Pierce Skate & Ski

Located only 1-1/2 hours east of Portland, Oregon is Mt. Hood, the Palmer snowfield and the town of Government Camp representing the nexus of summer ski race training for North America.

From early June through mid-August, National Team, College, Junior and Masters racers train from 7:00 am to noon daily. Afternoons are spent in video analysis, dryland training activities and going to the test centers in Govy to get skis and boots to test the following day.

Through the years our key manufacturers, dedicated to ski racing, have invested substantial amounts of time, effort and money into test centers enabling racers to "try before they buy" the lastest and greatest gear for the upcoming season.

In 1998 to better understand what actually goes on at Mt. Hood, we attended our first summer ski camp. This concept quickly evolved from being a chaperone for a young racer into being actively involved with the equipment testing process and working on the snowfield with athletes and coaches on a daily basis. Being an independent shop has enabled us to conduct our own equipment assessment void of any manufacturers brand bias and keep our fingers on the pulse of ski racing and product development.

Over the last 10 years no other shop in the ski industry has made this type of commitment or investment into product testing to provide their customers the best in equipment recommendations. Summer 2007 was our 10th tour-of-duty working on the Palmer snowfield. This years equipment recommendations represent our compilation of the testing in June combined with information from our previous 9 years at Mt. Hood.

Ski racing is a shared year around passion at Pierce Skate & Ski, the following is a list of current and (*)former Pierce staff who have served at Mt. Hood: Ed Atwood, Brian Foley, Gaylord Gladwin, Dave Hinz, Marv McClure, Bart Pierce, Terri Pierce, Tyler Pierce, *John Thompsen, *Jeff Abrams, and *Phil McClure.