Summer 2020
I remember when the “C word” wasn’t Covid and I long for that simple time again. Who would’ve thought that a global pandemic would shut down our resorts, forests, trails, schools, our industry, economy, country, and in fact our world? One minute we’re enjoying fresh pow and looking forward to longer days and spring corn, the next we we’re shut down, shut out, and told to stay home.
Most of us thought “no problem, I can still slap on my skins and earn my turns,” only to be threatened by fines, arrests, or shamed on social media. Mother Nature didn’t help either. She just kept dumping snow on our hills taunting and teasing us to come out and play! My bike was my therapist and salvation. Fat bike, road bike, and after the snow was gone, my true love, my mountain bike helped me stay sane in an insane world. Cycling is the closest thing to freedom I’ve found. I’ve logged almost 700 miles on my mountain and fat bikes since the start of covid! Not feeling it prudent to travel very far this summer, we have gotten to know our local trails pretty well.
I’m sure you’ll agree with me, none of us chose the snow sports industry for wealth, fame, or fortune. We’ll leave that to all of the pretty ski instructors and Instagram models. We ended up here because of our love of the mountains. We crave the sun on our face, the hush of the falling snow, rusting of the wind through the trees (even though in the back of our minds we are wondering if that wind is loading our bomb rout). I’m no exception. I founded Edge Rescue almost 10 years ago because we had a product that was too good not to share with my ski patrol sisters and brothers around the world and I wanted to travel, ski, and meet all of you. Averaging 35-40 resort visits a year, the skiing has been amazing! What I didn’t anticipate are the friendships I’ve made. It feels like I have a few instant best friends in every locker room I visit. It’s hard on the road, being away from family and friends, but you make it worth it! I’m rarely ever lonely on the road. It seems like there are always plenty of patrollers to swap war stories over a beer at the end of the day. It makes it hard to leave, but I know I get to meet a new batch of friends at the next resort the next day!
Who knows what this winter holds for all of us? We are confident if need be we can still demo our toboggans safely using the latest CDC and health industry precautions. That being said, we don’t plan on much non-essential traveling this winter. We are already working on more Get Edge-ucatedvideos. We’re looking into hosting a few “Best Practice” zoom happy hours. Product redesigns and prototyping are in the works as well. I’m also looking forward to patrolling the full season at my home resort!
For now, we are back in Portland where it all started. We have consolidated all of our business activities in our new manufacturing facility and warehouse, and we are blessed to be very slammed with orders for the 20-21 season!
Cheers and happy Sledding!
Toby Willey, CEO
My bike is my therapist…
Toby Willey, CEO