We should be having fun now!

We should be having fun right about now up in the Sierra.



But we aren't unless we are up high or at a few select resorts.
Many of the Sierra resorts have closed and a few more probably should. Carson Pass is said to have a few pockets of good snow but not much is good in the back country either it seems.

There are a few exceptions that we keep hearing about:
Mt. Rose is way up high and still skiing well this spring.
Mt. Batchelor has had it's own weather system all year and is holding snow well into the spring.
Alta has considerably more snow than any of the other Salt Lake resorts and is good to go for spring skiing.
Brians Head in Southern Utah is having a better than average year.
When on the phone to Fischer skis back in New Hampshire I actually heard "I am so sick of winter! It's snowing again today!" To which I replied that I was going to golf tomorrow. I'm not really going to golf but I knew that would make him jealous. It was all I had in response to the snowpack in New England.

So it is not dry everywhere at least.

So will you find the time and make one last trip?

It is not seeming that anyone is still enthused here at the shop...

We are having what may be the biggest markdown sale in the history of the business and we only had a few sales today. We spent all day ordering shop supplies for summer maintenance and to be ready for next year.

Which we better start preparing for now because the forecasts are coming in!

Here are two:

ECMWF:  December looks wet, and we all will certainly be crossing our fingers that this verifies. California is in the midst of a truly devastating and historic drought. January and February looks warm. February could be wetter than average for northern California.

Farmers Almanac:  a warmer than average winter, although not by too much. January is slightly on the wet side. 

Fingers crossed! I may try to ski one more time. Then I golf, cycle, fish, etc.

If you are not busy and want to save some serious money come on by before April 12th. All skis are 40-60% off. Everything else is cheap too. We would be happy to see you!

Travelling to snow on the cheap

We have been selling a lot of bags lately. It seems that the customers are willing to travel to find good snow. And traveling to Tahoe has not gotten the job done lately. So our customers are flying all over. Employees too. John just spent 5 days at Jackson Hole and Erik was at Copper Mountain in Colorado this week. 

Basically people want to follow the snow. So how much would it cost to go out of state to ski?

I thought I would do some research...

Where is the snow? Utah has some good snow, and I have gone there enough to know it is pretty cheap and easy.

I like to ski at both Deer valley and Squaw Valley. Both are great. Utah is more exotic and Deer Valley has won the award as best resort in North America 3 of the last 5 years in Ski Magazine. Plus Utah has had better snow this year. Actually it almost always has better snow- it is right on the License plates- they say "greatest snow on earth"!

So exactly how much more would it cost to go to ski Deer Valley for a day? I Picked March 18th as a good day because I have that day off and I looked it up. 

Deer Valley

Transportation:

Southwest Airlines leaves Oakland at 6am on 3/18/15 and arrives at 8:45 for just $49

Southwest leaves for home at 8:10pm so I can have dinner before I leave. It arrives at 9:05 for $59

All Resorts Express charges $90 round trip to take you to the resort of your choice.

Lift ticket is Free with a boarding pass from the same day through SkiUtah.com or go to

Total ski cost $0

Total transportation cost $198

Total cost is $198

Squaw Valley

Transportation:

Leave at  6am and it is a three hour drive covering 183 miles each way.

Eat Dinner and leave Squaw at 6:00pm and you are home at 9:00pm.

 At 20 miles per gallon it is 18.3 gallons of gas. Assuming $3 per gallon that runs $54.90 for fuel

(Using Federal Guidelines of .575 per mile reimbursement cost it is $210.45)

Lift Ticket bought with at least a two day advance is $95 ($24 savings from "at the window")

Total cost is $149.90 with just gas at $3 per gallon)

So you can see it is not that much more to go skiing in Utah.

And you leave and arrive home at about the same time depending upon where you live.

I looked up Lodging and the Yarrow hotel is $139 in Park City Utah. Squaw Valley lodge starts at $159

So a second day is not too much more either!

Something to think about... and if you have other travel tips or ideas let us know so we can pass them on!

Diect link to the free pass at Deer Valley:

http://www.skiutah.com/blog/authors/eric/how-about-a-free-lift-pass-to-park-city-the-canyons-or-deer-valley 

All Resorts Transportation_ http://allresort.com/

Squaw tickets and lodging- http://squawalpine.com/

Jackson has such nice legs!

