Serving Southern New Hampshire and Massachusetts for over 40 years, Wayne and Kelly Pilla, as well as the family and business’s matriarch, Helen Pilla, have a lot to offer at Ski Haus. A small, family-owned business known for its products, personality and excellent service, the low costs and special event programs at Ski Haus can’t be beat.

One special the locals love to take advantage of is Ski Haus’ Junior Program. Children grow faster than weeds and Ski Haus recognizes this by offering a 50% trade in on children’s skis and boots the following year, or 25% the year after if the child gets 2 years of use out of their equipment. Through this special program, children will be set with everything they need for the slopes, minus the lift tickets which Ski Haus also offers at a 30% discount.

Periodically throughout the year, Ski Haus hosts Women’s Discovery Camps, a 2-day vacation hosted by women’s skiing gurus. These camps cover everything women need to know on the slopes from on-hill coaching to lectures on skiing without fear. Each day, participators enjoy a welcome reception, breakfast and lunch, professional daily instruction complete with demos and video analysis and a farewell party with door prizes.

Although Ski Haus began in Massachusetts, the store had been running solely in New Hampshire for the past few years. However, a new store has just recently opened in Massachusetts again, this time in Burlington. At this store, customers can expect to see seasoned staff as well as new friendly faces.

Be sure to stop by www.SkiHaus.com to take advantage of all the great deals Ski Haus has to offer and stop by the Ski Haus Facebook page to stay on top of all the fun events they’ll be hosting!

Like many great things, I.R. Rudy’s, Inc. started with a great idea and a small beginning. In 1939, Irvin R. Rudy purchased the building and fixtures at 115 South Second Street in downtown Oakland, Maryland to open his weekend ski shop. However, it wasn’t until 1955 with the opening of Wisp Resort, Maryland’s only 4 season ski, golf and recreational destination resort, that Rudy’s became a year-round business and earned the reputation as Maryland’s one-stop shop for both locals and tourists alike.
72 years after its beginning, Rudy’s has greatly expanded and is still family run, being passed down generation to generation. Today, Bob Rudy serves as CEO over Rudy’s at Wisp Mountain in McHenry as well as Rudy’s Clothing in downtown Oakland where his wife, Amy, serves as Merchandising Manager.

Rudy’s prides itself in being a winter superstore, specializing in ski and snowboard equipment sales and service, as well as outdoor apparel, accessories and everything in between. Although winter sports is their specialty, Rudy’s also offers an extensive summer collection including swimwear, outdoor apparel, souvenirs and everything you need to have fun in Maryland’s beautiful rivers, lakes and mountains.

To see beautiful old vintage photographs of Rudy’s early days, check out www.ShopRudys.com and be sure to stop by Rudy’s Facebook page to keep up to date with the year-round fun!

Cole Sport, Park City, Utah

Upon their completion of graduate school in 1972, Gary and Jana Cole made the decision to move from their home in Seattle, Washington to Park City, Utah for one winter of skiing. That one winter soon turned into one decade and in 1982, Gary and Jana opened the doors to the first Cole Sport shop. By 1996, Cole Sport had expanded to four stores in both the Park City and Deer Valley areas.

At the time Cole Sport was founded, no high profile, fashion-forward ski shops could be found in the Park City area. This void, mixed with the Coles’ love of mountain living and outdoor lifestyle provided the strong foundation on which Cole Sport still stands today. Family owned and operated, Gary, Jana and their two sons are all actively involved with Cole Sport and house a core management team that averages over 15 years with the company and shares the same enthusiasm, vision and values that make Cole Sport so unique.

These days, Cole Sport is considered a fixture in the Park City area due to its initial vision, strong community involvement and commitment to eco-friendly practices. Everyone at Cole Sport has a great respect and love for Utah’s natural mountain beauty and support renewable energy. The wind power system that Cole Sport utilizes offsets more than 344 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere- which is the same as planting more than 11 acres of trees each month!

To check out Cole Sport’s extensive inventory, stop by www.ColeSport.com and be sure to stop by the Cole Sport Facebook page to keep up to date with all the fun!

Austria is truly the place to be for the ski industry! Our most recent expedition brought us to the Atomic Skis Factory in Altenmarkt, Salzburg, Austria. Atomic is wholly owned by Amer Sports which also owns renowned companies Wilson Sporting Goods, Suunto Oy, Salomon and Precor USA.

Atomic is best known for its racing skis and many World Cup champions have used Atomic’s equipment including Hermann Maier, Benjamin Raich, Stephan Eberharter, Aksel Lund Svindal and the powerhouse Austrian ski team. Atomic first gained popularity in the United States after the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo where Bill Johnson took the gold medal in the Men’s Downhill on 225 cm Atomic “Red Sleds”.

We were lucky enough to see many exciting things on our tour of Atomic such as the behind-the-scenes workings of the factory and the racing department. Be sure to check our Facebook page to see the all of our photos from the Atomic tour and stop back soon to see where we’re heading next!

SSL Members Outside Blizzard Factory

Hello again from Europe! This time, our tour led us to the Blizzard Factory in Mittersill, Austria. Wow! What a beautiful country!

The Blizzard Factory is located about 15 minutes away from Kitzbuehel and serves as international headquarters for Blizzard Sport GmbH. Here, Blizzard employs all of its product development, marketing and production personnel. As if that weren’t cool enough, all of Blizzard’s products are designed and manufactured in Mittersill, too! Blizzard Sport GmbH was bought in 2006 by Tecnica Group, a worldwide leader in winter sports equipment, also owning Nordica, Rollerblade, Lowa, Nitro, T-Shoes, Dolomite, Think Pink, Moon Boots and X Socks.

We all learned so much on this tour about Blizzard’s rich history and where they’re going next. We can’t let you in on everything, but be sure to check our Facebook album to see all of our photos from the Blizzard Factory and sightseeing through Austria. Check back soon to see where we’re heading next!