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#11
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Damn it's hard to buy Nordic Skis Nowadays!
Edgar wrote:
Its also interesting that SMS's wife wanted lighter skis than here E99s with NNN-BCs, but Marmot didn't have 3-pin bindings. Marmot was sold out of three pin bindings. REI Saratoga was sold out. REI Berkeley had two pairs left. Unfortunately, too many Nordic skiers only want to buy skis at season's end sales. It didn't really matter to me. $120 sale versus $150 non-sale for the skis is no biggie. I just wanted the skis in March because the spousal unit won't go XC skiing any more with her Blisterfield II boots, and she just started complaining about them. I would rather have a pair that "fit" than a cheap on-sale pair that are too stiff or too soft. Who ever said that they were looking for something "cheap on-sale?" You're inventing scenarios that don't exist. What caused the loss of so many stores selling nordic skis were two things. First, REI went from one store to thirteen stores in northern California, taking a large portion of the very high margin sales for clothing and footwear leaving the other stores little to offset lower margin equipment sales. Second, the number of XC skiers has been decreasing steadily. |
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#12
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Damn it's hard to buy Nordic Skis Nowadays!
In article ,
SMS wrote: Marmot was sold out of three pin bindings. REI Saratoga was sold out. REI Berkeley had two pairs left. That last two pairs of any kind of ski I bought outside the Bay Area. Either way, the pickin's have tended for me to be the further North one goes. Unfortunately, too many Nordic skiers only want to buy skis at season's end sales. ;^) It didn't really matter to me. $120 sale versus $150 non-sale for the .... I would rather have a pair that "fit" than a cheap on-sale pair that are too stiff or too soft. Who ever said that they were looking for something "cheap on-sale?" You're inventing scenarios that don't exist. What caused the loss of so many stores selling nordic skis were two things. First, REI went from one store to thirteen stores in northern California, taking a large portion of the very high margin sales for clothing and footwear leaving the other stores little to offset lower margin equipment sales. Second, the number of XC skiers has been decreasing steadily. Hmmmm. Maybe all skier numbers going down, but I certainly know a few who stick to XC due to downhill cost. The industry as a whole is certain evolving, especially in a place like CA which gets marginal winters. -- Looking for an H-912 (container). |
#13
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Damn it's hard to buy Nordic Skis Nowadays!
SMS wrote:
What caused the loss of so many stores selling nordic skis were two things. First, REI went from one store to thirteen stores in northern California, taking a large portion of the very high margin sales for clothing and footwear leaving the other stores little to offset lower margin equipment sales. Second, the number of XC skiers has been decreasing steadily. Well, that mystery is solved. There are fewer stores selling ski stuff because not many people were ever interested in buying ski stuff. I wonder if living in a place where it doesn't snow contributed at all to that. Could that be another question that no one knows the answer to? Bob Schwartz |
#14
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Damn it's hard to buy Nordic Skis Nowadays!
On Mar 8, 7:57*am, SMS wrote:
Edgar wrote: Its also interesting that SMS's wife wanted lighter skis than here E99s with NNN-BCs, but Marmot didn't have 3-pin bindings. Marmot was sold out of three pin bindings. REI Saratoga was sold out. REI Berkeley had two pairs left. Unfortunately, too many Nordic skiers only want to buy skis at season's end sales. It didn't really matter to me. $120 sale versus $150 non-sale for the skis is no biggie. I just wanted the skis in March because the spousal unit won't go XC skiing any more with her Blisterfield II boots, and she just started complaining about them. I would rather have a pair that "fit" than a cheap on-sale pair that are too stiff or too soft. Who ever said that they were looking for something "cheap on-sale?" You're inventing scenarios that don't exist. What caused the loss of so many stores selling nordic skis were two things. First, REI went from one store to thirteen stores in northern California, taking a large portion of the very high margin sales for clothing and footwear leaving the other stores little to offset lower margin equipment sales. Second, the number of XC skiers has been decreasing steadily. Sorry SMS if you thought that my observations were intended to apply to you or your familily. My observations regarding Nordic skiers (at least the touring or casual cross country skiers) looking for cheap skis is a general observation. I also have to say that I have bought skis and ski stuff in part because I came across a "good deal". That's why shops put stuff on sale - to get rid of the merchandise that didn't sell. I also buy pre- season for good ski selection. But I do have to reiterate my obervation that I know a lot of American Nordic skiers who only buy stuff on sale, or at ski-swaps or at the Goodwill used stores. In a free market economy, where skiers vote with there dollars, mercants tend to stock what folks will "vote" for. No dollar votes, not XC skis on the racks. What I find especially sad is the new skiers looking for bargin XC gear at ski swaps or on E-bay when they do not have the knowledge (or friends with knowledge) of how and what to buy. Then they get skis that drag or don't grip. Some even leave ski-swaps with boots that don't match the bindings mounted on the used skis. The local ski shop mentioned eariler (prospective buyer wanted the $100 trade-in) use to stock bargin 3-pin boots for all the folks buying old skis with 3-pin bindings. PS. Several years ago (4 or 5), I bought my Fisher waxable Outtabounds and Excursion boots w/ 3-pin cable bindings from Marmot in Berkeley. Paul spent about 2 hours helping me with ski selection, doing a special order for the waxable skis, and fitting and custom mold the boots. I did this mid-week when Paul could spend the proper amount of time taking care of me. |
#15
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Damn it's hard to buy Nordic Skis Nowadays!
