Now we are skiing!

I finally got to slide on snow! I went up Wednesday with employees Peter and Becky. We were joined by friends John and Amy. What a blast! Perfect timing! A great champagne powder dump the few days before with bluebird skies for us. We left at 5:30 and were on the mountain early. Great grippy snow on the groomed. Light powder every where else, but caution was needed off piste. The light snow let you sink to whatever was underneath, so we were mainly on the groomed runs.

I started out on my Fischer Race SC's to see if I remembered how to carve a turn. That worked out great so I did some runs on a Fischer Watea 94. Super fun and I was overly tempted by the powder and dinged 'em up a bit. I switched to a Watea 84 and WOW what a great ski. Tight turns, no problem. Let 'em run, no problem. Super fun and versatile. What agreat ski! We saw a few customers, and had a chance to chat with Jim from the Start Haus in Truckee as he was also stealing a bit of "fun time" while others toiled away at the shop. We all had a fantastic time. Get up there! I recommend it highly!

Since then it has been two days of very active retail. The hardcores are all getting their first turns and are coming by for last minute needs. Families are gearing up for Christmas skiing and buying gifts. Rentals are suddenly a part of our lives again. Racers are coming in for the next round of race prep work. New ski packages are lining up in the shop for mounting. I delivered a new ski to a customer in Lafayette this morning before work. It is a non stop torrent of diverse wants and needs. For the most part we are able to accomodate all. Part of the gig this time of yeare is that everyone needs it now. The ski packages are being used asap. The racers needed their gear for this weekend. Renters are wanting to have us set up and reserve their skis. Boot ditting must be done by their ski day or plane reservation (typically "tomorrow"). Tonight John and I were at work until 11:30. We mounted some skis for pick up in the morning, I did a custom insole with an electronic boot heater integrated.

Then we had some fun. JT is a regular customer that has a pair of Atomic SX-9 skis. Loves the skis but feels they are too heavy. He asked today if there was any way to replace his heavy bindings with a lighter pair of Salomon units. Yes! Or at least Mabey! I ahve been dying for someone to request this for a while now, as it is a common "complaint" about the Atomics of a few years ago. The problem is that the skis came with a plate that only accepted the Atomic bindings. A super light ski that is only compatible with a heavy binding should lead, in my mind, to us getting this request. It has been tumbled around in my brain more than once that there must be a good way to make this modification and I had some ideas. I told him I would work on it when I had the time. He wants them for a late January trip. So at about 10 o'clock I finished up my "need it now" work and rustled up a ski with the same system and John and I tore it apart and brainstormed. Very tricky to get the loads distributed safely on the extremely "not flat" Atomic top sheet with its "beta" profile. But we have some ideas. I will pick up some aluminum stock, and we can start fabricating our idea into a prototype to test. This will be interesting, and as soon as I have some free time again between dawn and midnight I will get back to it. I am thinking I may be able to grab a few hours here and there over the next month and if things go well, JT will have the trickest Atomics on the mountain. Stay tuned and I will supply a photo if it works out great.

For now, I am turning in for the night. Happy Holidays to you all, and get up and enjoy the white gold up in the Sierra!

I hope you're happy too!

Winter looks to be here finally! It should start snowing in Tahoe tonight. The resorts are happy, I am happy. I hope you're happy too. This means that business will ramp up big time. Expanded hours are now in effect, rentals will start needing staff, ski sales will explode. It's all hands on deck through the new year and beyond.

We are ready and able to respond to the surge. Rebecca (daughter #1, pictured above) comes back from Chico on Thursday and will be full time. Brian, Mitsi and Gabe get relief from school and will put in hours. Peter and Gary will add a day extra. Christian and Jeremy are both suddenly available to work some too. John Martin and myself will start with the long days as we do every year at this time. It's funny. I don't look forward to grinding insoles at midnight, but I have fond recollections of working late with Martin and John. Kind of a bonding thing I guess.

In any case, we are (to the best of my ability) well trained, organized, well equipped, and loaded to the rafters with the best ski gear available. Our Winter Sale prices are awesome and the signage is all dialed in. The skis, boots, helmets, bags, boots, and accessories look great. Everyone seems to think we have the best clothing selection we have have ever had- particularly for kids. Overall, I look around the store here a few hours before opening and I think we are ready.

Best of all- let the skiing begin!

Mackie will be the man!

Well, the Sierra looks nothing like this picture! There is no snow and nothing before the middle of the month that is at all promising. Oh well, what can we do? If Ulr doesn't want to deliver then we are at his mercy.

Back at the shop we are staying busy. Good customer flow as well as the ever growing list of projects. The latest "for fun" project was dealt with by Mackie. Mackie is our resident high schooler. Every year I look for a kid that is into skiing and has never had a job. If I find the right candidate, I hire them. I loved my first job (at a bike shop). The Owner as great and I learned and matured a lot there. I want to do the same for others. This year it's Mackie. Mackie is the younger brother of Vonnie who worked for me a few years ago. Vonnie called me about adding Mackie to the team. After speaking to his father and Mackie, we did just that. So far he has shown himself to be smart, attentive, and willing to tackle all projects and tasks thrown at him. Even ones that are broad in scope and short on instruction.

One such project is the new tram. Many of you know that we have an old gondola car from Mammoth Mountain hanging from the ceiling at the shop. I like that sort of ambiance in my environment - what can I say? So, last year I bartered for a "G-Scale" tram with a boot customer. G-Scale is a type of model railroad. They are called Garden Trains in England and they are basically large model trains and accessories designed to be used outdoors. This is a two car ski tram with all the detail including a "tramhouse" (cardboard) and "action figures" like G.I. Joe characters.

I put it up with our antique boots with the thought of setting it up at a later date. It's been a summer gone now and I had not yet put up this new toy.Looking for a good project for our newbie, Mackie got the call. Not exactly sure where to set it up, but knowing that a trial set up was in order I gave Mackie a loose plan. I intended to go into more detail as to the steps of concept, drawing, materials list, implementation, refinement etc. but I got called away and John got there first. Any time there is a project, John likes to take part. Ingenious, smart, and experienced, John is a king of fabrication and modification. He and Mackie were hard at it. A huge platform bolted to the stairs and talk of lag bolts on the far wall were the kind of snippets I was overhearing as I scurried around helping customers.

At the end of the day I went over the project with Mackie. Need longer cables, angles seem sensitive, far wall needs platform. He was on top of it. I told him my idea of a simple set up for now, with the final goal of trying to use the tram to bring rental forms from the upstairs to the front counter. That way it is not simply decorative but useful as well. Mackie nodded like he understood.

I looked for longer cable at the hardware store the next morning. No luck. I told Mackie we would have to table the gondola for a bit 'cause I didn't have the longer cable. Mackie nodded like he understood. Shortly after Mackie brought me a ball of cotton string from the shop. He asked me if there was any reason it wouldn't work for the tram. "At least to test it", he added. Why not, I said? A few hours later Mackie asked me to give him a hand. He had strung the tram from the rental area to the front counter using the "kite string". The motor and bullwheel were attached with c-clamps so they could be easily be moved round and adjusted. I helped him adjust the pulley angle and we fired it up. It worked! There are a few bugs to be worked out but we are now about a year ahead of schedule on the tram project!

So I think Mackie will work out ok. Just so long as I can keep him from getting bored. If you are in charge of personnel for a company that will be hiring in about six years, keep track of Mackie. Mackie will be the man!

I love you guys!

