The new space allows us to dramatically expand our service area and add a broader range of equipment and clothing.  We are excited to be adding backcountry and touring equipment to the mix as well as Rossignol skis and boots.  We also have space for a thermoforming boot machine and another stone grinder.

 

Come check it out, we're up and running.  September hours are Tu-Sat 12-6.

 

 

This Spring we tested 12 pairs of Rossignol skis for 6 weeks and decided that their new ski would be a great addition to our offerings.  We started figuring out the skis by coordinating what our testers were feeling out on the snow with what we were seeing when the skis were on our flex tester.  This gave us a good initial impression of what characteristics to look for when we started picking Rossignols for customers.

 

We continued to research the skis and tracked down some "special" skis that were proven to be among the best in the world.  We got an old pair of Billy Demong's skis.  Billy took the Silver Medal at the Nordic Combined World Championships this year.  His skis were covered with stamps from races at Olympics, World Championships and World Cups, a sign that this was one of the magic skis that we hear a lot about.

 

In May Nathan flew to Ogden, Utah to the Rossignol warehouse to meet up with the Rossignol Nordic Product Manager and Zack Simons, winner of the 2007 American Birkebeiner, to pick 25 pairs of skis to test.  From there, we drove up to Bend, Oregon with Zack to join the US Ski Team training camp, where we were able to test Zack's skis on snow for four days.  We also tested some new grinds we've been working on.  We learned a lot about the skis and were able to figure out some great info comparing Demong's proven skis against some of the new ones.  It is great to work with athletes like Zack because they have a great feel for skis and spend a lot of time on snow.  They give us valuable objective information to back up or refute what we see in our testing.

 

Back in Boulder, Nathan put the best and worst skis that we found on snow on the flex tester to once again coordinate our snow experience to the flex data.  We made our first trip out to Ogden to pick skis at the end of August and sorted through 380 pairs of skis to see what the first production run looked like.  We saw a lot of good skis and ended up picking skate skis for our inventory and a few pairs specifically for people who had placed early orders.  Having the experience on snow and flex testing data gave us invaluable information that we needed to be confident that we were picking the right skis at the warehouse.

 

We hand-select all of our race skis and since most of the manufacturers inventories are peaking, this is when we have the best options for picking specific skis.  We're always happy to talk about skis, so give us a call or drop by the shop if you have questions or want to order a pair picked specifically for you.