RealSkiers

Swimming Against the Tide by Jackson Hogen

Swimming Against the Tide by Jackson Hogen

Our current ski season got off to a rocky start due to a serious over-supply of skis. It's taken until now to transfer most of this backlog from supplier's shelves to their constituent retailers, creating a robust buyer's market for new skis.

The ski market in America has devolved into a hot mess. One of the manifestations of its dysfunction is a clog in the pipeline from supplier to skier. This podcast takes a look at how we got into this predicament and invites my Dear Listeners' to share their thoughts on the subject. You can log your vision of how we get out this mess via the Member Consultation form on Realskiers.com. Non-members can also submit their thoughts through the General Contact request form.

In the spirit of rank commercialism, I'm offering to you, my Dear Listeners, the opportunity to donate some of your hard-earned revenue to Realskiers.com. I realize that most Black Friday offers arrive in the form of some sort of discounted goods or services, a trend this special offer reverses. I'm going to instead give you several good reasons why you should divert an extra allotment of your income to the good folks at Realskiers.com.

The following bit of tripe was recently re-published by Apple News after first appearing in the pages of Bloomberg's online publication. It consists of unreadable drivel from end to end, and certainly isn't worth paying to peek behind the Apple News pay-wall to investigate, so I've reiterated the text, verbatim, in this week's edition of Realskiers with Jackson Hogen, which I shall recite as we visit its few paltry paragraphs of twaddle. My commentary runs alongside the original in red. If you detect a tone of irritation mingled with impatience in my voice, it's because this sort of crap gets under my skin. I don't offer financial advice; I wish Bloomberg would stay out of my lane and resist the urge to comment on ski equipment that its writers clearly do not understand.

The following bit of tripe was recently re-published by Apple News after first appearing in the pages of Bloomberg's online publication. It consists of unreadable drivel from end to end, and certainly isn't worth paying to peek behind the Apple News pay-wall to investigate, so I've reiterated the text, verbatim, in this week's edition of Realskiers with Jackson Hogen, which I shall recite as we visit its few paltry paragraphs of twaddle. If you detect a tone of irritation mingled with impatience in my voice, it's because this sort of crap gets under my skin. I don't offer financial advice; I wish Bloomberg would stay out of my lane and resist the urge to comment on ski equipment that its writers clearly do not understand.

For some unfathomable reason, Bloomberg News decided to commission a small sampling of ski reviews for its elite clientele. I can only hope for Bloomberg's sale that none of its clients ski, or failing that safeguard, can read. It is a hopeless mishmash of inflated claims and outright misinformation. Enjoy!

For some unfathomable reason, Bloomberg News decided to commission a small selection of ski and boot reviews for its elite readership. I only hope for its sake that none of their customers ski -and that fewer still know how to read - as it is hard to pack so much misinformation into such a compact collection of nonsense. Enjoy!

Skiing isn't for the faint of heart. Neither is subjecting oneself to what is coyly referred to as “America's Health Care System.” Hold that thought while I elaborate on point one, that a lifetime devoted to skiing is hard to navigate without occasionally experiencing a consequential impact with the planet or some other immovable object attached to it. If you ski long enough, you will eventually learn the meaning of terms like “laminectomy” and “stenosis.” If you don't know these terms yet, please bear with me while I bring you quickly up to speed with those who know them all too well.

Welcome to another insightful conversation with Stu Winchester, who not only publishes the most thorough resort coverage in North America in his Storm Skiing Journal, he is perhaps the only true journalist reporting on the contemporary ski resort scene. Most resort reviews are rubbish, full of gushing praise lest the “journalist” lose his or her all-expenses-paid access. Winchester focuses on the facts: the infrastructure, the daily and season pass rates, the terrain accessed by the resort's lift system. He does not review a single plate of escargot or cite a quaint amenity that one simply has to see. Instead, he breaks down the particulars of the Ikon and Epic pass programs - analysis that could save a skier hundreds of dollars on their pass purchases - and is probably the only journalist to have interviewed the leaders of hundreds of ski areas.

As far as I know, October isn't “National Buy Your Ski Boots Now” Month, but it should be. Carryover stock will never be more abundant, and new models will still have a full range of sizes, which won't be true forever. Perhaps most importantly, bootfitters are also in relatively strong supply, so with any luck the one waiting on you won't be juggling three customers at once. It's a perfect storm of abundance: values on last year's models, selection on this year's new arrivals and personalized service are all at their peak.

Prof. John Seifert of Montana State University first popped up on my radar when I saw a video of a lecture he gave to the PSIA National Academy in 2019. That year, I published what I could glean from his presentation in a Revelation titled, Why Wide Skis Aren't Good for Your Knees. Prof. Seifert went on sabbatical at the end of that school year and we drifted out of touch. We recently reconnected and I'm glad to say we picked right up where we had left off. We'll pick up the thread of Prof. Seifert's thesis in today's podcast, along with a deep dive into the field Dr. Seifert first explored on the aforementioned sabbatical, namely the equipment used in mountaineering and its latest incarnation, skimo. If you haven't heard what's going on in this newly minted Olympic sport, suffice it to say it is an extreme form of alpine competition that I think will intrigue and fascinate those of us who merely ski downhill.