Well, there is a bit of hysteria in the air it seems. An election year combined with global warming to start with. Now an economic meltdown has led, it seems, to the media calling out anyone interested in a full blown freak out. As a retail businessman this is a worrisome proposition. I do sell "adult toys" and if people are going to reign in the finances, the toys get cut first? On top of this there has been no snow to get things going. The sales reps are reporting doom and gloom from the retail sector in California. Some manufacturers are (panicking and) going to "off price" reorders much earlier than typical. I have heard that a few Tahoe shops have closed their doors, which happens in any economy. The reps and shopowners see it as "a sign of the times". My take is a bit different. I think that mother earth is the key component. We are all "snow farmers" here. Crisp, white, fluffy snow is the main component. Regarding the economy, I am probably less optimistic than most of you. That being said, a poor economy combined with a lousy snow year means the entire industry will suffer. A great economy combined with a lousy snow year and the entire industry will suffer. Mother Earth rules. How will the economic situation effect California Ski Company? Well, we will see. I have lost many hours of sleep on that one! I need more evidence before I can prognosticate with authority but here is my hunch: 1) The economy will bring ski shop sales totals down about 15% for the industry across the board nationally. Hit most hard will be rentals (ski 1-2 times a year? May pass to save $), and destination resorts. Instead of Whistler you book a local mountain for the week. 2) Enthusiasts will still ski. Face it- it is a passion and a lifestyle decision for us and we will find a way. Skiing is a priority for happiness and we are just not going to give it up. 3) Skiers can afford to ski. Let's be real. Skiing is not a sport that you can do cheaply. Therefore skiers have some decent dough (if you don't believe me, there are Lot's of median income studies out there I can send your way). While lower income families may have to make cuts, the middle income and above still have disposable income. 4) Things could change for good or bad in the upcoming months which will change points 1 through 3. For now, all I can look at is empirical evidence to base my business decisions on. To that end I ran end of the month reports and year to date comparisons on 11/30 just as I do at every month's end. My evidence shows that we are considerably up in sales from last year which was a record high for sales for the business. We have been breaking sales records as I lose sleep over the economy/business/weather. That being said it really comes down to two things. First is that I love you guys (and girls). Our customers are absolutely kick-a**! Thank you for continuing to support the small local independent ski shops. Second is that I should quit losing sleep over the economy and simply lie awake worrying about the weather. We need snow at this point and if we don't get it I could blame the economy but I think I would be wrong. We all want to feel the sliding action of ski base against snow and the only thing that can stop us is Mother Nature.

Looking to the heavens

We are all looking to the heavens for a little help right about now. It's time to start skiing and all we need is snow. The staff just spent two days in Reno at Masterfit University boot fitting training and had a great time while learning a lot in the process. Becky, Erle, and Gary got there "Associate plus" degrees. Peter got his "Masters" degree. Martin, John, and I took the "Masters Plus" class which is called The Dark Arts. Masterfit does a great job. The instructors are amazing. Super talented and knowledgeable while being very good (and fun) instructors. They are truly the elite from around the country. Instructors came from Teluride, Aspen, Vermont, Mt. Hood...just the best of the best nationally. While we consider ourselves "top notch", it can be both a thrill and a shot of reality to be together with other shops that take boots as seriously as us. We are not the only boot junkies out there and the instructors are, as a group, at another level. All are either podiatrists or board certified pedorthists. All have decades of experience.

Jim Schaffner of the Start Haus in Truckee is one of those instructors and we are blessed to have him "locally". The Start Haus is the center of ski racing in Norcal and any ski racer worth their salt knows the shop. Jim and the Start Haus are a great assets for the Tahoe region and pretty much all of Northern California. Every boot fitter gets stumped at times and needs to consult with others to get a fresh take. Jim is always willing to give me a tip from the other end of the phone. Being so close to the race scene, he is also always on top of the latest machines and techniques for tuning and is always more than willing to share. On the way home we stopped by his shop and got to play with a new hand held exotic ski edge tuning tool with a diamond cutting surface. Josh Wiltz was there and we checked it out with him while we waited for a piece of machinery to be readied for us to buy for the back shop. Josh's uncle Willie is probably the best known tuner in the US and Josh is the tuner for the Canadian national Skier Cross team. The tool is designed to be prtale enough for field use and so is perfect for his needs as he travels with the team. It was kinda cool to be checking out a $3600 hand held power edge tool with a world cup tech!

Now we finish up our in-house clinics starting with our own "boot camp". The associate degree fitters have a ton of new knowledge. Now I have to help them put it into the context of our own practices. They will learn how to use our forms, tools, and methodology. Using the materials and methods we adhere to, they will practice evaluations, make footbeds, punch, grind, and cut under Johns supervision until he is satisfied. Thank you to Masterfit and Dalbello for providing a dozen or so boot shells for them to practice on.

With Halloween come and gone without any resorts opening yet, I looked at some web sites for opening date speculation. Mt. Rose and Boreal are looking at next weekend. Others the following weekend. I think we will go to full hours the weekend of the 15th. Meanwhile, I will sneak in a trip to Texas to visit an old friend. I also need to finish in house training for the rental department and general binding tech with the newbies. Then it should be skiing and working the sales floor for the next five months or so. I am super ready so... Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow!

Snow in the Sierra!

Well, now we have had a number of weeks when we have "working" been at the shop this season. This time of year is brutal. First, in August, we get in new gear that makes us want to ski. Then, in early September, we have a sale and the brisk business feels like mid season. Then we have the last month or so which is comprised of fine tuning, organizing, tagging, moving diplays, moving them back cause I changed my mind, endless lists of little things to do, smaller lists of important things to do...you get the picture. We have decent customer flow, but we are biding our time from a business as well as personal (ie. WE WANT TO SKI!) point of view. To make things worse, customers are mainly making their one preseason ski shop visit and we feel all of your skiing jones'. Many customers practically vibrate with the excitement of visiting a shop just prior to the season. Many stop by just to get some release of "skiers preseason tension". We feed of of the customers mood and you simply will not give us a chance to forget about our need to ski for even a moment! We must therefore simply try to keep it under control as we know we have to be patient.

Well, I am getting pretty impatient. I desperately want to ski and today they got snow at the higher elevations. Last night it rained here and I got up at 12:30am and sat under the eve on the porch and joyfully listened to it rain for awhile. I am ready! Luckily there is a lot going on between now and spinning lifts. We have clinics (about 15 of 'em) for two weeks. After that we go up to Reno for Masterfit University training (http://www.bootfitters.com/). This year we take 8 employees. Wow! Masterfit ends October 29th. The 30th is a planned Mountain Bike ride on the flume trail if it is open since we are in the area. If not, it as a hike and ski day, just to get some turns. Then the 31st is a) Halloween b)Boreal will open if thay can... c)My birthday. The month will end well.

