Last week, before blasting out for one last summer hurrah hiking and biking in the White Mountains, Amy and I sat down to preview our ski selection system for this season. If you find my writing too dry to read, you can skip to the bottom and just watch the video for most of the […]

I got to know Noah when he was a teenager, and he joined the Stratton Mountain School team (Amy was a coach of the team at that point) for a competition trip to Canadian National Championships in Mont Ste Anne. For some reason he ended up borrowing skis from me for the races (maybe his […]

Tad Elliott has apparently been in a process of self-reflection.  Is it possible that self awareness is something we could all use more of…? Nah. I don’t see it. Here’s Tad: I don’t know how this happened. One of my fears has now come true. I’m a tool. A full-on walking Colorado stereotype. That person […]

For several months in 2016 & 2017, Tad Elliott lived with us. I remember it as a particularly idyllic time. I’ve assumed that’s because I was high as a kite on narcotic painkillers for most of it, having broken my leg. But Amy and Gunnar both remember it fondly as well, and we still call […]

The American Birkebeiner is a phenomenon. As an event it clearly transcends the category of “ski race”. It is a major moving force in the lives of thousands of people, and in the ski market. Like other major citizen races around the world – the Norwegian Birkebeiner, the Vasaloppet, the Marcialonga, the Engadin – it […]

We’ve been too busy in the shop for me to find time to write-up the articles I’ve got in mind for a brand-by-brand review of the fluoro-free products we’ve been testing. We’re continuing to learn about these products as we continue to test, and we’re receiving new products to test all the time. I’m not […]

When we first planned to dedicated resources to fluoro free testing, we figured we would be working with existing “Non-Fluor” products – waxes characterized chiefly by what they aren’t, and presented as a cheap solution to glide. But the wax industry has responded quickly to circumstances and has already started to offer waxes with various […]

The ski racing world is facing big changes with the inevitability of fluoro-free racing for most skiers in the very near future. The removal of fluoro products from the race preparation catalog represents a considerably bigger change than the introduction of fluorinated products back in the late ‘80s – mostly because the introduction was gradual, […]

We believe that a dedication to sport is a good thing for human development, and we believe that human development continues when racers are adults, and compete at elite levels. While we’re proud of the work we’ve done with elite athletes – Kris, Noah, and Tad, in particular – we’re even more proud of who […]

We’re off to Quebec this weekend for a last-blast of summer fun, watching mountain bike World Champs. But fall is upon us; we’ve already cranked up the grinding apparatus in the shop, and in a week we’re headed back to Europe to wrap up our ski selection for the season. So this is a reminder […]