In today's belated contribution to my podcast library, I'll hew to my usual custom of reciting today's Revelation verbatim. As penance for missing my customary Tuesday posting, I've added a bonus contribution to today's podcast, namely the four full, 300-word reviews cited in today's Revelation, annotated for your edification and amusement.

Liberty Skis, the brainchild of Dan Chalfant and Jim Satloff, was born 20 years ago - over après ski beers - in Beaver Creek, Colorado, from the urge to develop a lighter ski that would reduce fatigue and return more energy to the skier than the relatively dead planks of the day. They were on the leading edge of the Lighter is Better movement in consumer goods that has come to dominate the current equipment landscape.

This installment of The Making of a Skier doesn't have much to do with skiing, but it does cover a formative period of my youth which has informed my life ever since. It is timely in that it references a time in our nation's past when we seemed as divided as we are today. I offer it as a balm to our national wounds.

My very special guest today has known the highest high and the lowest low a ski racer can experience, and handled both moments with style and grace. She pulled off the run of a lifetime at the perfect venue, the roars of the home-country crowd exhorting her to victory in Vail, crushing the field despite starting 30th. There were no crowds - no witnesses of any kind - when an unidentified course worker slammed into her just 45 minutes before her scheduled start at the Calgary Olympics, breaking her fibula and dashing a lifetime of dreams. Always a team player and a class act, Pam Fletcher stayed in Calgary to cheer her teammates on.

In today's Revelation on Realskiers.com, I extol the virtues of the 2025 season's finest Frontside models, skis with a much more expansive performance envelope than they are usually given credit for. My ultimate objective in celebrating Frontside models above all others is to help create a safer mountain for all skiers. The greatest danger to the out-of-bounds skier is avalanche, but the greatest danger to his in-resort brethren is collision. A great Frontside ski delivers the turning precision mandated by today's over-populated groomers. Please remember, the responsibility to ski courteously applies to us all.

Bob Gleason assisted at the birth of the rear-entry boot when he worked alongside Denny Hanson in the early days of what would become a huge phenomenon. He is one of the founding savants who taught bootfitting in an era of anything-goes designs. He's been teaching bootfitting skills, from the rudiments to the exotic, for 45 years, and counting.

Realskiers.com has a long history of publishing its ski test data on our members' site - until this year. Simply put, there isn't enough data to justify publishing it. Here's the story behind the story...

The ski trade is in a period of radical change, from brand ownership to dealer relationships. In my opening Revelation of the 2025 season, I take a snapshot of the current turbulent situation.

In today's edition of Realskiers with Jackson Hogen - the final installment of the 23/24 season - I explore the current crisis facing the ski retail community in collaboration with today's guest, Gary Fleming, the newly anointed president of Winter Sports Retailers, an organization that represents over 300 locations in the U.S.

There's no going back to the good old days, no matter how much we may miss them. This tidy excursion into the past asks the pertinent question, is skiing better today, or worse?

Jonny Moseley's Olympic gold medal at the Nagano Games in 1998 set the stage for a post-competition career that would be the envy of any athlete. Of course, a lot of athletes have followed a victory with a spot on late-night TV, as Moseley did on the David Letterman show, but not many are invited back, and even fewer go on to host their own show, as Moseley did for three years on MTV (which was a much more important entity then than now), or make the cover of Rolling Stone, or host Saturday Night Live, or segue into the announcing booth, as Moseley did for NBC at the Vancouver Olympics. This is the amazing story of the incomparable Jonny Moseley.

It's the New Year, often touted as a time for resolutions, for filing an amended flight plan for the trajectory of one's life. It is in this spirit that today I've chosen to give voice to the Introduction to Snowbird Secrets, a pithy block of background information that isn't included in its e-book version, and for all I know is routinely skipped over by those who consume this slender tome in print. While its date of issue lies well in the past, the eternal verities of Snowbird Secrets are still largely unfamiliar to the skiing public, perhaps because its title suggests it simply reveals some of Snowbird's less-well-travelled routes. But Snowbird Secrets isn't really about Snowbird, or perhaps I should say, it isn't just about Snowbird. Although Secrets can certainly be used as a guide to the mountain's legendary powder stashes, its most important lessons apply to big mountain skiing wherever it is practiced. Without further ado, permit me to regale you with the Introduction to Snowbird Secrets. I hope it will inspire a few of you to pick up a copy and let its lessons guide you to a better understanding, not just of how to ski, but of why you ski. I hope you enjoy the listen.