Report from Portillo

This post comes from Joe Schmitt, one of our regular customers. Joe lives in Sonoma County and has been a regular customer of ours for a number of years now. Joe helped me connect with Peter Keelty, John Clendenin, the Clendenin Ski Method (http://www.skidoctors.com/ or phone 970.544.0300), and ultmately our association with the Realskiers ski reviews (http://www.expertskier.com/) and their related web site. Joe has spent a good amount of time learning from both John and Peter. He has attended John's camps since 2002. This report is from his most recent experience. Greg This was my third trip to Portillo and proved to be one of the most memorable as compared to the others. Conditions were excellent with ample snow coverage giving us the opportunity to explore the many off piste areas accessible by the lift system. The lack of weekday crowds provided for all the skiing we could manage, especially with the lifts operating until 5 PM. Nancy, and I were part of a group of 20 students attending the Clendenin Method ski week in the Andes. We were split into three groups based upon skiing ability and enthusiasm levels, which were pretty high judging from the fact that most of us were on the hill on the first Saturday afternoon following a long overnight flight from the US. The coaches consisted of three top level Aspen ski instructors and two time world freestyle champion, John Clendenin. A typical day would begin with a warm up run or two followed by intense drills emphasizing the skiing techniques particular to this program. During the afternoon we were on the steeps and bumps applying what we had learned from the able teaching staff. There are some runs that actually drop down from either side of the valley into the frozen lake requiring a hike out and up to access the lifts. Some of the runs are so steep that the only lift system capable of withstanding the regular avalanches is a cable serviced multi-seat poma device that can be tricky to negotiate since you are riding shoulder to shoulder with four others. We enjoyed the US and Canadian world cup teams training while we were there. Several members of the group opted for a day of heliskiing making descents from 13000 feet in the shadow of Aconcagua which loomed above at over 22800 feet. The slopeside hotel supplied us with comfortable rooms and three gourmet meals a day to fuel ourselves for the abundant amounts of vertical taken in. However, the lunchtime vista from a mid-mountain restaurant called "Tio Bob's" proved to have views too incredible to pass up on clear days. Finally finishing with a morning ski on the eighth day, we returned to Santiago for a final evening's dinner with a lot of the people giving testimonial on the past week's highlights and skiing breakthroughs, or as John likes to call them "epiphanies." On Sunday, before flying home, we had a chance to take in some much needed hydration and carbohydrate replacement therapy. I have been skiing with John Clendenin since 2002, attending many of his ski camps and establishing a lasting friendship. Here we are sharing a moment in the South American sun.

Free Avalanche Awareness Class

I got this email from Rich Meyer. He works with both Shasta Mountain Guides and Nastac. Rich guided me on Mt Shasta this last spring. Great guide, and a great guy!

Greetings

The free avalanche awareness slideshow is back again this year.Mark your calendar for Wed evening , Nov. 19th. This show will be very similar to last years show. Lots of good advice and some good raffle booty. Maybe a little more video! Check out the details below.

Cheers,

Rich

FreeAvalanche Awareness Slideshow

Nov. 19 6:30-8:30 pm

AT Clif Bar Headquarters

1609 Fourth Street, Berkeley CA 94710

Warehouse ramp entrance

Rich Meyer, certified avalanche instructor, skiing and climbing guide will be presenting a free avalanche awareness slideshow at Clif Bar on Nov. 19th in Berkeley. Come on out and learn to recognize the hazards of traveling in avalanche terrain. We will cover some of the basics, and give folks the tools to more confidently choose where and when to get out and ski in the backcountry.We will also be hosting a raffle to benefit The Friends of the Mount Shasta Avalanche Center. Participants will have the opportunity to win backcountry gear and help a good cause.

Guide bio for 2008

Rich was hooked on guiding and teaching after completing a fall semester in the Rockies with NOLS in 1992. Since then he has been guiding and instructing in both climbing and skiing in the United States and abroad. His adventures have taken him from trekking in Bhutan, skiing the Haute route in the Alps, to guiding in Ecuador and Alaska. Rich has been a featured skier in the Unparalleled Telemark ski films and has logged numerous ski descents in the lower 48, Alaska, Canada, Argentina, Chile, France, and Switzerland. Rich also guides on Mt. Rainer and Denali, but is most often found in California working for Shasta Mountain Guides, where he guides various routes and ski descents in addition to teaching glacier seminars and avalanche courses. Rich is currently working toward his AMGA certification, and Wyatt’s (his six year old son) reading skills.

Certifications:Leave No Trace, certified trainer

Wilderness First Responder, certified by Wilderness Medicine Institute

American Institute of Avalanche Research and Education, (AIARE) Level I II III

AIARE certified avalanche instructor Level I II

Kickin' it off!

Well we are 2/3 through the fall sale. So much fun! It's like a reunion combined with a busy day at the office. Lot's of "regulars coming by just to say "hi!" combined with lot's of sales. It is always great to see the regulars that are as much friends as customers by now. Some like Joe from Sonoma come from pretty far away just to say hello and check out the shop with little intention of making purchases. Awesome. Others like Cindy and Stefon (Spelled wrong) have decided it's time for killer new gear. Also awesome. David Hudson is always there the Friday before the sale starts bright and early- just to be first. Amazing. John says we are the "skiers barbershop". Pretty close to the truth.

The sale has also gone fantastic from a sales/business point of view. We are WAY above any previous year. Mainly accountable for this is the fact that John talked me into doing advertising beyond our postcard that we send to our customer database. For years, the annual "were back and having a sale" postcard and yellow pages listing were our entire budget. The business has grown every year so I was content with that. Still we have new customers every year that are local skiers and yet did not even know we existed. John argued that we can convert any skier to becoming a regular but they needed to know about us. "Get 'em in the door" he felt, "and we can make 'em ours". Well I cane to agree and did some print ads and an online piece on the chronicles web site. Seems to have worked!

At least as important is the support we get from companies like the Bay Area Ski Bus (BayAreaSkiBus.com). Brian sent an email to his customer base about the sale. That's 12,000 emails! Wow, what a great partnership. You have probably heard me praise his company before and now they are doing week long trips to destinations outside of Califnia as well. Very cool! If you are using the ski bus or want to check it out once, give us a call or drop by and we can give you a code to save $10 on a trip.

Also fantastic is that we have added a few new staff members that are working out great. Gabe is doing the school thing and will be playing a part time/fill in role. He was in shopping last season. We were very busy. Both John and I were dealing with multiple customer at the same time. Gabe started chatting with a customer that was patiently sharing John with a few other boot shoppers. Before we knew it, he sort of jumped right in and sold the customer some boots for us. Not a normal thing for a customer to do. John was monitoring this occurance closely out of the corner of his eye and it was clear that Gabe had some serious bootfitting experience. They chatted afterwards. Yes, he had sold boots and knew his way around the bootfitters bench. He also worked ski patrol at Deer Valley for five years, is very bright, and has an engaging personality. Just my cup of tea. We talked about him putting in some hours this season, traded contact info, and said we would pick up the conversation this fall. I had his info on my desk with the intention of calling him as I checked emails about three weeks ago and the email on top was from him. Oooh- karma at work. Gabe has been working the sale and is everything he seemed to be. Plus he's a bike geek to boot!

Tyko and I met when he was about twelve. His mom Cindy was a regular at my bike shop, and wanted to build him a race bike. She brought in a hand built custom frame that she wasn't using any more with a box of parts. "Can you make a bike out of this" she asked? She left Tyko with me to sort through the parts. Some pieces were missing so Tyko and I got very "creative" in getting the parts necessary. Well, actually we sort of absconded them from an abandoned bike near the shop I had seen slowly being stripped of parts over the past few months. Cindy was not pleased at first, and I think the word "criminal" was even used. She came around however, and Tyko and I sort of bonded that day. Now Tyko is a man and had worked last year at Wilderness Exchange, a local new and used outdoor shop that sells a lot of tele gear. Just back from riding his bike solo around Europe over the summer, he came looking for work. Hired. Tyko will be the "rookie" this year and will work significant hours. An accomplished skier that has been primarily tele skiing the past few years, my goal is to keep his heel down this winter.

I will probably hire one more full timer to take Todd's slot and have a number of quality candidates to interview. I won't say more 'cause I don't want to jinx it, but the staff should round out nicely. As usual it will be a core group complimented by "a cast of thousands". Which seems to just be our shop culture. In any case, it works for me and I am just pumped up to be back at it and giving all of you the best ski shop experience I possibly can. Thanks to those of you that have been patronizing the shop. To the rest of you- come on down!

