Early snow, early opening usher early ski tuning to Aspen
Skyler Stark-Ragsdale/The Aspen Times
The basement of Radio Boardshop is stacked floor-to-ceiling with snowboards, new and old, brandishing various levels of scratches and core shots.
With the shadow of opening day looming nearer by the hour and Aspen mountain already reporting a 15-inch base, mountain goers flocked to the shop to get their equipment tuned.
Radio Boardshop Snowboard and Ski Technician Charlie Agosti said he thinks the early snow has driven people to get their boards and skis tuned at higher-than-normal rates given the time of year.
“Everybody’s getting stoked for the winter,” Agosti said. “There’s been so much snow already; everybody’s just bringing their snowboards by, getting out there.”
He said tuning equipment requires serious technique.
“You can take anything in the machine, but it doesn’t necessarily come out how somebody riding it would feel like it should ride,” he said. “It’s definitely a different touch that we have, and we like it. We’re prideful about it.”
To tune a board or ski, he begins by melting P-Tex, or polyethylene plastic, into any scratches or core shots in the base, before shaving and smoothing excess plastic with a file.
He then takes the board to the edge grinding machine, which sharpens the board or ski edge and rids it of any metal burs.
“When metal gets hit … it creates sharp points that make your board ride all weird,” Agosti explained of burs. This can happen to edges when skiing or boarding over rocks or hard objects.
Once the board or ski is sharpened, he melts wax with an iron onto the base. He scrapes off the excess wax once it dries and runs the board or ski through the waxing machine to give the base a smooth sheen.
Like Radio Boardshop, other Aspen ski and snowboard shops have also seen increased traffic.
Justin Fisher, 2020 and 2024 Employee of the Year at Hamilton Sports, said the shop has tuned 35 to 40 skis per night since the snow started accumulating last week.
He’s hopeful the early snow will make for a popular ski season.
“Anytime this happens, where we get a good, early-season snow, it ramps up the overall numbers for the year,” Fisher said. “Because we’ll get a lot more holiday traffic.”
He said they expect to see a wave of tune requests for the next two weeks, another wave as the holidays approach, and a steady increase from the end of January until the end of the season.
“It’s a really good sign that we’ll have a good snow year,” he added of the early snow.
Hamilton Sports does an early-season discount for locals looking to get their skis tuned, he said.
Christy Sports Rental Technician Ned Montgomery said he thinks the Aspen mountains will get a good snow year because Argentina had a good season.
“Argentina had a great snow season, and … that brings everything up here,” Montgomery said.
Colorado’s seasons often correlate with Argentina’s season, he said.
He’s hopeful the mountains will open multiple runs straight from the first day of the season, rather than just the “white ribbon of death” — a singular ski run that channels all skiers and snowboarders to the same groomed location, typical of low-snow, early-season starts.
Ute Mountaineer received a number of tune requests since the snow started falling and expects to see additional spikes until the tail end of the season.
“(We’ve) definitely had an influx of people trying to get their stuff ready,” said Ute Sports Ski Technician Bridget Ceballo.
Since they focus on backcountry skiing, Ute Mountaineer Director of Marketing Joel Nunez-Smith said they also get a late-season spike as people plan for hut trips and spring-season touring.
“That’s kind of the last touring hurrah,” Nunez-Smith said.
Aspen and Snowmass Mountains will open Saturday. Buttermilk and Highlands open Dec. 14.
Skyler Stark-Ragsdale can be reached at 970-429-9152 or email him at sstark-ragsdale@aspentimes.com.
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