Truly EPIC Holiday!
Vail had a phenomenally snowy December and January. Endless powder days surprised those which had booked early season vacations. Santa brought 10 solid days of low temperatures and snow for the holidays. With so much snow early in the season all of our new powder skis were flying off the racks and the lucky customers who were here came off the mountain all smiles!
Among other adventures, we’re in the process of updating our web site, VistaBahnSkiRentals.com,to make it bilingual for our international guests. We’d love your feedback on additional changes you’d like to see.
Cheers, Sacha Gros & Dominique Underhill – Co-Owners VBSR
SIA Snow Show Recap
Jan 28 – Feb. 3, 2015. VBSR staff spent 4 days researching, testing and networking with the ski industry experts at the SIA Snow Show in Denver in late January.A day full of industry seminars, an expo of over 1500 booths and 2 days of ski testing at Copper Mountain.
As we prepare to purchase gear for next year’s 2015-2016 season, peek into our minds for the best of the best. Visit our Facebook page to view our SIA photo album.
New Technologies:
The ‘Rocker’ shape is continuing to evolve and making its way into more and more skis. This design allows for novice skiers to feel more confident in skiing a larger and more stable ski as it makes even the widest of skis easier to engage on snow. We looked into new gloves from Swix and the staff consensus was that they are the most comfortable gloves available, and the design is said to stand up to even the toughest abuse!
Exciting New Gear:
While rocker shape and design continues to make skiing easier and more fun for all types of skiers, there has been a movement in bindings as well. For those backcountry enthusiasts A/T bindings are continuing to get lighter and be more widely available. Of note is the new Marker Kingpin, which blends the best of Dynafit type bindings with the security and comfort that a more traditional Marker binding provides. Now you can feel comfortable heading down the mountain in a serious binding, after you have climbed up. Earn those turns!
Staff Highlights and updates:
- Favorite powder ski: Aggie liked the Blizzard Peacemaker, for Barclay it was the Liberty Origin, Dominique was thrilled with the Nordica Santa Ana as well as the Blizzard Sheeva, and Sacha was thrilled with the old standby, Rossignol Super7.
- Favorite all mountain ski: The group consensus was that the Blizzard’s collectively were best in show, most notably the Brahma for men, and the Samba for women.
- Favorite carver ski: For the men, Volkl Kendo was a hit, but we cannot overlook the Rossignol E88. For women, both Dominique and Emily were excited about the Blizzard Black Pearl.
- Best boutique line: Colorado’s own Liberty Skis, full line
- Best individual top sheet: Blizzard Sheeva
- Best overall line top sheet: The 2016 Liberty line was pretty cool to look at for sure!
It’s always a fun time checking out the new gear and ripping it up on the hill. Know you can count on VBSR to have the best, most innovative and reliable demos and rentals. Learn more about the show: http://siasnowshow.snowsports.org. And if you have any questions about next year’s equipment come in and see us, we’d be happy to chat!
The World Alpine Ski Championships – Recap
It’s hard to believe the World Alpine Skiing Championships are over. What an incredible 2 weeks it has been in both Vail and Beaver Creek. It was a very successful championships for American skiers Mikaela Shiffrin, Lindsay Vonn, Ted Ligety, Steve Nyman and Travis Ganong (among many others from the U.S. Team) with the U.S. ending up in second place in the overall medal count. The sun was out the entire time making it incredibly pleasant for fans from over 70 countries. Spectators are still talking about the thrill they experienced watching Mikaela and Ted (in their respective events) slide through the finish line in first place in front of a cheering crowd of thousands. Estimates say a total of over 130,000 people watched the race over the two weeks. And, according to the Vail Valley Foundation, 25,000 showed up to watch Mikaela Shiffrin don the Gold Medal on Friday night. The evening concerts at Championship Plaza were amazing. From OAR and Bare Naked Ladies, Phillip Phillips and CeeLo Green, every night was a big party at Solaris. Talk about post-event withdrawal, it’s somewhat sad to see the event come to a close. The energy was beyond anything we’ve seen. We hope you got to enjoy it!
Vail’s run, Pepi’s Face, lit up the night as we celebrated Lindsey Vonn’s record breaking win in Vail! As of today, she’s won 64 World Cup races.http://www.lindseyvonn.com/en/home/
BLOG: Feeling Sharp: Wintersteiger TrimJet 71 Edging Machine
On January 14, 2015, World Cup Racer and co-owner, Sacha Gros, and Tuner, Barclay Rabin, got lucky. They put the brand new Wintersteiger TrimJet 71 to work… Read more…
BLOG: Vail Ski with Sacha Day – Jan. 2015
January 27, 2015 marked the first ever Ski With Sacha Day and it was a success! Vista Bahn Ski Rentals customers and family members met at the shop at 9:45 for a 10:30 departure to hit the hill with former World Alpine Ski Championship Racer, Olympian and shop co-owner, Sacha Gros. Read more…
Vail Mountain Extends Spring Hours
Thanks to Daylite savings time, as of February 13, Vail is open until 4pm. Beginning March 28, the mountain will be open 9am to 5pm
For Locker room guests: Sacha Gros, VBSR co-owner, World Alpine Ski Championships Racer & Olympian, wants to ski with YOU. This is an informal “thanks to our customers” outing – no fee, no tour…just skiing with a pal. Meet in the shop, dressed and ready to go at 9:45am. Provide your own lift ticket and plan to ski through lunch. Max 8 per outing. All levels welcome. Make reservations in the shop! Mar: 31st, Apr: 7th – 10am – 1:30pm.
