Today we’re talking with Rachel and Drew Harding, the owners of The Spokane Alpine Haus in Spokane Washington, about the ski scene in Spokane; the Alpine Haus’ massive equipment leasing program; interesting ways to destroy skis; kid’s gear; and more.
TOPICS & TIMES:
- Rachel & Drew’s origin story (2:10)
- The ski scene in Spokane (11:38)
- The 5 ski areas and how they differ (14:44)
- The shop & the Spokane community (18:36)
- Their leasing program (22:50)
- Their damage policy (36:54)
- Kid’s equipment (43:20)
- What We’re Celebrating (53:54)
RELATED LINKS:
What in the world?!? Gotta check this out…
Spokane Alpine Haus sold me my first pair of Bodacious 196s. It is all their fault ;-)
Great podcast!
Ha, and you’ll still be talking about the 196 Bodacious till the end of time.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Yes. Yes, I will.
Well that was a surprise! I’m fortunate enough to live about a mile from this great shop. But let’s not make a habit of talking too much about Spokane, okay Jonathan ;)
Glad to hear about a great local shop, the owners, and their humorous checkered romantic beginnings! A success story!
Listening to Drew talk about lessons brought back memories of Lyon’s Ski School at Stevens Pass in the early 80’s.
Parents would drop us off at the school about 7:00am and we’d ride a school bus for an hour and a half to the mountain.
Four hours of lessons and then unsupervised skiiing and what not until like 9:30pm when we had to be back to the bus for the ride back down to be picked up by our parents. Today with everybody connected seems so strange that we were 11-12 year old kids with zero communication with our parents from drop off to pickup.
A lot of life’s lessons were learned riding those buses and getting lost on that mountain.
To this day that distinct smell of diesel engines idling in the freezing snowy weather brings back that memory of hauling our skis back to the dozen or so rows of busses idling in the parking lot waiting to take us back down the mountain. Really wish kids today could have that same experience today.
With the Vail acquisition of Stevens those days are long gone. Was so sad to see this post from Lyon’s Ski School.
Hello Lyon Families,
We are reaching out to let you know Vail Resorts will no longer be extending us a contract to operate at Stevens Pass. That means we will not be operating our regular season lessons and transportation as we have for over 55 years.