Pete Wagner, a ski designer from Telluride, CO and owner of Wagner Custom Skis, believes in detailed personal surveys, talking to his his customers directly, and having his production team listen to client playlists as they construct your new pair of $1,700 custom skis.

“Wagner has read The Hidden Messages in Water, the book that claims vibrations can be trapped, and therefore, things like ambient music can affect structural integrity of materials. Pete believes. And he exerts a calming influence on his product—a factory soundtrack of reggae and world beat. I told him he’d been living in Telluride too long, and, just to smite this new age bullshit, I sent him a playlist composed of early ’90s metal. All Pantera, all the time,” writes Jake Bogoch of Skiing Magazine.

photo credit: Gonzalo Baeza Hernández

SkiReport.com (available for the iPhone at the App Store) is an application that allows skiers and snowboarders to publish real-time snow conditions, view live area cams and weather reports, and locate nearby ski areas via GPS. Not only is the application utilitarian, but it’s also been helpful in keeping ski resorts transparent about their snowfall reporting, which often is hyped as a marketing tool.

Two Dartmouth economists, skiers Jonathan Zinman and Eric Zitzewitz, decided to study resort snow reports from 2004 to 2008 and compare these findings to government weather stations.

“They found that ski resorts across the U.S. and Canada reported more fresh snow — 23 percent more, on average — on skier-coveted weekends than during the week. Resorts with more business to gain were the ones most likely to boast of deeper snowfalls, their study said,” reports Lisa Rathke of Salon.

“The resorts question the findings. For one thing, they say, the government’s weather stations aren’t necessarily in the same snowy spots as the slopes. And they say overreporting snow does them no good if disgruntled skiers and riders find less snow than expected.”

One way or another, useful iPhone apps like this are allowing winter enthusiasts to make smarter travel decisions.

photo credit: goose3five

As seen at the SIA Snow Show in Denver this past week, ski and snowboard manufacturers are hoping that new technological advances in “rocker” design will help fuel performance and marketability of their product.

“Rocker was developed to ski deep, fresh snow — the shape encourages skis to float on top of the stuff, instead of digging into it — but now ski companies around the world are adding rocker to skis in ways they say will improve skiing on groomed trails,” writes Douglas Brown of The Denver Post.

“‘I guarantee you, every (manufacturer) has some rocker in their skis,’ said Erin Forest, marketing director at K2 Skis, the largest ski manufacturer in the world. ‘It’s the next revolution.’”

photo credit: H Dragon

Ever drive three hours to Crested Butte or Killington and suddenly realize you left your son’s skis or snowboard in the garage? Hoping to avoid or scale back the valuable time spent in rental equipment or ski school lines? Want to get on the road with the same amount of gear you just packed two days earlier? Relax, because solutions exist.

In The New York Times Bill Pennington discusses common sense approaches to gearing up for winter weekends, with a keen eye towards organizing children and the uninitiated with simple systems, check lists, and the idea of the single bag:

“The key to this is getting young children — and doddering adults — accustomed to the idea that all the ski/snowboard-specific items go in this one bag. Why is that so important? On the morning of your first day of skiing or riding, not only is there only one place to look for all that stuff, should you have to drive to the mountain from your lodging, everyone takes his bags, carrying everything he needs into the lodge.”

Innovative product strategy and inspired relationships with sponsored athletes like the late skier Shane McConkey have helped shape the Seattle-based manufacturer’s finest ski ideas.

“The company listens to its athletes and pushes them to push the company. It challenges its staff, many of whom are expert skiers and snowboarders, to challenge convention,” writes Jay Greene of BusinessWeek.