BOZEMAN — It’s a Saturday in January: a time when many folks probably hit the ski slopes.
But this season, as you’ve likely noticed, the weather hasn’t been quite as cold in Bozeman.
So, what does that mean for local ski shops?
“We were actually surprised to see that our numbers are almost the same as they were last year,” said Rob Funderburk.
“Ski sales have definitely been a little bit slower this year,” said Nick Turner.
Rob Funderburk is the general manager at Bangtail Bike and Ski.
“My big concern, really with this dry winter is that I don’t think we’re going to have as good a sell-through going forward,” said Funderburk. He says despite on-par sales, it hasn't been an easy year.
Nick Turner is the owner of Montana Ski Tuning and Boot Fitting.
“Right now, we typically start looking at doing re-orders to keep our stock good for the rest of the season, and we’re kind of just waiting to see what Mother Nature wants to give us before we start spending anymore,” said Turner.
WATCH: How local ski shops are being impacted by mild weather
While both shops are concerned about the unpredictability of the weather, they have been impacted in different ways.
For Montana Ski Tuning and Boot Fitting, ski sales may be less, but…
“What we’re seeing a lot more with people, typically with a low snow year, is their feet hurt more,” said Turner. “So, we’re seeing a lot more boot fitting this year than we typically do in good snow years.”
While for Bangtail…
“We’ve seen more early season sales than years past,” said Funderburk. “We had pretty good Christmas sales as well.”
“Even if they’re not buying new skis, they’ll buy waxes, they need hats, they need stuff to go with that too,” he added.
That’s why both businesses say despite the warm weather, they expect everything to even out.
“We’ve had our bike season impacted by smoke in the summertime, and we’ve had our ski season effected by dry winters like this,” said Funderburk. “In general, though, it seems to average out pretty good cause usually, usually we get snow.”
“It seems to balance itself somehow every year; it’s just different categories do better than others with the snow conditions,” said Turner.
The one major concern ski shops have: the warmth.
“That’s what’s really hurting us,” said Turner.
“It’s unprecedented, especially this late in the year,” said Funderburk.
MTN’s Esha Walia decided to ask Chief Meteorologist Mike Heard if this mild weather is normal for this time of year.
“To have a spell of mild weather is not unusual, but coming off the warmest December on record for southwest Montana for the most part, that’s unusual, very unusual,” said Heard.
Mike says while the valley may be experiencing a snow drought, that’s not the case for the mountains.
“The mountains are actually doing pretty good, so it’s kind of misleading because you don’t see anything here in the valley floor,” said Heard.
The ski shop owners share the same sentiment.
“Skiing is still out there, still fun to do, you just have to go a little further to find it,” said Funderburk.
