That's powder

Champagne powder

Any tips for skiing with a high of -9? We'll be there Friday-Monday. The coldest I've ever skied in was the high teens and I've always had to take some under layers off. I'm thinking I'll be fine staying warm but this Texan has no concept of negative degrees.

At least there is no wind.

I ski most of my days here in MN so plenty cold. Biggest thing is no exposed skin.

I've always been fine with my HH merino wool base layers. My upper wool is a little more of a mid layer 1/4 zip and I wear a thick UA/Nike compression long sleeve turtleneck beneath that. I'm also a bib guy and even with just the single wool base beneath that my legs stay mostly warm.

Also mittens over gloves. I have the Hestra claw style and it's easy on the lifts to bring the fingers into the palm for warmth.

Face/neck gaiter and mittens. Gloves and exposed face are no good when it's that cold.

Yikes! That's no bueno. Hopefully they don't charge extra and I'd dispute the charge if they do.

We have our own skis except for my 5 year old and we've rented from Sun & Ski two times in Avon. Super easy and very cheap.

And your experience is why I decided to buy skis for the whole family after our first experience renting. Took over an hour. Wife's boots killed her. One of my boots was wet and stunk.

Bought slightly used on eBay and they paid for themselves after one trip. Best part was no waiting. Only downside is traveling with them.

Just went to Snow Basin (Utah) today. Great snow coverage, some fresh snow, fantastic resort. Often overlooked by us SLC locals b/c drive slightly further, but I think it's worth it!

Hmmm Lets not clump the stores together. They are all run by different managers and have a different vibe. The LSL shop is my home shop but ive worked at BC alot so those are both kinda my shop. Something doesn't smell right.

see below for my best guess without being there or seeing the Reservation vs. What went out and when it was supposed to go out vs being returned.

See below

First issue - you shouldve told me and I couldve out in the notes for them to take care of you. Kidding but not kidding.

To address your points:

#1- They are open until 7 on holiday dates but 6pm on other dates. I've posted the hours from the website below. Also, the reason they usually start to close down early (just being honest) is that it takes alot of time to tech skis unless the pretech is perfect. Most of the workers have second or third job so they have buses to catch and can't work too late past 7pm. If a group of 4-5 walks in at 6:45 and it's 2 people working they could easily be there until 7:30+. So, we usually stay open until 6/7 but if you come in between 30 minutes to close and close and you're a group that's going to take more than 30-45 minutes to tech we sometimes ask for you to come back in the morning. It's a mountain town thing. We will sell you socks and do returns and exchange gear until close but showing up 15 before close and exoecting a group of 6 to get teched for new gear is fast way to make them hate you.

#2 - They probs pulled your gear early and then you used other gear that wasn't preteched. Depending on the Number in your party and the Number of changes that can easily be an hour plus especially if they have to pull gear from a different store. We try to have a tech or two per group depending on the time of day. If you have a group of 4/5 that means I'm you'd have one person likely helping you. It takes most techs about 15-20 minutes a person so a group of 4 or 5 can easily take a hr to 90 minutes if it's a total retech do over. Thats just how long it takes to pull boots, pull skis, pull poles, size boots, size Poles, size skis, and tech bindings. I can get people out in 10ish because I usually already have ski length and pole length figured out in my head so im just working on boots, plus I can tech bindings without a bench, but most techs take alot longer because they haven't been doing it their whole life and if they have to wait for bench space it can take even longer.

Did they have gear teched? If so how many people had them change what was teched?

What id do is remember your mondo and your ski length and put them in the Reservation notes. Shoe size is worthless.

#3 - you didn't already pay online. We don't charge until people leave the store because of how many changes people makes to their Reservations. You only prepaid if you used a ski voucher through ski.com or the likes but those are few and far between and I doubt anyone here used them. We only take CC info to ensure that you're legal y of age to rent in CO. The reason you probs got charged more than your Reservation is related to issue #2: you probably used a different package than what you reserved hence why they had to pull new gear and retech it etc which takes alot of time. Alot of people reserve performance and then up grade knowingly or unknowingly in the store to demo. Send me what you skied on (what color were your skis) and send me what you reserved (performance or demo) and I can tell you if that was the issue. You also may have added helmets etc. I wasn't there so I can't tell you but I can look into it.