SMS wrote:
The spousal unit really hates her 16 year old Asolo Blisterfield II boots, and wanted NNN-BC boots and bindings. She also really needs lighter skis than her Europa 99's for the kind of stuff she does. There used to be at least 10 stores selling nordic skis on the San Francisco Peninsula, including North Face (x2), Sierra Designs, Western Mountaineering (x2), REI, Any Mountain, Helm of Sun Valley, The Co-op, Mel Cotton's, and several other stores that I can't remember the names of. Most of those stores are out of business, and of the remaining ones no longer carry nordic skis. Only _one_ of the four REI stores on the Peninsula carriers Nordic skis, and their selection and stock is awful. I ended up driving 50 miles to Berkeley to go to Marmot Mountain Works, a store that's a real PITA because it's busy but has only one employee working the sales floor, going nuts with all the people bombarding him for help. I also got a new pair for myself at Marmot, but they were out of 3 pin bindings so I went to REI in Berkeley to buy bindings because the REI near me in Saratoga ran out of bindings (both NNN-BC and 3 pin). It's pretty bad that an area with a population of 3.5 million people can't support a single actual mountaineering store. Hi SMS, In my view, you were lucky to have it good in the past ;-) Being relatively new to the sport, I've never known the SF Bay Area to have even one decent shop for XC gear. I've bought all my (and spousal unit's) equipment at either Sierra Nordic or Paco's - both in Truckee. There may be other shops in the Tahoe area for BC gear - Just go there and let them set you up with a modern kit. Bob |
#16
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Damn it's hard to buy Nordic Skis Nowadays!
Bob wrote:
SMS wrote: It's pretty bad that an area with a population of 3.5 million people can't support a single actual mountaineering store. Hi SMS, In my view, you were lucky to have it good in the past ;-) Being relatively new to the sport, I've never known the SF Bay Area to have even one decent shop for XC gear. I've bought all my (and spousal unit's) equipment at either Sierra Nordic or Paco's - both in Truckee. There may be other shops in the Tahoe area for BC gear - Just go there and let them set you up with a modern kit. I think we have it pretty tough here in Oslo: Only 3-4 really good xc stores, and I had to stand in line with a queue ticket for half an hour or more, even in the middle of the day on a Tuesday. The half-price Madshus racing skis which were all in the 60-64 kg (factory-)marked range turned out to be too long: 210 cm, which explained why they were half-price. :-( I believe Norwegians buy more xc racing gear than the next 3-5 countries combined (Russia/Sweden/Finland/Germany/?/?). (I just googled around a bit, and it turns out that in 2008 Norwegians bought 137,000 pairs of racing skis, out of a total of 300,000 xc skis. Russians buy even more skis but not nearly as many racing skis.) Terje -- - Terje.Mathisen at tmsw.no "almost all programming can be viewed as an exercise in caching" |
#17
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Damn it's hard to buy Nordic Skis Nowadays!
Eugene Miya wrote:
Hmmmm. Maybe all skier numbers going down, but I certainly know a few who stick to XC due to downhill cost. The industry as a whole is certain evolving, especially in a place like CA which gets marginal winters. I'm thinking of our local Sierra Club Ski Touring section. We used to have monthly meetings with 100+ people, and probably 70 trips a season. Now we get maybe 15 people at a meeting and about 12-15 trips a season. In the 1980's we had a mix of people from their 20's to their 80's. Now it's mainly 50's to 80's with almost no younger people interested. |
#18
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Damn it's hard to buy Nordic Skis Nowadays!