Boxes and Fires and Powder

Everyday the boxes come. Sometimes a single box the size of a shoebox. Other days we get 60 of 'em, 3 foot square on one truck. Then more trucks come. Some with gloves, some with goggles, some with skis (you can recognize those boxes pretty quick). We are loading up the store with merchandise for the upcoming season. It plays like a movie preview in my mind. This is a preview that better look good. This is what will be playing on my only channel for the next eight months. "Oh yeah" is a common term as we remember the items we ordered when we get a glimpse of the merchandise. Most of it we saw briefly months ago as we made our purchasing decisions. Since then they have become names without faces in our computer and on purchase orders, confirmations, and now packing lists. John, Martin, my daughters and I have been toiling away getting enough boxes to wear out a child on Christmas day.

Not all of us are partaking of the influx management however. Some of us have other things going on. Brian is still based in Oregon fighting wildfires with his hotshot crew. I could barely breath as I read the names of the unfortunate victims of the helicopter crash in which a number of firefighters died. I know he had been working near Chester recently but don't know day to day where he will be working, so I was worried that he may have been involved. I went to the detailed version of the AP report to get the 411. All victims were from Oregon I read...gulp, all were in there 20's and 30's...gulp again. Only a few survivors...names are...deap breath. Brian was not on the list so that's good but it is still such a tradgedy. Brian is to be commended for taking on a job that serves the people but is riddled with danger in so many ways. It will be great to have him back in the bay area when the fire season ends. I would imagine his parents will be happy to have him back at the ski shop too!

Erle is also missing out on the preseason prep but he is doing things a bit less dangerous. I recently got this emsil from him.

Hi Greg,

greetings from Argentina!!! THe snow is incredible - it has snowed everyday we have been here except for yesterday and yeaterday the powder was awesome.Willie says THANKS for the poles!This trip is incredible - you may have to try this next summer!By the way, the Watea 84s are perfect for this.

Best Regards to all.

Erle

I would imagine that Erle is having more fun right now than any of us. He is with his son Willie and his best friend in the Andies skiing great powder. Backcountry skiing in Argentina next summer sounds great. Anyone else up for a little road trip?

End of summer thoughts

I lost a good one this summer. Todd has moved to Maine. His wife Ashly is in the Coast Guard and she has been relocated so off they went. It should be a good move for them. Maine is a slower pace and they were looking for that to settle down and raise their kids. If they love it there, Ashly will not re-enlist and they will stay. Losing one of my employees is always rough. Everyone can be replaced they say, and I guess this is true. But it is never the same. Just as good maybe but never the same. I miss Todd already and his family too. My wife and daughters baby sat for them quite a bit and all three were in tears saying good bye to the Thomas family. Todds presence will be missed around the shop as well. Todd is a great guy and worked into our shop dynamic in a special and unique way. We all wish them the best!

Well, on August 1st my summer officially ends. Shipments start coming, and preperation for the big Fall Parking Lot Sale are in full swing. The store upgrades are just about done. The carpet is in and the entry way has paint drying as I write this. A few more precious days to golf, ride and play and then it all ends. Tonight is a BBQ with sand volleyball. I will appreciate it all the more. Martin is up at Mt. Hood training and racing. The master class kicks off their season pretty darn early and Martin hopes to pick up points so he can go into the winter as the leader in his age group. John and I offered to go up with him and be his personal ski techs. He must have thought we were joking however because he took off on Tuesday without letting us know. Maybe he thinks his skis will be faster if he doesn't let us mess with them!

I got an email from Yelp! last week. This is a site that consumers can go on to rate businesses. I looks like our ratings have been great so they sent me a little packet with some stickers and other promotional dodads. I guess if your average rating is above a certain level, you get this package. I was thrilled to check out the reviews and want anyone that has contributed to them to know that I love ya for it! Thanks! If anyone else cares to add a review I'll love you too!

Sale dates are August 23,24 and August 30, 31 and September 1, 6, 7. Hope to see you there!

Summer Time and the living is easy

Skis lean against a cabin with no snow. It can be done. Skiing is still out there. I'm not. Too much effort. Neil has been going to Mt. Hood. Brian is already up there- fighting fires. Except that as of the 15th there had been no action in the fire business so he was splitting his time between skiing and Mountain Biking.

John is in Hawaii (not skiing). Me? Tentative plans to hit Hood late July but so far nothing epic as far as skiing is concerned. I have graduated a daughter from high school (Rebecca-above). You may know her from the store. We then spent a few days in Chico for her freshman orientation (the best part was shad fishing the Sacramento river- we killed it!). Graduation week means Friends, family, parties. My dad was out from Colorado for a week or so. Graduation means good times! This took us through the middle of June.

Now I have ramped up the golf and bike outings and have been working at the shop about 15 hours a week. I'm chipping away at computer input for next years items and reviewing all the order confirmations for next years merchandise. Lot's of mistakes are found in this process. It's pretty much a dead heat in the competition for most mistakes, but I think I am slightly ahead of the sales reps at this point. Customer appointments and random drop ins have kept the cash flow pretty solid too. Lot's of insoles for things other than skiing. Plenty of golf shoe inserts. Next Wednesday I'm doing some for a pair of hockey skates. Some tune type labor and hardgood and soft goods odds and ends for the group that is still backcountry skiing too. A duke binding one day. A pair of socks "with good shin padding please" yesterday. It also always surprises me how many of you see the front door open and just stop by to say "hi!". It always makes my day when this happens...

Now I am turning my attention to the retail space. John and I cleared out the back shop and pressure washed all the mats and cleaned the floor as soon as we got back from Mammoth. Yuck, what a grungy job, but it's done now. Now we are in the sparkle and shine mode. Yesterday a new carpet was put down. Finally some relief for aching retail legs- we now have a pad under the rug! We had to clear the floor and the walls up to 5 feet install it. Now we will procede to finish clearing the walls and scrub, dust, scour, and polish it all back into a sparkly winter wonderland. After that we will re-do all the merchandising. Both daughters will be involved with this process. Neither would be interested at all except that gas is now bleeding them dry and they need extra income. I'll be glad to have the company. Once we get it cleaned up John will be back from Hawaii to help set up the sales floor with the girls. I will migrate back upstairs to work on next years signage and finish all the purchase orders by August 1st.

It has to be ready by then because after that it all starts to happen pretty fast. All the product for the year comes in the next two weeks. I call this the "Every day is Christmas" phase of my job. So there it is. Biding our time, prepping the space and waiting around for Christmas!

A Brief Spring Fling

Well, we have another Mammoth trip under our belts now. Good times! Six days of skiing consecutively- awesome! I had a really good time both on and off the slopes. A bit different than the last few years, we actually got normal spring conditions. It turned out to be that week in the Bay area when San Francisco hit record temperatures over 100 degrees. It was much better to be in Mammoth where it was only 80 degrees. Super soft snow. I sunburned my knees between my boots and my shorts. We would ski from 7:30 (more like 8:30) until 1:00 (more like noon). Then a quick tasty lunch and a beer on the deck of the lodge and back to the homestead for some hot tub action or a sauna perhaps. Maybe take in a museum in the afternoon or a hike or a bit of fishing. It was a very relaxing way to wrap up the retail year.

Interesting going's on at Mammoth centered around the US Ski team being there at the same time as us. Mens and Womens A,B, and C teams all seemed to be there. It was cool to watch them running the courses. Better still for me was hanging around with the tech's that support the skiiers. As we know many of the techs we got to check out the rooms they employ all the new tricks and tweaks they are using to help people ski really fast. Very cool stuff if you are an equipment geek. The downside is that John has another list of "must have" boot fitting tools that will be very cool to check out and will then maybe get used occassionally on customers boots. Worth the purchase every time! ;)

So now we are back and doing the summer thing. John, Todd, Erle and I golfed last Friday together. I shot a 92. Not bad for me right now. Erle shot an 82- nice! I am riding with Becky tomorrow. She wants to see some more East Bay mountain bike trails so I am happy to help out. John and I have been spending some time at the shop as well. A fair number of you have asked for appointments to shop for boots or skis plus we need to take care of the yearly maintenence stuff around the store.

