Idea Files :: May 2024

SKI TRIPODS

About 30 years ago, Holiday Valley, N.Y., was looking for a durable, inexpensive, and easy solution to support moveable on-hill signs that warn guests of a closed trail or that snowmaking is in progress. Legend has it that longtime former staffers Karl Kohler and Dave Stringfellow came up with the idea to use retired rental skis, bolting three of them together at the tip, which allows the skis to swing out, and bolting the sign to the front two skis so the third ski can pivot back to complete the tripod. The signs used to be made of metal, but accidental encounters with snowcats at night turned the metal into jagged hazards, so Holiday Valley switched to fiberglass. This creative repurposing of old rental skis has been used at Holiday Valley for so long, and the ski tripods are so recognizable, that marketing director Dash Hegeman says guests have asked if they can donate their old skis to be used for the same purpose.