I thought you were describing LA's chapter, until rechecking your
first post. With a total membership of 50-60,000, the Angeles chapter's sections had lots of x-c ski trips locally and to the Sierra in the 1990s. It was through them - and occasionally hopping a ride on an aircraft co. alpine club bus - that I got started. I wonder if they've had the same diminution of numbers in LA. Gene On Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:26:11 -0800 SMS wrote: Eugene Miya wrote: Hmmmm. Maybe all skier numbers going down, but I certainly know a few who stick to XC due to downhill cost. The industry as a whole is certain evolving, especially in a place like CA which gets marginal winters. I'm thinking of our local Sierra Club Ski Touring section. We used to have monthly meetings with 100+ people, and probably 70 trips a season. Now we get maybe 15 people at a meeting and about 12-15 trips a season. In the 1980's we had a mix of people from their 20's to their 80's. Now it's mainly 50's to 80's with almost no younger people interested. |
#19
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Damn it's hard to buy Nordic Skis Nowadays!
On Mar 8, 9:35*pm, wrote:
I thought you were describing LA's chapter, until rechecking your first post. With a total membership of 50-60,000, the Angeles chapter's sections had lots of x-c ski trips locally and to the Sierra in the 1990s. *It was through them - and occasionally hopping a ride on an aircraft co. alpine club bus - that I got started. I wonder if they've had the same diminution of numbers in LA. Gene On Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:26:11 -0800 SMS wrote: Eugene Miya wrote: Hmmmm. Maybe all skier numbers going down, but I certainly know a few who stick to XC due to downhill cost. *The industry as a whole is certain evolving, especially in a place like CA which gets marginal winters. I'm thinking of our local Sierra Club Ski Touring section. We used to have monthly meetings with 100+ people, and probably 70 trips a season. Now we get maybe 15 people at a meeting and about 12-15 trips a season. In the 1980's we had a mix of people from their 20's to their 80's. Now it's mainly 50's to 80's with almost no younger people interested.- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - Maybe it's a brief blip caused by a fad in snowshoeing? Hightech snowshoeing is going to fade and maybe folks will shift back to skiing. Our local outdoor shop only sells mountaineering stuff -- but not really -- that can't last either. The kids cannot be buying much climbing rope in an area 1000+ miles from climbing. Expedition tents can't be moving quick. This stuff must be in the shops as props. It's close to campus -- it has to be about the fluffy clothes. I've seen a couple snowshoe tracks out there this winter, but we live in ski country not shoe country. In the 80's the local outdoor shop sold skis and there were traffic jams of skiers out at the edge of town. Ever to return? I'm going to attend an MSU Outing Club meeting here soon. (It's the Spring Break pukefest this week.) The OC today is set up for doing long-distance trips. When I was in school, and a member, we did local stuff. They seem agreeable to local stuff still. I'll test the water, check the vibe. I'm curious as to why local activity hasn't been a mainstay. That's the Nordic Way. Biking, canoeing, seakayaking, small sailboats, rowing, XC skiing... all this can be done cheap and close to town. Yet the OC mission is stated as being about climbing, whitewater and caving -- all 500+ miles away. Somehow, to me, this relates to activity popularity shifts... Let's see what I find! --JP |
#20
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Damn it's hard to buy Nordic Skis Nowadays!
jeff potter wrote:
Our local outdoor shop only sells mountaineering stuff -- but not really -- that can't last either. The kids cannot be buying much climbing rope in an area 1000+ miles from climbing. People like to buy their equipment close to home. That's why stores that are hundreds of miles from the closest snow sell skis (ditto for climbing equipment). I remember when REI didn't sell downhill skis or snowboards, and they had a tiny selection of rather crappy road bicycles. Now they are into downhill skiing and snowboarding and mountain biking big time, and less into stuff like backpacking or XC skiing. In the Bay Area, only two of their nine stores carry XC skis (Berkeley and Saratoga). I don't blame them; stocking ten different sizes of ten different ski models, and 15 different sizes of five types of boots, is tough when the TAM is so small. REI is one of the few stores where you can buy a commuter bike or touring bike--few bicycle stores carry them any more, but REI still has them made for them under their Novara brand. |
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