Back in the fall when I went out to the Gore factories on the East Coast, one of the main developments they wanted to tell us about was the launch of their new outdoor activity / social networking / fan site, My Experience More. And yes, we already have Facebook and Twitter and EveryTrail and even Outdoorzy, so what’s different about this?

My Experience More has the usual collection of profile browsing and forums, but what it really aims to have is a large community of enthusiastic outdoor-folks. They really want you to share your outdoor adventures, stories, and photos – whether it’s hiking, backpacking, rock climbing, kayaking, or anything else.

To help build a collection of these experiences, Gore is offering some big prizes to its initial adventurers. Basically, when you create an Experience for yourself, choose the photo that best represents your experience and submit it to the contest. Any photo that gets a certain rating or above from your peers will be judged by Gore employees in February, and the winner will get $10,000 toward a dream adventure, as well as $5,000 to donate to an outdoor nonprofit. The 5 runners-up will each get $1,000 in Gore gear, which isn’t anything to sneeze at, either.

Tags: gore, gore-tex, my experience more, photo contest