepreneurial journey hasn't been without its challenges. As Nic describes the reality of building a brand: "The sense of ownership, the sleepless nights, the stress, the things that wake you up, it's like a baby. You can't stop thinking about it, caring about it, because you're the only one that's really responsible for it, at the end of the day." But it's that same obsessive dedication that drives their continued innovation and quality focus. Whit adds his perspective on the responsibility: "It sounds nice to not have a boss... but not having that there means you have to continue to motivate yourself."

Today, High Camp continues to push boundaries with each new product release. Their design philosophy remains unchanged: create barware that works beautifully both indoors and out, with what they call "indoor aesthetics, outdoor utility." But at their core, they remain focused on their original mission – elevating the outdoor drinking experience.

When you think about it, High Camp's success makes perfect sense. They've identified a truth that resonates with anyone who's ever watched a sunset from a mountaintop or shared stories around a campfire: the right gear doesn't just make adventures possible, it makes them memorable. And in a world where outdoor experiences are becoming increasingly precious, that's a philosophy worth raising a glass to – preferably a High Camp glass, magnetically attached to a flask full of your favourite spirit, ready to turn any adventure into a celebration.