So now it is graduation for my daughter Rebecca and all the hoopla that will surround this big event. Then...who knows. I have a list of things I would like to do. We shall see how many items I get to cross off over the next few months. I wil keep you up on my progress!

Thanks for a Great Season!

Yesterday was the last day of regular store hours for the 07/08 season. It was another great year for us and we hope you had fun too! Of coarse today what did John and I do? We met down at the shop and waxed, buffed, and polished about ten pairs of skis. This time it was not for any customers but in preparation for the staff trip to Mammoth. Brian cannot make it as he was called upon to fight forest fires in Oregon, and Mitsi has Nursing school obligations. The rest of the crew will make it for all or part of the trip. In addition many previous years employees will show up. A few Reps as well. Somewhere around 15-20 people all together. Super Fun!

After that it is back to work for a few weeks and then a few months of time off. We will be available for appointments and will do a fair bit of custom bootfitting if things are like the last few summers. Other than that I will update the blog from time to time with tales of golf, bicycle tours, staff mountain bike/camping trips and the like. Then, just like that, it will be time once again to prepare for the now season and the big Fall Parking Lot Sale to kick off another year. And guess what...it will be our 20th year! Wow, I guess I have to start thinking about something special for our two score aniversary. Got any ideas? Drop me a line!

Climbing up a big mountain without a lift

I like big lifts. That's one thing I learned this last week. I like Mt. Shasta. That's something I already knew. Right now there are no big lifts open on Mt. Shasta so what's a boy to do if he still wants to ski? The answer for many is to ski up and then ski back down. I had never tried this Backcountry skiing business, but I had some thoughts about it. I figured that it is sort of a "pay to play" plan. Work a bit more for your vertical but basically the same sport. Brian is a backcountry skier in addition to his alpine skills. He has been trying to entice me into giving it a try. Last week it all came together. Time to pay for a little play!

Brian, his father Pedro, Rich Meyer of Shasta Mountain Guides (https://shast7.sslcert19.com/node/60) and myself all met Thursday morning to do some skiing on the really big hill. Between Brian and Rich, I was set up with skis that had Randonne bindings and skins to allow me to walk uphill and then convert them back to Alpine style and ski down. My pack had an avalanche beacon and a probe as well. Some food, a variety of clothing layers, water, eye protection and the like were brought along by all. We started up at about 8am.

There had been a welcome snowfall of about a foot Wednesday and so we would be skiing fresh

powder. Excellent! Only a few cars were in the Bunny Flat parking area. With the fresh powder everyone on the mountain knew where everyone else was going by simply following their trails going up. Rich chose to deviate from the main trail towards Helen Lake and get fresh tracks on a few bowls called Powder Bowl and Sun bowl. Off we went.

I have seen people using randonee gear many times and it looked pretty easy. In the end it was more challenging than I expected. I felt very clumsy at first and medium clumsy even after a day of practice. I went through overheating at times, being chilly at others. I got a bit altitude sick. I pushed myself to exhaustion climbing in the the thin air. In the steeper sections it became 20 yards and stop to breath, then 20 more yards and stop to breath. After about 5 hours we had achieved our first goal. We were now overlooking Sun Bowl so we took a break for some food. After lunch the others climbed more to do Powder Bowl. Me? I took a nap. We met back up in about an hour and began our decent back to the car.

How glorious it was! Fresh tracks the whole way. A nice bowl shot followed by easy skiing through trees and meadows. Unfortunately our trail ran back to the parking lot in what seemed like just a few minutes. I was just getting warmed up and the skiing was over! We milled around for a bit by the cars and got to look back up and see our tracks in the bowls. Pedro even thought to bring binoculars so we could really get a good view. Pretty cool to see your ski tracks from this perspective. After a burger in town we headed back south towards Berkeley.

At the end of the day I reflected upon our adventure and decided that while it was fun, it was a lot of effort for the return you got. Five hours of climbing to get one ski run seemed like too steep a price to pay. I wasn't sure if I would want to go again or not.

Over the next few days however, my perspective changed. I didn't think as much about the short decent but about the bigger picture. The climb as a separate component for instance. The climb was hard for any fitness level. My fitness level made it brutal. Like any other endurance sport, hard work and practice would ease this part of the day. If I could climb with less fatigue, I could get higher up the mountain in the same time frame. If I could get higher up, I could ski farther on the way down. There were lots of great lines to ski on the mountain visible from Bunny Flat, and certainly many more from other access areas. Picking them off one at a time would be fun. Lighter gear would help too. I both dreamed and daydreamed over the next few days about doing the trip again. The dreams were not about the decent but of the climb. Pushing myself and enjoying the outdoors are both a big part of my life and this was actually an awesome combination of the two. I even found myself considering staying up at Shasta for a week or two and doing multiple acents to see how far up I could go in one day after acclimating to the altitude. I thought of one day seeing my own ski tracks from the very top in the binoculars. I was getting hooked,

I like big lifts, but I enjoy backcountry skiing as well. I think in the end I will go back to Shasta. Maybe this year, maybe not, but I will be back. Next time I will go higher than sun bowl.

Special thank's to Rich Meyer for his time and expertise. Rich is a great guy in addition to being a hard core backcountry guide. Rich works for NASTC (http://www.skinastc.com/) as their backcountry expert in addition to his Shasta gig (which has taken him to the summit over 80 times). He has also worked in Alaska and South America. If you are interested in doing a trip you can email Rich at richmeyer555@hotmail.com.

Skiing with a Hart on...

Sorry for the off color title today. Couldn't resist. Wednesday Brian and I skied Sugar Bowl. The goal of the day was to take a good look at Hart skis hence the bad title pun. Hart skis you ask? Yes, Hart skis. Started in 1943 by Hartvig “Hart” Holmberg in Minnesota. Hart had been a force in the US ski industry and peaked in the freestyle ski era of the late 70's and early 80's.. In particular you may remember the Javelin model or images of Billy Kidd or Susie Chaffee (if you are old enough) on Hart skis. The companies ownership changed hands at some point however and US distribution subsided or went away completely for some years. Until now. The next chapter of the Hart story puts ownership in the hands of the grandson of Hart Holmberg and the headquarters are back in the USA. Current production is in Italy and all the skis are hand made and hand finished. Plans are on the table to move production back to the US in Minden Nevada (just over the hill from Heavenly Valley). Interesting. Another Stockli perhaps? A US built Stockli in a few years? We went to Sugar Bowl to find out!

We met Eric, the local Hart rep at 10:00. Erik is a good guy. We enjoyed our time with him. Nice guy and fun to ski with. He has come on board as the West Coast representitive and has only been at it for a few months. Eric doesn't have all the answers yet but he was honest when he wasn't sure of things. Eric had four skis for us to try. A 63 waisted model called the Attack, a 67 waisted Phoenix, an 86 waisted Fuelie Scarab and a 91 waisted Fuelie Boss. These were 07/08 models and there would be changes for next year including a change to bamboo for the cores. Prices would go down a bit from this year but we are still talking about $1000 skis. Expensive but worth it? Click in to the Markers and let's go see! I am not going to do a full review here but overall the skis were good. Not mind blowing, but good. We had taken a Palmer, a Fischer race ski, a Stockli Stormrider XL and a Head iM78 to use as comparison skis. The Head and the Stockli stayed in the car as there was no competing Harts available. The Fischer and certainly the Palmer were more exciting than the Harts overall. I would rate the Harts a shade below excellent. The jury is still out however. There were some questions about the tune and set up of the Harts that I would like to check into more. There are also a few models that were not there to ski that we will pick up and take to Mammoth. I also see the line changing and evolving over the next few years- particularly if they make the move to Nevada. I like the idea of precision skis with a traditional bent being made in the US. There are currently a number of new US makers that all seem to have a "big mountain" only mentality. Hart does race, freestyle, and all mountain models. I am not ready to load up the ski wall with Hart models just yet but I would love to be on board from the beginning if Hart can achieve it's goals over the next decade. Mammoth will tell all. At the price point we need to find a ski that can compete at the Stockli level of excellence to be able to sell them effectively. It will be fun to find out!