#4 - you got charged an extra day because 7pm is the drop of time not 1pm. After 1pm is the cut off for not getting charged on the day you pick up. If the skis come back in the morning (after 9:30ish) and it's clear they have been used that day, it counts. If you come in the next day (last ski day is Saturday but you return Sunday) before 9am we don't mind. I usually give people until 9:30-10am. Honestly w lifts opening at 8:30 it's hard to ski and get back in time to make the cut off which is the point. I usually give people until 10am and don't really care if they come back used that day in case they took 2-3 quick laps but the shop policy is 7pm or by 9am unused. 12pm and you told them you skied that day would def count for probs every worker but me as a day. Not sure where you got that you could ski until 1pm the day after the rental ended and not get charged for that day but yeah that's a 1/2 day they couldve been used and a 1/2 day they couldve been tuned to go out that night or the next morning. I'm sorry but that's the rules on returns. Return after 7pm but before 9am counts as returned the day before. After 9am counts as returned that day. You can't rent a rental car until 7pm Saturday and return it at moon Sunday and expect them to not charge you. Ski's are the same. We give people until 9am the next morning because we don't open until 8 and if we don't do the 9am rule people just leave gear outside and sometimes it walks away.

You picked up at 9:30 Friday and dropped off 12 Sunday? That would be 3 days. When did you drop off? How many days did you reserve?

What was your Reservation # and I'll look into it.

Sorry you had a bad experience. Next year give me a heads up and I'll make sure they take care of you.

I'll see if I can get Carlee (that's the managers name) to give you my friends and Family rate for the troubles. I will say that honestly it sounds like you reserved online and they teched what you reserved and then because that gear changed new gear had to be teched which takes time and then because that gear they teched was demo and not performance or added helmets or insurance the price higher then what was quites online.

We do our best to get things done before you arrive but an hour before close and an hour after open are by far the busiest times for pick ups at the shop and we have to go off what people put as their height weight and shoe sizes and even then it's a Guessing game without previous years history. Not only that but most people say the boots we pull are to big because they ski in boots that are to big. If they pulled you boots and a couple of people said they were too small, then you're easily looking at an hour to remedy. If they end up trying on 3 boots in 2 sizes that Number goes up exponentially. We go on a first come first serve basis and when you switch out of whats preteched it takes a long time.

When I give you guys demo gear at the performance price, what I do is go in an manually change the package from demo to performance after I scan in the gear because it defaults to what it is. I give you guys the insurance for .01c because I know how to Mark down the tem (most people don't). You may of had a worker that doesn't know or isn't comfortable doing that change. I always try to honor the price as best I can. If I have a Jr or 1 out of a party of 4 up grade I just scan and change it. If It's more than one or two then I usually tell them i have to charge the higher price but only do it for 1 of the 2 or 2 of the 3. I usually give the first up grade out for free.

Helmets are usually like $8-10/day. The insurance is $5/pair. The demos are like $15 more a day than performance.

Meanwhile in MX….

From my experience what it sounds like is :

Morning shift is 8-11 then 3-7 or just 8-11. If you came in at noon that means the 11 am cut was still working when he shouldve been skiing (that's a big deal to ski shop people). So, he was probs pissed. Then you came in and returned your skis. Everythings cool (he's ranting but at that point whatever). He scanned them in and it showed you owed an extra day. You didn't know the policy (either not explained to you, explained incorrectly, or mis interpreted - it's doesn't matter because they still IMO shouldve just avoided the confrontation after Friday) so you started to probably argue that he was wrong. He knew he wasn't wrong but also pissed at being late to ski so he probably got kinda butthurt, Emotions level up. He wants to leave and you're mad thinking you're getting bent over so he calls carlee. He tells Carlee Wtf because he's off Clock and now percieves he's getting chewed on by someone that doesn't know the return policy and doesn't want to pay when the employee has been getting chewed all season and in his mind shouldnt be there and shouldve been skiing an hour before. she says do whatever which you hear and discern as indiference (she said it because she really didn't care and wanted him to make the decisin based on what he knew - so honestly was giving you an out) and he decides to charge you because that's the actual rule and he isn't wrong for doing it which you take as them screwing you over after everything you've been through when in reality you shouldve always been charged the extra day because you used them Friday (9:30-7pm) Sat (8am - 7pm) and Sunday (8-12) but that doesn't mean IMO they shouldve charged you. I mean they shouldve also been open until 7pm. I know online it says 6pm but I work there and I think It's 7 so that's not your fault.

