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!