NEW YORK, March 28, 2000 - GORP.COM (Great Outdoor Recreation Pages), the leading Internet portal for those embracing an outdoor lifestyle, today announced that the company has secured $16.3 million in its second round financing. Participating in the financing are two funds managed by American Express Financial Advisors including the Innovators Fund and Life Series Equity Fund. Also joining the round are Paribas Affaires Industrielles (PAI), a major private equity house in Europe, and previous investors Capstone Ventures, FD5 and Peppers and Rogers Group.

GORP.COM, launched more than five years ago by outdoor experts Bill and Diane Greer, currently offers more than 100,000 pages of content on worldwide destinations and a broad range of activities including hiking, trekking, paddling and anything that encourages enjoyment of the outdoors. In November 1999, GORP.COM expanded its e-commerce offerings to include full-service booking of adventure travel trips and the addition of an online store offering 180 brands of outdoor apparel, footwear and equipment.

"GORP.COM has exhibited the vision and leadership to fill a niche in one of the most dynamic areas of the outdoor recreation and travel industry," said Eric Delorme, Managing Director at Paribas Affaires Industrielles. "GORP's management team has developed a strong concept in a growing market. We expect that they will continue to expand upon their leadership position in this field."

"We are very enthusiastic about the composition of our current investors and their confidence in our company," said Jon Guttenberg, CEO of GORP. "This supplemental funding provides an important validation of what we have built to date and allows us to continue our aggressive growth strategy. We have built an extensive grassroots audience based on the strength of our content and community, and now with our second round in place, we are poised for rapid expansion."

GORP last week announced the engagement of two advertising agencies, Mad Dogs and Englishmen and i-traffic, a division of Agency.com, to implement an offline and online advertising campaign.

"We have developed a unique online resource," added Guttenberg. "Because our mission is to encourage and inspire participation, GORP has become the total source for those embracing an outdoor lifestyle. We are well positioned to capitalize on a marketplace that represents more than $45 billion in annual spending."

Current industry estimates place the size of the adventure travel market at more than $29 billion and outdoor gear and equipment represents an additional $16 billion. The industry has achieved this size without an integrated infrastructure that would match outdoor enthusiasts with the right experiences, adventure tour companies and other consumers with similar tastes. GORP, already known for its robust outdoor content and involved, passionate community, puts that infrastructure in place with the launch of its travel and gear e-commerce components earlier this year. GORP currently boasts the largest, searchable database of adventure travel trips with more than 30,000 departures. Because of this strong infrastructure, GORP has revolutionized the way adventure and experiential travel is booked.

American Express Financial Advisors is one of the nation's leading financial planning companies. It is part of the American Express Financial Corporation family of companies, which currently owns and/or manages more than $219 billion in assets.

PAI, a major private equity house in Europe, manages a portfolio of more than $ 8 billion.

GORP (a.k.a. Great Outdoor Recreation Pages) is the largest (100,000+ pages of content) and most trafficked (9+ million page views per month) Web site dedicated to outdoor recreation and adventure travel. GORP offers a complete package of authoritative, award-winning content, a large active community of outdoor enthusiasts and a full-range of e-commerce offerings drawing more than 9 million pages views per month. GORP offers a full-service adventure travel booking feature, accessible via the web or telephone, that offers more than 30,000 departures. GORP has been cited by Yahoo!, US News & World Report, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and many others, as the category leader and a best of the web site.

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