Our summer season is bracketed by two ski picking trips to Europe. Tomorrow we fly to Geneva to kick off our second trip with a visit to Salomon headquarters in Annecy. This second trip has a pretty laid-back schedule with some free days in Annecy, and some time in Ramsau to enjoy life a bit. So it’s almost like a vacation – a good summer extension. But it’s really the last hurrah – the bulk of the skis from our June trip are already in the shop, sorted and racked and ready for grinding. We’ll come home to full-time work. So tomorrow’s flight marks the beginning of the end of Summer.
It also marks the last opportunity to pre-order skis. We select and carry a strong inventory for the season, but after this trip the selection gets smaller with every order. We start our ski picking this trip with work in the Salomon factory on Monday and Tuesday. So you’ll want to submit your ski request form before then!
The beginning of the end is a good time for a little retrospective examination of ski industry life in the off-season (in no particular order).
Brutally hard ski-picking trips…
In addition to skis, we pick blueberries.
We don’t sell bikes so we get to RIDE bikes.
We definitely hobnob with hotshots.
We do a bit of coaching.
We focus on the important things.