This last week has been eventful. We were very busy at the shop over the weekend. We have four new hires running around looking confused but interested. We have had multiple product clinics including Dynafit, Fischer, Stockli, Toko...the list goes on.  Then on Monday the shop sent a crew up to Masterfit University boot training in Reno. We do boot training on a regular basis through a variety of different groups that have things they can teach us. This is the one that is the biggest (and the closest) however and I always enjoy it. So this year I went along for the two day class as well.
Three of us were in the "Dark Arts" group which is the most experienced group of fitters. It is always so great to be able to get deep into boot fitting with people that have so much experience. Greg Hoffman, Jack Rafferty, and Jim Schaffner were the instructors for this years session. All three are legends in the world of ski boot fitters and are all very good instructors to boot!

Jackson Hogan's stance is being scrutinized by Greg Hoffman. I think Greg is saying "nice superior extensor retinaculum!" I love this place!

Also in the Dark Arts group were Corty Lawrence, Jackson Hogan, a Canadian or two, some folks from Viking Ski in Chicago (always good boot folks over the years) and a number of other people that I really enjoyed spending time with. It is just not that often that we get to spend time with our peers like this. Most of the time we are working hard to keep your feet happy in our own little world without too much of a chance to come up for air. I always feel very lucky that I get to work with a group of bootfitters as talented as the ones here at the shop. We have gotten to know each other as fitters so well over time, however, that we love to get out and freshen it up with some other boot geeks!
It is also great to be able to talk business with people that I respect very much in the industry. While we are on one level "competitors", we are also all in this together and only wish the best for each other. Also interesting is getting to chat with the many ski shop folks taking the more basic classes from shops all over the place. Sports Basement had some folks there. SSV employees from Any Mountain and Northstar were well represented too. Everyone seemed to be learning a lot, having a great time, and very passionate about selling boots.
There is also a great social vibe and we spent a dinner downtown with Phil Pugliese (Start Haus)and his wife Trish (www.OnTheSnow.com). Trish also works at True North at Northstar and her co-worker came along too. Lots of Chinese food was consumed and a good time was had by all. I went back and turned in early but a few of the younger (or at least feeling younger) boys and girls came back and headed right for the casino floor.
So now it is back to the shop to compare notes from the different classes and breakout sessions. And we will start full time hours this week too. Boreal opened today. It is all happening. I love it. Winter is coming!

Vacuum once a year if you need it or not...

I think I may "vacuum" my boots more than I vacuum at home!
A few years ago, I was lucky enough to be one of the first "civilians" to get a pair of Fischer Vacuum boots made for me. I flew to Salt Lake City and the Fischer Race support guru molded my boots. He had been fitting the revolutionarry new boots to all the Fisacher World Cup race athletes and was excited to fit his first potential dealer.
The process started by heating some boot shells in an oven. Then he put my foot into the liner and laced it up with shoe laces. When the plastic boot was heated up enough, he put my foot in it and put some big bags around the boots. I was placed on a machine that held me in one place. Then the bags were pumped up to a high pressure which pushed the boot against my foot and leg. When the process was over my boots were "molded" to my foot shape! I skied them the next day and was sold on the concept. I knew after 30 yards that they were the best boots I had ever skied. 
That winter we partnered with Fischer as one of a dozen or so shops in the country to carry the new boot the following season. Our initial order was for about 60 pairs. I skied the boot that spring and was overwhelmed with the great fit and performance. Before the shipment date we upped the order to over 250 pairs!
Since then we have made the vacuum process a big part of our program. The vacuum boots have become our best selling models. They also have the lowest percentage of "comebacks" for modifications. This is great for the customers. Everybody prefers to get a pair of boots and just ski them happily from the very first day.
As we have worked with the boots I have been the guinea pig for a variety of upgrades and experimental processes. First I worked with a liner company to develop a warmer liner as the initial models were a bit on the cold side. I remolded my shells a few times to help sort that out. Then I molded them to my Intuition brand liners from my old boots to compare the fit to the newly developed warmer liners. After that I worked with a company that makes a "foam injection" liner and they molded my shells with the injected liners (in Salt Lake City again). That was a wild one- Vacuum bags getting pumped up to pressure while the foam was injected into the liner at the same time! After skiing that liner for the best part of last year I got Fischer to send me a pair of their 2014/15 liners and I remolded the shells again. My plan was to ski this excellent liner for the 14/15 season.
Now we have obtained a new piece of hardware available from Fischer to help mold the boots even more effectively and quickly. We can now control the fit of the front half of the boot separately from the back half.  Guess who got to be the crash test dummy on the new device? Right - ME!
But it is all in good fun, and I need to learn with my staff. Somebody has to to get up there on the machine and give input. So at this point I can probably say I have more experience from the "consumer" side of the process than about anyone. I have had numerous liners and have molded them at a wide variety of pressures and stances. If I do the process just as we have developed our shop protocols, they come out spectacular every time. I simply love these boots!
And for anyone that thinks the vacuum boots don't mold and change A LOT to each customer as needed, check out the photo above. The left boot is mine and the right boot is a stock boot of the same size and model. Apparently I pronate quite a bit and I also seem to have chubby heels...but you know that your feet always look heavier in photos right?