What I wouldve done is a) given you whatever you picked up on Friday and put in the system as whatever package you reserved even if it wasn't. Thats A. Then B when you returned, I'd have told you to have a good day and just marked it in the system to return the day before because it's not worth it to make people upset. Again, this guy sounds hella new and like he may of not known how to do that. I'm sorry that you went through this man.

Again that's just a guess but id love to Connect and hear the whole story from your perspective. Regardless, if you give me the Reservation info I'll look into it and try and make more sense of things and help you on the price where I can. We do our best but were far from perfect. This is not a normal experience so I really apologize.

Also a solid possibility the employee was hungover and not just pissed that he was working an hour longer, but that he had to work at all that morning

I'm sorry man. If I was there I wouldn't made sure to not keep making the mountain taller. I can def tell you my home home home shop at LSL wouldve never let this happen. If you come back, put it in through us and I'll comp it off for you and put in the notes they **** on you this season.

For this season:

If you give me your Reservation info I'll see what I can do. You still probs won't use us again but I can at least take off the extra day and see where the price discrepancy came from and also try to knock off an extra 20%. That's all I can really do but I'm happy to help where I can. And again I'll put in the notes to comp you at least a couple people for the headache this season If you come back. Thats something I can do.

If you reserved helmets, I can cut those off too. I'll look and see about insurance too.

Have a good man. You just want to be mad and that's valid but I'm here to help you my guy. I didn't do you wrong so cut the personal attacks. I was just telling how a ski shop works. They arent excuses they're how a shop operates and they all work the same. I've worked at several. I didn't blame anyone, I gave you the facts on why it would take that long, why the charge would be different and why you got charged the extra day but alright. You obviously dont want me to look into the Reservation. That makes me think you know I'm Not wrong and even If You were wrong - I'd still have given you a discount and Not blown You Up on here. So yeah, You probably did switch gear and You probably switched to demo gear. I was TRYING to help you. I offered to give you discount and comped skis but you decide to tear me down and to throw this into my lap and say im a **** person - I'm Over it. F THIS BOARD. Another of the many reason I'm talking a break from this Board and especially this thread. Have a great ski season guys.

Not sure how to so staff feel free to remove this user name. God bless.

Email him then - Dave@CharterSports.com and let him know. Feel free to **** on me as much as you want to him. I don't really care at this point. I tried to help you.

Then stop reading it

Never used the ignore user function before, this'll be fun

Not sure if anyone on here is going to any of the I-70 CO resorts for a long holiday weekend, but it's forecasted to be collllllld. Vail with a high of -2* and foggy on Sunday might keep me at home if that holds up.

I'm headed up Thursday afternoon to Loveland. Plan on skiing Sat, Sun, and Mon. On The Snow is showing highs of -14 and -13 on Sunday and Monday. It'll be interesting to say the least

Wow, best of luck with that. Never skied Loveland but based on its location I could see it being windy pretty often, which is a much bigger deal to me than temperature.

Thanks, we might need it!! Winds are supposed to be light at the base and low 20s at the summit. I'm sure the lift rides will be rough but that's just a good excuse to stop off and have a drink before the next run!

I've only skied days down to 4-5 degrees but even then I didn't want any part of a mid-layer over thin merino base and un-insulated shell. At -15 I would probably add a mid-layer and neck gaiter or balaclava

HUEY04 said:

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I've only skied days down to 4-5 degrees but even then I didn't want any part of a mid-layer over thin merino base and un-insulated shell. At -15 I would probably add a mid-layer and neck gaiter or balaclava

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Good to know! Not sure I'll handle it quite as well as you but we're gonna find out.