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Thirty years ago, Gear West Ski & Bike opened their door into a tiny, rented 500 sq foot building behind the Domino’s Pizza building in Long Lake. We (Brian Knutson and myself Jan Guenther) invested $11,000 to stock basic bike repair items. A sprinkling of Bridgestone bikes and a few Fischer skis rounded out the offerings. I remember our first sale, a pair of padded bike gloves and a shift cable. Our building had a connecting door to Dominos and all order mistakes were ours to eat. Fast forward two years later, after one location change and a lot of...

Greetings from Beijing! I have been over here at the Paralympic Games for 6 days doing ski service as a part of the US Para-Nordic (USPN) team. It has been a busy trip, but very successful for the team with 10 medals, two gold, 6 silver, and 2 bronze. The most challenging part of the trip was getting over here. The Covid measures here in China are very tight. To cross the border into the country I had to have a well-documented series of negative Covid tests and spent several days in a hotel in LA getting all the documentation...

David Chamberlain The American Birkebeiner, deservedly known as the pinnacle of the ski marathon season in North America, has it all: A beautiful, often challenging and changing course mostly through the Chequamegon National Forest, a race tradition approaching 50 years, and an atmosphere its race organizers capture and enhance so well with every detail. The Birkie has well-earned all the focus that skiers from around the world put on the event every year. But while the Skate 50K often gets most of the attention, many skiers know that the classic course provides one of the best classic ski marathon races...

Short and intense is the life of a ski retailer and ski lover. We wait for our wonderful parks to cover their manmade trails with feet of fake fresh snow. Finally, real snowfalls randomly after the new year and stick just long enough for us to enjoy the natural trails and explore our Mpls lakes on skis. Then the Birke arrives, again! A focused ski season is topped off with Gear West’s Birke wax service, an indoor expo, and of course, the BIG events. Then poof…Skiing pretty much ends after that. Having been in the ski business for 38 years AND loving...

Ali Parsons & Corey Towle Editor’s Note: Ali and Corey met during their first Birkie weekend in 2014 as novice skiers who barely made it to the start lines of the Korte and Prince Haakon. Catching Birkie Fever, they completed their first skate marathons in 2015 and got engaged on Birkie weekend in 2016. Corey is now a six-time Birkie finisher with three elite wave placements. Ali has completed five Birkies, moving up waves and chasing that elusive women’s elite cutoff. When Corey’s not skiing, he’s equipping others for skiing, biking, and running adventures as a manager at Gear West,...