To see a video of the Vacuum process go to:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1UWkMAY4NY.

To see the Vacuum part of Fischers web site:
http://www.fischersports.com/en/Alpine/VACUUM/VACUUM-FIT/VACUUM-FIT

And THINK SNOW!!!

Let's get this party started!

Martin is getting ready. He has his party hat on. We are all busy as beavers getting the store ready for the ski season. We have made lots of changes and getting things dialed. Staff training season is here too so the company representatives are coming in to do their educational training. and on top of that the customer traffic flow has been higher than ever before during the early season.
It feels like go time.
But it is not- it is "get ready for go time".
Go time is another level altogether!
But for now this is exciting and keeps us very busy.
In the last few weeks we have:
-Doubled our rental department in size (Lot's more alpine gear plus we added back country skis and boots for men and women)
-added about 240 feet of new boot shelving
-eliminated all clothing items from the store. Mens, womens, and kids. We still have accessories...
-expanded our ski and back country areas
-built and installed two new boot fitting stations to accommodate four customers
-launched a new social media campaign on Facebook etc. (I do not know much about all that but trust my staff when they say that this is happening?)
-Brought in three new employees
Sponsored a back country movie last week
-committed to Snowbomb the week end of 11/10 and 11/11
- Committed to a back country mixer the night of 11/16
 -Filmed a segment for Kevin Tinto of Slidingonthecheap.com on what is new in boots, plus a segment on skis and one on gloves.
So. Now we need to put the finishing touches on a number of these things. And by then I suspect...
It will be Go Time!

Hiring, training, and waiting for snow...

Ho hum. Not too much going on right now. A few items trickling in from Fed Ex and UPS, but most of the early shipments have arrived. There is very little pressing business from a customer traffic standpoint and it is sort of a "dog days" of fall here at the shop. Everyone is pretty relaxed.
The the big kick off sale is over- and I wish to thank you all very much- it was a great sale! So the chaos of preparation for that event is done. And so now we move on to the next phase of the life cycle of a ski season. Not much day to day customer traffic flow, but lot's to do before it snows. Off the top of my head, we probably have about six weeks to:
-Receive the rest of the big orders ( Where are you Lange Boots?). 
-Make the store look like a retail operation instead of a Barn full of boxed goods. Including a complete new store merchandising round with all new tags for the 2012/13 season.
-Put together a bunch of back country ski rentals
- Tune about a hundred pairs of skis
- Hire 3-4 new faces
- schedule all our training sessions with the manufacturers reps
- schedule all our training sessions for our in house training
- get everyone checked out on all the binding indemnification tests (~10 employees x four brands = 40 tests, plus Martin, Ian, Seth and myself on a few other brands)
- Re-do the web site
-Thouroughly clean the whole shop
- buy and install some shelving units
- fix the toaster oven...
Well let's just say that my list is over two pages long right now. But there is a sort of dead week right now amidst this sluggish time here where nothing is REALLY pressing, so...
I'm going fishing!
See ya next week!