You pulled some pretty rash stunts this season: black-diamond napping in Chamonix. Small-dog sledding through a blizzard in Vail. Panther skiing in the Andes. And in the end, it was your gear that paid the price. No worries. We’ve tracked down some specialists who can make your skis faster. Your ice ax sharper. Your jacket fluffier. Yep, it’s going to be all better soon.
Your grandma: great sewer, but doesn’t know jack about Gore-Tex. Fortunately, this Berkeley outdoor-fabric specialist does. Whatever work your coat demands—Gore-Tex patchwork, shortening/lengthening, a good re-feathering—they’ll do it... and mail it back to you. Now your parka tails are Aspen-ready.
Good news: your Juicy Fruit–era skis are good as new. Better, actually. Provided you put them in a hotbox sauna for four hours (the equivalent of 15 to 20 hot-waxing cycles), hand scrub them and store them in a climate-controlled room all summer long. Or just let these guys do it.
You take risks with all sorts of things. Your heli-ski parachute: not one of them. This daredevil-friendly sky shop in the Idaho mountains understands. They’ll run posterity tests on your para-ski glider or heli-ski chute, clean it, patch it (if necessary) and finally, repack it... properly. Or you could just wing it.
Your ice picks are looking a little blunt these days. Which could put a dent in your plan to scale the Rockies next year (just saying). Solution: send them to an all-purpose blacksmith for a custom hand-sharpening. Might as well send them your garden clippers, too, while you’re at it.
Let’s talk about your all-important snowshoes. It never hurts to have them re-laced every once in a while... with buffalo hide... by the hands of a little old lady who works out of a shack in Maine. And uses the postal system—so a trail of bread crumbs won’t be necessary.