My guest today is Dave Bertoni, a curious choice, in that Dave currently has nothing whatsoever to do with the ski business, but today's podcast isn't about today's ski trade, but explores its roots in the not-so-distant past. Did you ever wonder what became of the legendary Salomon rear-entry boot design that drove the two-piece overlap to the brink of extinction? Dave Bertoni knows, for he was at the meeting where the nails were driven into its coffin. Want to know the backstory behind the Salomon Spheric and Propulse binding designs or the creation of the first integrated ski/binding system, the Pilot? Bertoni's career would be notable for his achievements at Salomon alone, but his career in skiing didn't begin or end there. Beforehand, he ran the Mary Jane Ski School on the backside of Winter Park, Colorado, and later ran the show at The Buyer's Guide, the first internet interface between U.S. ski retailers and wholesalers, and co-created, along with yours truly, the comprehensive ski retail training program, Desperate Measures.

Today I'm interviewing the world's foremost ski historian, Seth Masia, who is President of the International Skiing History Association and the Publisher of Skiing History since 2014, and its Editor since 2002. He is perhaps best known for his 20 years of service at SKI (from 1974 to 1993), mostly on the equipment beat, where he was a pillar of the ski media, in those days, a very big deal. He segued from print to the cyber world when, between 1994 and 1996, he designed, built and launched skinet.com, the first consumer website. He capitalized on that experience with a three-year stint at Microsoft, followed by a year as director of Internet strategy at Intrawest, giving him a close-up view of one of the biggest resort conglomerates of its day. Seth is also a Level 3 member of PSIA, logging long teaching stints at Squaw Valley (as it was then known), 22 years at Vail/Beaver Creek ski schools and Aspen/Snowmass. He also saw the ski market from the equipment supplier side, serving as alpine product manager at K2 (during my tenure at Snow Country) in 1993 through 1994. Currently, he serves as a marketing consultant for Wagner Custom skis, as he has since 2007.

Robin Barnes is a 4-term member of the PSIA National Alpine Team, and the Director of Skier Services at Heavenly Mountain resort, and the former Director of the Ski and Snowboard School in Portillo, Chile. Robin also serves as a Contributing Author and Reviewer for 32 Degrees Magazine, the official publication of the Professional Ski Instructors of America. Barnes is a self-confessed skiing addict and rejoices in every kind of snow imaginable. “I love ripping it up in a GS course,” she says with her characteristic enthusiasm, “frolicking in the bumps, or tracking up fresh snow.” I sought Robin out because her unique background has allowed her to see the world of ski instruction from every angle. She is the quintessential “real skier,” who, during her Portillo tenure would log 275 days a year on snow. I caught up to Robin at her office at Heavenly Valley, gearing up for the 2024/25 ski season, which is just getting under way.

My guest today is Thor Verdonk, the Technical Product Director for the Rossignol Group. You've probably never heard of him, but you've heard of the products he has helped to shepherd into the market, most recently the Lange Shadow. The Shadow is unquestionably the biggest story in Alpine ski gear this winter. Bear in mind that Lange has been the epitome of the modern race boot for generations of racers. It's probably the most imitated design in the post-war history of our sport. But the Shadow isn't being touted because of its rich heritage, but for the degree to which it has departed from its ancestral roots. A boot design that for many years seemed trapped in amber pulled off the most ambitious re-design of the 2-piece, overlap shell since this primordial design's inception.

There's no way to answer the rhetorical question posed by this podcast's title, but that Schaffner belongs on the short list of the world's best bootfitters is irrefutable. His resume is bulletproof: he began modifying race boots for Salomon when its flagship boot was the rear-entry SX 90 Equipe, and he continues plying this arcane craft to this day. He has been an instructor for Masterfit University since its inception, has consulted with virtually every boot brand extant and has taken test runs in every Alpine boot made in the last 25 years. When Jim Schaffner talks about boots, the people who make them listen. You should, too.

Guru Dave Powers is my cherished co-author of Snowbird Secrets, a modern mystic with a way of looking at the world that is both whimsical and profound. He shares his intimate knowledge of Snowbird in his daily snow reports at Gurudavepowers.com, a must-read for anyone who wants to catch the best snow on this magnificent mountain. He is, in a word, unique.

On Traverses is Chapter 9 of Snowbird Secrets, 22 meditations about what it means to ski this cosmically connected mountain. I'm posting it today to commemorate this coming Thursday's podcast with Guru Dave Powers, whose work you can find at gurudavepowers.com. Enjoy!

You've probably never heard of my guest today, but Mike Bisner might be the most well-connected person in our sport. He has covered every base at an executive level, as general manager of one of the largest specialty chains in the retail sector, as marketing director at Salomon when the French juggernaut was riding high, and he later played a similar role at Head as it was shouldering its way into the first rank of ski suppliers in this country. His list of ski-industry connections might be the most extensive in our sport.

