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We've been getting a lot of questions recently on how to properly size junior race skis - both gs and sl - for junior ski racers, so we put together this video guide to help out:

If you're trying to decide from home, use a measuring tape to hit those heights to figure out the closest ski length for your young racer. Still having trouble? Swing by the shop, give us a call or shoot us an email and our experts will advise.

In this week's Start Haus Style, we take a look at two high performance outfits from Flylow Gear and Mammut. Flylow is a Tahoe company that blends style and performance - resort functionality with backcountry versatility. Mammut's long history in alpinism and mountaineering makes for some of the most technically advanced ski clothing at the store.

First up, the Flylow Phoebe Jacket and Flylow Chione Pant.

Next up, the Mammut Niva 3L Jacket and Mammut Vail Pant.

The Next two videos in our series take us through setting and finishing the side angle of the ski in sharpening your ski edges.

First up, here's what you need to know about the tools you'll need (shop ski tuning tools here).

Next, we show you the proper technique for setting and finishing the ski edge:

The whole video series is available here, or you can buy the DVD for easy access here.

A few years back, when powder was bottomless, fat skis were new and rocker was rocking our world for the first time, powder skis were a one-trick pony, and people loved them. As time has gone on, skiers have started to figure out that powder doesn't last all day, and often conditions sent skiers running back to their car by lunch to swap out those powder specialists for an all mountain ski.

More recently, ski manufacturers have started to figure that out too, producing powder skis with a little added versatility so you can ski them all day - and for a few days after the storm. Enter the new Dynastar Cham 117, new for 2015.

Both building on and tweeking the successful Cham 5-point ski design, the Cham 117 hits a sweet spot between pure powder grins and all-mountain versatility to keep going when the soft stuff gets tracked out. Rocker in the tip, just a tiny bit of rise in the tail, and taper both in front and back with traditional camber and sidecut underfoot make up the shape, and lightweight metal-less wood core construction sets up the flex and ride.

We're really excited about the new winter clothing in stock at Start Haus for the winter, so we decided to show it off a little bit. In this first instillation of Start Haus Style, we put together two outfits, one from Alp-N-Rock and one from Descente.

First up, we have the Alp-N-Rock Winter Edelweiss Reversible Shirt, Alp-N-Rock Geneva Down Vest and Alp-N-Rock Kitzbuhler Down Skirt:

Next, we have the Descente Becca Jacket and Descente Selene Pant:

Stay tuned for more Start Haus Style.

At Start Haus we get a significant amount of people every season coming in hoping to buy a new liner for their ski boot. There are many custom liners on the market and strong opinions for and against each of them, the most successful of which is the Intuition heat-moldable brand. In this short Boot Fitter’s Notes we’ll examine the Intuition liners a bit more closely.

The Intuition has been around for several decades and is the preferred liner for telemark, alpine touring boots, snowboard boots, and are used as an upgrade for many alpine ski boots. Intuition offers several versions of it’s liner from ski touring specific with a free moving flex-zone in the back for articulation, to tongued “Race” liners. At Start Haus we’ve tried many of the liners and find for our money the Alpine Power Wrap is the best of the bunch.

The Intuition Alpine Power Wrap is a wrap design liner made of their densest closed-cell Ultralon foam. This foam is quite dense and firm, and has almost no anatomical shape out of the package; therefore if you try it on before hand (which we don’t recommend) it won’t feel good. Once Properly molded to your feet and boot, the difference is staggering.

The Next 3 videos in our World Cup Ski Tuning Series walks us through some key tool & tool maintenance points. The right clamps for the job, files and taking care of your tools.

First up, caring for your ski tuning tools:

Next, the right clamps for holding your files to your edge angle and base bevel guides:

All you need to know about files:

If you want all the ski tuning videos in one place, you can buy the World Cup Ski Tuning DVD here, and you can get all the tools and wax you need here.

Start Haus and Alpine Initiatives are teaming up to auction off a pair of first-run Alpine Initiative Armada JJ skis that were donated to us for this cause by one of our customers to help support his partner and child.

These rare JJ's, signed by JP Auclair, are  number54 of 60, and we're auctioning them off with 100 percent of the proceeds going to the AuclairFund, which is part of the Alpine Initiative started by Auclair to help his young son Leo and JP's partner Ingrid during this tough time.

This is your chance to own a piece of history and J.P. himself, but mostly to help out those he left behind. Lets bid early and often for this very good cause.

CLICK HERE TO BID!

Thanks,
The Start Haus Team

If you've just bought Black Diamond Ascension Nylon STS climbing skins, it can be a little daunting to figure out how to get them fit and trimmed to your skis.

Fortunately, Gregg here at the Start Haus is a pro. We'll go through step by step with Gregg so you get your skins trimmed right the first time.

First things first, here's what should be included - organize it to get ready to go.

The Head Great Joy was one of the skis our female ski testers were most excited about when it was announced, and turned out to be one of our absolute favorites when we got it on the snow.

Ski manufacturers often announce the "next wonder material" that will "revolutionize the way we ski" and often, it doesn't quite live up to the hype. But in this case, a lot of the credit as to why we liked the Head Great Joy - and the whole Head Joy women's ski line - is a new material called graphene, previously used in Head tennis rackets, said to have one of the best strength-to-weight ratios of any material.

In the next three videos, we'll get you started tuning your skis. First up, you'll have to set the base bevel on your ski:

Next up, let's talk about sidewalls. You'll need to be able to work with your ski's sidewall to work on the ski's edge, specifically setting the side angle:

And here Jim shows us how to shape the sidewall, both setting you up to work on the edge and creating a smooth surface for the ski to run on up on edge:

In case you missed the first series of videos, click here, or stay tuned as the series continues on our Youtube channel here.

And of course, get all the ski tools you need at starthaus.com.

We wanted to put something together for you, to help you figure out what you or your junior racer needs when getting ready for the season. Swing by the shop, call, email or Live Chat to get more details on your specific needs for your age group, events, ability level, etc - our experts are here to help!