For more information on Hart, you can visit their website at: http://www.hartskis.com/home.php

Final Exams are like Clearance Sales?

We have a closing date now. May 11 will be the last regular retail day of the year. The days at work are different now. The end of the road is in sight and there is a tendency to just relax and wait. "Dudeman" has it about right in the photo to the left. Customer pressure is low so there is plenty of time to do nothing if that is ones choice. Instead of doing nothing we should be staying hard at it so that we have less to do in late May after we are technically closed. To keep motivated we are running an advertised sale from the 25th till the last day. This means pricing all the inventory, creating sale tags and doing all the merchandising. It is also a good excuse to schedule everybody for the weekend of the 25th and 26th and have an end of the year dinner the evening of the 25th. It should be fun. I expect to sell a lot of gear and the prices really are going to be down and dirty so the customers will be excited too!

In the meantime in addition to sale preparations, we continue to do inventory counts and the shop is starting to do the yearly maintenance on the rental fleet. Martin added some machinery that speeds up the waxing process for rentals and it maintains a bath of melted wax which makes the shop smell good! End of season tune ups are the main labor request at this point, but many are still at it and coming in for spring snow wax jobs. Todd's last official day was Saturday. His wife Ashley is doing job training on the East Coast for a few weeks so he is Mr. Mom until she is back. So it's mainly John, Martin and myself holding down the fort and everyone else has lost their work hours until the sale starts. Brian still comes by most days to work on his "frankenboot" project, and Christian, JJ, and others come by just to hang out for a bit. All in all it's kinda like the end of senior year of High School. It will all be over soon, there is not a lot of pressure to work too hard, final exams (or clearance sales) are upcoming but overall the hard work is done and we are just enjoying our final days together before we do what we do in the summer.

Torn between two lovers

Well the weather has been really nice for the last month or so. Nice if you don't like new snow that is! Nice if you don't care about selling ski gear that is! Nice if you want to go bike riding or golfing that is! Oh well, I guess that's why I have been doing a bit of bike riding and golfing. I wish I was writing about an epic powder day but I am not. The season is grinding to a sunscreen protected twilight that will probably end in Tahoe at the end of April if nothing changes. Even if we get a get a big storm, not that many people will head up to ski as I think many people have mentally converted to a spring/summer mindset. Tahoe residents wake up every day to snowpack all around them. They are still in winter mode. Down here we wake up to sunshine and mild temperatures. Lot's of customers ask "if there is any snow left" at Lake Tahoe? Out of sight, out of mind. Yesterday I did a summer storage wax for a customer. It was the first one this year but they will be coming in regularly at this point. We have great prices and have brought in a bunch of closeout skis and boots but sales are a bit slower now and after the spring break rental returns, the rental department will be pretty lonely. I figure there is at least a month more business and 6-8 more ski days for me. Since we have a bit more free time we will use it wisely to do a full inventory count one category at a time. Then we will shift into spring cleaning and summer project mode. I am guessing that we will see Tahoe resorts close down at the end of the month for the most part. We may even be skiing at Mammoth for our final romp in early May. I hope not but that may be the case. It is strange to have an event like the staff Mammoth trip hanging out there. It is super fun so I kind of want it to be soon but as a business owner, I want it to be in June instead of May. Torn between two lovers? Wow, that was corny- on that note I'm off to the "office"...

About Peter Keelty

Peter Keelty is a skier that all skiers should love. He is fun to ski with for any style or level of skier. He is fun to just hang out with in general. An interesting and knowledgeable guide to ski with at Alta, Deer Valley, Snowbird or other Utah ski venues. With about 100 extra pounds he would look a lot like Santa Claus- and he has a matching "ho Ho Ho' type laugh to go along with the image. Mostly we should all love him because of all he has done for the sport that we love.

Peter has been a director of instructors, rental department setup guy, an industry sales rep and a host of other titles at snowy places all around the country. All the usual mountain jobs. Peter has also been a reviewer and writer for many important ski publications, and high level skier and instructor. He has designed or contributed to the development of products that many of you are currently using. Peter has for some time now been working with Harold Harb and John Clendenin on a variety of collaborative projects. Both are highly regarded ski industry icons. (see http://www.expertskier.com/members/index.html) . Together these folks have created a complete methodology for teaching and learning the art of skiing.

As a writer, Peter has now moved from magazines and newsletters to the world of the internet. Peter builds websites for CalSkiCo and many other ski industry folks. His own www.Realskiers.com site has (what I consider to be) the best ski reviews available anywhere. Done on a much larger scale than the standard magazine format, this is the only source of reviews that I really find to be accurate across the board. In addition, there are boot reviews, instructional information and links, a number of good articles on various and pertinent ski topics, and a members forum. Anyone looking to buy a ski really needs to use this resource. Check it out. It is on my short list of favorite places. I simply love good ski reviews!

Anyway, that's my unsolicited endorsement for Peter Keelty. Thanks for showing us around Utah. Also my personal thanks for about 40 years of contributions to our sport. Hope to see you in Mammoth this spring.

Happy people in Utah

As you can see from the photo, Rebecca was pretty happy to be sking in Utah. We all were. We were able to ski with Peter Keelty of www.realskiers.com fame on Monday and Tuesday and that was great. Peter combined a passholders tour of the resort with some great instruction each day. Monday at Deer Vallay was great with 6 of us. Tuesday at Alta with 7 in the group was great too. Wednsday we made a great decision and went back to Alta with a smaller group of 4. Todds dad's rental boots were fine so that was great. We were sking the greatest snow on earth and that was great. Both resorts we went to had no snowboarders and that is great. Todd picked all the resteraunts which were all great. I saw really great moguls for the first time in a while. We were all on gear that we think is great. The greatest thing however is being able to share these great things with people you enjoy spending time with and enjoying the experience together. SOOO glad I was able to take my daughters. They are simply the funniest and most fun girls on the planet. Throw Todd into the same room and I feel like I am watching a sitcom. Great times!