Kim and I are going reminisce about our time together at the Snow Country Magazine ski test in the early ‘90's, but oddly that wasn't the high point of her career. She is best known as the creator of the first and still longest-running women's ski camps, which came after a career in ski racing that landed her on the U.S. Ski Team. She is notorious for a fairly spectacular crash that occurred while filming with Greg Stump and Bruce Benedict on License to Thrill, a spill that went viral before viral was a thing. A big-mountain competition champion as well as a world-class windsurfer, we caught up with Kim yesterday.

A few simple guidelines to guide you through the maze of new ski boots so you'll end up in the best boot for you and your beleaguered feet.

No one embodies the spirit of hot dog skiing as completely as the incomparable Wayne Wong. A living legend, he continues to rock the free(style) world!

Consumers waste a lot of time scouring the Internet for deals on skis, when in fact for a given category, chances are all the top models will be priced within $50 of one another. Of course there is a robust sale market, but its focus are the skis of yesteryear, particularly the recently obsoleted 2023 vintage.

Mike Adams has been a force to reckon with since he assumed the reins at Elan's U.S. distributorship in the early 1990's, raising their U.S. presence and richening their mix. He was the engine behind Salomon's renaissance at the end of that decade before accepting the role of running Atomic in this country. He's had his finger on the pulse of the sport right up the present day. He's as authoritative a source on the U.S. ski market as any man alive.

The Internet was already a cesspool of misinformation, then along came AI-driven content creation to turbo-charge the amount of uniformed rubbish available to a vulnerable public. In this episode, I expose the tendency to fraudulence that seems baked into AI.

In only 4 scant seasons, Stuart Winchester has metamorphosed from avid citizen skier to one of the most well-informed (and therefore well-respected) sources of information about ski areas of every stripe, particularly in America. His Storm Skiing Journal is a must-read for anyone who wants a granular view of American skiing. We love his byline: “Everyone's searching for skiing's soul. I'm trying to find its brains.”

Boots are not only the most important part of a skier's ensemble, the ability to fit boots is a specialty ski shop's most important asset. A shop's best assurance of survival in today's turbulent market is to field a team of bootfitters trained to match boots to their customers, optimizing both comfort and performance.

My guest on this week's edition of Realskiers with Jackson Hogen is a member of a couple of ultra-exclusive fraternities, as he was both a world speed record holder and a man so highly regarded that he can still be identified with just two tidy initials, C.B. C.B. Vaughan set a world record in speed skiing in 1963, going 106.89 mph on regular downhill gear, at Portillo, Chile. I talk to CB about setting the record, of course, but there's another big topic on the table, the creation of a spectacularly successful clothing brand bearing his name, with four factories and hundreds of employees. We chat about what made CB Sports so popular, as well as re-visiting a ski career that culminated in the world record he shared with Dick Dorworth, a ski/climbing legend in his own right.

The ski world is coming apart at the seams. The quality of advice offered by most ski media is rubbish, just when an objective, well-informed ski media is needed most. This is why I fight on, despite the obvious futility of my quest.

Tim Kohl is both a bon vivant who skis over 100 days a year at his home resort of Alta and a long-standing member of the ski hard goods community, going back to the days when he owned and operated RD skis and snowboards. His keen mind and lively wit have been observing our little world at close range for decades. A contrarian by nature, he always has an insight or two you won't hear anywhere else.

This hasn't been a big year for new model introductions as the pace of innovation has definitely slowed, but there are nonetheless significant developments in the ski world that are relatively new, and they aren't good.

This is the final podcast of the 22/23 ski season, in which I underscore the major stories of the season now attempting, unsuccessfully, to draw to a close. The podcast includes a thumbnail of each of this year's 26 Revelations on Realskiers.com. Hope you enjoyed the 40 podcasts I contributed to the cause. I'll be back before you know it...

This week's Revelation provides a snapshot of where the American Alpine ski market stands at this stage of its evolution. My central premise is that, from a product standpoint, the two seasons will be mostly the same, which is why this week's Revelation is titled, "Groundhog Year."

Last week I took a pilgrimage to Snowbird. This podcast is a condensed chronology of the trip, garnished with the lessons learned while on the road.

I needed some endorsement ammunition to lubricate access to the mavens of SiriusXM, so I asked a few of the movers and shakers in both the ski and podcast spheres to spin a bit of promotional fluff in my behalf. What you are about to hear are the first fruits of this endeavor.

I thought ski "journalism" couldn't get any worse. I was wrong. As the topic this week touches on boot reviews, it bears mention that the best boot reviews on the Internet - by a wide margin - are found at bootfitters.com. Accept no substitutes!

The Mammoth Trade Fair will take place next week, just as it would any other year. But this year may well prove to be unlike any that have preceded it.