There is so much going on that it is hard to tell many stories about what we're doing.  Every day is filled with about 50 different tasks as we slowly check things off of our list and our launch schedule compresses.  Today we wrapped up all of the arrangements for bringing the stone grinding operation up to West Yellowstone's Fall Camp while at the same time making arrangements for the catering for the Thanksgiving Ski Camp we run at Devil's Thumb Ranch.  We also had the electricians hooking up the stone grinder, some last-minute haggling with one of our vendors, working on business cards and artwork for the retail space while juggling 100 other things in the background. 

While it is hard work, it is nice to see that everything is falling into place.  Projects are nearing completion and instead of long lists of tasks, we are now dealing with manageable lists of details.

I've been keeping in touch with Zach out in Vermont and it sounds like he is just as crazy.  They are ripping their shop apart in preparation for his new Tazzari RP-23 stone grinding machine while juggling ski-picking duties and keeping me on track as we finish up the stone grinding shop and complete work on our flex testing machines.  We have been working with a machinist to complete Zach's next generation of flex tester and I have been working with two engineers here to get the electrical automation and software pieces of the project in place. 

We hope to have a prototype of our automated flex tester by Thanksgiving so we can begin testing this winter.  The new flex tester will automate our current process, allow us to collect much more data and dramatically increase the speed of each test.  Presently the tests take 5-10 minutes per pair of skis which really adds up when you have 100 pairs of a pre-season order to sort through.   Our vision for the project is to have every ski we sell in a database so that we can use that information to refine our selection process.  It is also our goal to be testing the skis of top finishers at races across the country.  With our new system in place, we should be able to develop some correlations between ski characteristics and performance in a wide range of conditions.  We hope that we will learn more about skis in the process and be able to use that information to refine our ski selection process.

Anyway, time to get back to work.  Depending on how much of our inventory arrives by Friday, we may be up and running on the web Monday.  We will be opening at our retail location inside Boulder Cycle Sport October 9, with the Boulder Nordic Club Team night October 11 and our Grand Opening party Saturday, October 14.  See you out there!