The buying part is over

The Reno trade show has come and gone. I am now home contemplating various decisions that I made and packing to go to Utah on Sunday. I brought home some fresh new Head Mojo 94's to mount up and take on the trip, so that's exciting! Negotiations in Reno went well. A few new faces on our sticks will include a Palmer model (won't sell many but it is just SO awesome!), two models of Line skis, Full Tilt boots, POC helmets, and some new clothing lines. John and I had a great time amoung all the candy and brought home some Fischer race skis, the Mojo's, a pair of boots, a POC helmet and various other items. Leaving the building with all our loot we took some ribbing from various sales reps about having to pack up more goodies than them! The trip was mostly business but as is my way I always try to have a bit of fun as well. Tuesday night we went to a WWSRA sponsored party for cocktail and dinner with Brad our Stockli rep. There we closed the place down with "Alvie" from Rossignol, Neil from Sun Valley Ski tools, and Steve Baugh of Scott (as well as the namesake of "Baugh's bowl" in Grand Targhee). At the end the group of us was standing around one of the tables after everyone else had left. When the hotel staff cleared out the mess and eventually took away the kegs we all moved on to the Brews brothers bar. There we continued our Merriment and about 11:30 added Tequila to the group fun. Somewhere along the way I literally bumped into Doug Yeggy. He is one of my closest friends and lives in Chico. Doug was more than happy to join the fun. After a number of rounds of shots we headed up to John and my room for a final session of war stories. At about 2:15 the final hangers on gave in. All except Alvie. He went to have breakfast before bed. What a great group of people there are in the ski industry! A special thanks to Alvie for taking so much abuse about all things French the entire evening. All in good fun of coarse! Tuesday night was all work as John helped me make the tough decisions. A few tweaks will be made over the next month or so, but I now have a picture of the product mix for next year and it will be stronger than ever before. Now there are o few days of work at the shop and then Todd, his father, myself and both my daughters will be ripping up the slopes of the state with the greatest snow on Earth! Hopefully I will get in a few turns with Peter Keelty from Realskiers.com and Tony Hedgecock who is the Western sales manager of Head. Appropriately we will be skiing a Head Mojo 94 (me), a Head iM88 (Todd), a Head iM78 (Todds dad), a Head Wild Thang (daughter Rebecca), and a Fischer Vision Vapor (daughter Jennifer). At least Tony will know that we are comitted to his brand! I'll let you know how it went when I get back.

Time to buy!

So in this wacked out industry it's time to buy for next year. I leave for Reno for three days tomorrow and by the end I will have turned in my orders for next years inventory. Yes, a month ago I first saw it, a few weeks ago I tried the skis, and tomorrow I go to place my orders for next year. I think it is appropriate that the show is in Reno since I will basically be rolling the dice. Two big question marks: 1)It has been sunny and warm for a few weeks now. Will winter return with a vengence and clean out lot's of inventory, or will March be warm and sunny and pretty much end the sales season? and 2) How will the economy/weather treat me next year? On both points you can guess what I would like to have happen. The real question is "do I feel lucky"? If I go conservative on the buy I am safe but risk losing sales because I will run out of inventory items. If I go for it and commit to more product I can reap the benefits of a huge year (That's exactly what happened this year) but I could also end the year with too much carry over and no cash. That means boiled potatoes all next summer instead of steak (or at least hamburger)! A few years of bad choices in a row and I could be the next independant retailer to disapear. That would suck for me and I believe for you and indeed for all of America too. Therefore, if you have any inside information regarding the rest of this season or next years weather, please let me know. Untill I hear from you I will simply be driving up the hill, putting down my money, and hoping for a blackjack. Wish me luck!

Post Demo days thoughts

Well I had four days last week to decide what is what with next years skis. I didn't get to ski everything I would have liked to, but I got to ski a lot of skis! We covered all our current brands models as well as heavy time on Blizzard, and some models from Scott, Movement, Amplid, Hart, Rossi, K2, Salomon, Atomic, Line and others. What a great event and a super fun experience. Thanks to Will Lachenaur and the rest of the WWSRA delegates as well as the WWSRA employees for putting it on.

What I cannot figure out is why more dealers don't show up. It is amazing to me that dealers order skis without skiing them! The sales reps do all they can to make these events fun and easy but still the turnout is probably less than half what it should be. Why anyone would skip a few days of skiing on the products you will be selling next year, going to free parties with all the food and beer you want, a chance to talk shop with your peers, and then ski with Ingrid Backstrom, Jessica Sobolowski, and other "celebrity" skiers is beyond me. It's one of those things that make you go hmmmm...

Anyway, we skied lot's. About ten testers from Calskico filled out test cards for everything they skied. The test cards will be put into an excel spreadsheet for my use (thanks David B) and then sent off to Realskiers.com for inclusion in their ski test database. I think we covered about a hundred skis. Most models have multiple cards. Brian at Mammoth and Christian at Kirkwood share my boot legnth, so that is who I typically skied with. That way we could do a few runs and then trade skis without readjusting the bindings. At Mammoth we skied in packs of 4-6 so we could really get a lot of testing done. At Kirkwood we broke off more into ski catagories and did personal comparisons. Christian and I took Ladies skis and 95-100mm waist models.

Highlights of the Demo:

Stockli XXL, Palmer carving ski, Head iM78 chip, Fisher Watea line, Fischer Vision lineup, Elan 777, the Basque Dinner with the Fischer Crew in Garnerville NV, Showing the local hotshots how to play foosball with my Dalbello/Elan rep Will Lachenauer at the watchtower bar, Amplid C7 carving ski, the new Scot Schmidt model from Stockli (Please don't soften the tip if you are listening Scot).

It was nice to talk with and ski with other dealers as well. I don't think it is a coincidence that I did see Jim from The Starthaus, Christian Denis from Elite Feet, the Footloose gang and other representation from what I consider to be the better shops. Christian and I always seem to find we have similar viewpoints on matters having to do with sliding down hills on sticks. I only wish I could ski like him! It must suck to be on the slope at squaw a few hours every day!

Special thanks to Robin Barnes from Heavenly, Blake Yeamans and Guy for their input on the test.

Overall I was VERY pleased with our lines for next season. I'll post our test results when they are compiled.

Days of Bliss

Tomorrow after work I head out for four days of bliss. It's demo time! Two days at Mammoth followed by two days at Kirkwood skiing all next years gear. This year the Ski Rep association has decided to do seperate Norcal and Socal events so if you go to both you get four days to ski the new models. This is great news as we need to check things out as thouroughly as possible. Brian, Todd, Becky and myself will do Mammoth. Becky stays on and Christian, Heather and others will make it to Kirkwood for the second session. Whoo Hoo!! Looking forward to trying all our current lines plus Hart, Palmer, Line, 4Front and a variety of "possibles". Also looking at the competition. The Rossi's look interesting and we always have to check out the Chinese skis (K2) as that is what we will be selling against in our area. Wish me luck in finding magic for our customers!

Trying to test some skis

Wednesday was great. I Skied the Stockli Scot Schmidt vs. the Scott Mission vs. the Head iM 88 in the morning. The Schmidt is magical. Afternoon was the Head iM78 vs. the Fisxher Race SC. Since the Race SC is my personal ski I really enjoyed a half day on them. We had a great time skiing everything thet Sugar Bowl had to offer. Brian joined NASTC for the secong half of the day for some backcountry training, He was impressed with the instruction and went back Thursday for more fun with NASTC including drop runs down to Donner Lake. All in all it was SUPER FUN! Next week, however, the testing becomes serious. Next week we test the 2008/09 crop of skis and have to make some serious decisions. Testing is split between Nortern and Southern California this year. Southern is in Mammoth followed by Northern at Kirkwood. I will do both. Monday through Thursday next week will be the time to make decisions that will dictate next years ski wall- and with it my economic future. No stress... yeah right! Brian, Becky and myself will go to Mammoth. Christian. Heather, Becky, Todd and others will join us at Kirkwood. John is out of the loop with a bad knee. Otherwise almost everyone will have some input. In addition, our regimin for testing will change a bit as we will be filling out cards for the Realskiers.com reviews. Peter has a slightly different testing scorecard setup, but we should easily assimilate. A few weeks after the Demo I go to Reno and put in the orders for skis. The skis show up in August and we have our big kick-off sale. Then we see what skis sell well throughout the season. That is our business cycle, and the next week will point me towards decisicons that will have a big impact on my life. In the end all I know how to do it is to ski the skis, choose what will work best in the various catagories, and buy them. Wish me luck!

Las Vegas Report

Vegas was a gas as usual. I managed to stay out of trouble for the most part, and got some work done. First impressions are this: Head- New ski to replace the Mojo 90 looks great, overall graphics were solid, a new "chip" iM78 should be spectacular, boots look solid. A monter in the 100mm range will battle with the Mojo 103 for floor space. A bit spendy like the 103, I may not stock both. There's gonna have to be a ski off! Tyrolia bindings will see some changes due to FIS height requirements. Many models lose the snti-blocking anti friction devise as well as the diagonal heel. Bummer!! The LD-12 gets to keep all the good stuff as do all the railflex models. Maybe the most interesting thing at the Head booth were the Palmer skis. I need to ski them and do some more research (the Palmer website comes up as soon as this blog entry is done). So far they look more than interesting- more like they are kind of mind blowing! Peter Keelty of Realskiers.com has spoken very highly of them and I attempted (without success) to ski them last year. Now they are being distributed by Head, so it should be easy for me to get on them. Maybe this next week? Fischer- Watea gets only graphic changes (can't fault them here!), Womens skis are solid with nice minor upgrades. Still missing a big wide ladies power ski, but the ladies stuff they have is really good. They showed a FIS race ski that has been the talk of the World Cup circuit. It has holes in the tip and a "swallowtail" in the rear. Everything else in Fischer skis looks great too. In addition to the skis, the boot line continues to evolve and improve. We sell more Fischer boots every year. Even the bags were really nice. They are made by High Sierra for Fischer this next year. Volkl- Tigersharks are gone (I never liked 'em much anyway). The new "switch" ski is called the Grizzley. It looks awesome and is pretty awesomely expensive too. It will be interesting to see how well it skis. As a replacement for the AC40, the AC50 with a system Duke binding should be phenomonal. A womens Gotama, a rocker ski, and some additions to the Duke/Jester royal family rounded it out. Boots have been pretty well overhauled. Good graphics, very cool carbon buckles, need to get a few on some more feet. Just too little time at the Volkl booth. My hour was inturrupted by an award ceremony as Volkl was given props for their contibution to the US ski teams efforts. Elan/Dalbello- Refinement on the ski side. A few tweaks in the Magfire series. 999 and 888 are joined by a really nice looking 777. A killer womens fat ski, an Ingimar Stenmark model carver, and a new big mountain "twin tip" series were all nice additions. Dalbello has (of coarse) kept pushing the Krypton thang with hot new graphics and some minor tweaks (primarily materials based). A new model replaces the Z series and incorporates come 3 piece cabriolet (krypton)style design features. I like it! Stockli- A $3500 very limited edition ski was the showpiece. Let me know if you want to special order one! What I wanted to see however, was the new Scot Schmidt model. And there it was. Scot was there and I asked him how he felt about the final result. "Don't know" he said, "haven't skied it!" It turns out that there are currently 4 in existence. All four were there and Scot was taking one home to mount and test. We flexed it some and surmised that it felt pretty much like the current model (but with the new dimensions). He was thinking the tip may need to be softened up a bit more. Even legends get older I guess! Scot was also hopeful that Greg Stump will complete his history of ski movies to release in the fall. It sounds like a documentary type approach. Interesting. Anyway, I'm getting off track here. Stockli skis. New Cross series skis. All the big shirt skis (Stormrider xl, xxl, xxxl) get to keep running. New DP Pro. Rotors stay. Rotor 78 and the XXL were the best sellers nationally this year and it is no surprise. They appeal to a very large segment of the ski population. Salomon has an interesting boot. It is a falcon with sections of the forefoot that can be heated and molded to the foot of the skier. Their skis look to be continue to improve as well. Alpina is typically a source for great kids boots. Each year I have to view the whole line to then order only junior boot models. This year out of the blue they are doing a foam injection model at around $400. Wow! This could be a great boot for a lot of people. I now have a pair in my size on the way and will foam 'em up and ski them ASAP. Hart skis are back and looking seriously good and hand made. I will be looking at them over the next few weeks also. Scott's mission ski is still on the radar. I viewed Rossignol and was impressed. Totally revamped line from France with great graphics on the "7 deadly sins" collection. Replacement for the Bandit series looks similar to the B2, 3, 4, but after 10 years the Bandit name is gone. Rossi looks good. I like the rep too. Turns out we went to rival high schools. Did the full tilt and line tour and will be doing Full Tilt adeeper next year. Line skis look pretty good and are quite reasonably priced. Gotta ski 'em. 4Front has great art and a cool vibe but has moved the company from Tahoe and production from the US, so I am less interested than before. There's more (lot's more) but that is the thumbnail of what I cared about going into next ski season!

Las Vegas in Winter

I am a snow farmer and it's harvest time! Things are hectic here at the shop every day at this point. I did two Intuition liner installs, made a few insoles, did about 2 hours of paid boot labor and did the foam injection on a Strolz boot in addition to my general sales duties today. It took me about an hour just to clean up the debris I left at the end of the day. Tunes, boot work, rentals, everything is just going off! With the great snowfall that just keeps coming, business has been booming. Everyone has been putting in extra hours and getting it done, but we all need a bit of a break at some point. Therefore I let Brian take off for Jackson hole for a few days (he skied with Charlotte Moats all day yeasterday- very cool!). John has taken a week and is at Big White. Me? Just getting in my Wednesdays up the hill which I must admit have been epic. Unfortunately, this last Wednesday ended a bit early as my ski buddy (and friend of the shop) Neil broke his collar bone into four pieces. Becky, myself, Neil and Will Lachenauer (Dalbello/Elan rep) met up at Squaw to take in some extraordinary powder. We were haveing a great time romping aroung in the powder but Neils ski day ended at about 2 o'clock. Bummer. Next week I won't get to ski as I will be in Las Vegas. Yes Las Vegas. That's where the ski industry holds their annual trade show. Right in the heart of the season we spend four days in Vegas checking out next years gear. Sort of surreal but very cool and exciting. I am pumped up as usual to see the new stuff. Will brought a few new Elans to Squaw this week, and I have seen some of the new Fischers, but this is the kid in the candy store scenario for me. I'll let you know what looks great in about a week!

Massive Snow!

Todd came to work and proclaimed that the worst storm to hit the area in decades was going to occur. Of coarse we didn't pay it much mind. Todd has a tendency to find web sites that are as optimistic as he is. Lo and behold he was right! As last weekend approached the radio and TV news was all about the big storm. And it was a doozie. Super high winds and tons of snow. Kirkwood got 11 feet over a few days. The north shore got a bit less but still a great dump. Most renters cancelled as they were afraid to travel (probably wise). Most hard core skiers practiced their raspy "flu like" voices in preparation of calling in sick on Monday when it cleared. Christian and Heather headed up Friday morning and holed up in their condo while the resort was on storm/wind hold. Then it ended and Christian and Heather headed up onto Kirkwoods newly deep powder runs. The roads were all closed so they shared the mountain with the 300 or so other people lucky (or smart) enough to be snowed in with them for the day. It was so incredible that they took videos because they didn't think we would believe how great it was. We watched the clips on Monday. Quite the videos!

Tuesday was a work day in Sacramento for the clothing preview of next years styles. As I sat during the Obermeyer presentation I found myself lacking the ability to pay attention. I kept staring out the window at the downpour that was adding another two feet of fresh pow. Wednesday I would ski! At 4:30 Wednesday morning we headed out. Four of us with powder on our minds. Again Kirkwood got the best dump so it was up hiway 88 to the Wood. Glory, Glory, Glory! Fresh powder all day and great company to share it with. Rocked the Fischer Porohete's all day. Great ski! Overall, an epic day to be remembered. Wish you all could have been there...