Town’s new ski tuner is a Robot

By David Nyman

TNews Contributor

As Girdwood and the Turnagain Arm gets slammed by another early season storm, many of us turn our thoughts to breaking out our snowboards and skis and tuning our rides.

Whether conditions are wet and deep or thin and icy, we all know a little love towards our equipment can jump start the season and give us the edge we need to rally like a pro.

Skylar Britton and Tim Karen pause after helping customers in the Alyeska Ski Shop. (Photos by Soren Wuerth)

Two local shops serve skiers and riders, Powder Hound and Alyeska Resort's tuning shop in the Daylodge, coined "Alyeska Ski Service" by its techs.

The head technicians at each location are recognized locals, highly qualified and, coincidentally, tuned skis for separate ski shops in Park City, Utah at one point. Both shops are gaining better equipment, which, for skiers and riders, means boards with sharper edges, smoother glide and conditioned bases. It also means faster turn-around for tuning.

Local Girdwood ski shop, Powder Hound, has brought rarely-available technology.

Introducing ... The Reichmann Slope Master Ski Tuning Machine.

Turnagain News visited with 40-year ski industry veteran and former Alyeska Mountain Manager Brian "Burntski" Burnett to learn about this welcomed addition to the ski and riding community.

We caught Burntski busily and methodically mounting and tuning skis for Powder Hound customers as the store was shutting down for the evening.

Eric Helmbrecht checked in on Burntski in the ski tech room.

Brian Burnett, known by his friends as Burntski, operates the Reichmann Slope Master Ski Tuning Machine. (Photo by David Nyman)

“Brian, are we going to get caught up on the work tonight?” he asked.

“Of course,” said Burntski.

“Eric has invested significantly in the shop and the ski community and it certainly inspired me to go work for Eric due to his commitment to high level services, and it's a big deal," Burntski said.

As Helmbrecht departed, Burntski began a patient description of the features of the Reichmann Robot.

First, the control panel.

The machine itself is governed by a touchscreen control panel. Two four-foot long chambers with articulating gull-wing covers open to allow access to the intricate machinery housed within.

After the technician dials in the specifications for the base grind and edge tune, the machine takes over .

The ski is accepted into the first chamber with rubber rollers gracefully drawing the ski across the base grind wheels while spraying a water-emulsion mixture across the base. The ski is withdrawn back towards the entry platform and depending on the conditon of the ski, this process is repeated multiple times.

Once the base grind is completed the bottom and side edge tuning chamber takes over. The ski is met with articulating ceramic discs that, unlike you and your ratty old file in your garage, work precisely the ski edges. It only needs one pass to complete this cycle and the ski is then carried to the finish platform where any excess emulsion is wiped and a gleaming finish revealed.

“Once we get a couple more people trained up really well on it," Burntski said, "you are going to be able to come in and drop your skis off and say, 'Hey guys, prep my skis for me, this is the prep I get from you, you guys do a two-degree and one-degree base edge bevel and it will be able to be done and you won’t have to have me do it.'”

There are only three of these advanced ski tuning units in retail shops in North America, according to Burntski. Some ski and board manufacturers have a system to fine-tune new equipment before being sent to retail shops. Retail shops that do have Reichmann robots typically have large rental fleets that require servicing.

Burntski said that once multiple technicians are trained on the Reichmann Slope Master it is possible to obtain “top shelf tuning” on a consistent basis.

TN’s historic experience with tuning is that when a high performing ski technician is identified in the community, that person is bestowed an unannounced title and stature as a local Ski God. And when skis are dropped off for tuning, requests are made to direct work to those technicians. Often that request is accompanied with a small gift to curry favor as well as a homage to their stature.

Another person to earn that distinction is Tim Haren, Ski Shop manager at Alyeska Resort. Haren and colleague Skyler Britton took over Alyeska's shop three years ago and have turned a gritty corner in the recesses of the Daylodge into a well-oiled machine. Barely "maintaining the fleet" of rental skis and hardly covering expenses, Haren and Britton are turning skis and snowboards around so fast, they are, in Haren's words, "crushing it".

"I'm not going to tell people they're not going to have their gear for two weeks," Haren said. "Instead, they'll be ready to rip in the morning."

Haren, who plays percussion in Anchorage-based band "Hope Social Club", knew Burntski in Park City as the "other" tuning guru. He moved to Alaska and worked for a decade at REI. When Burntski was Alyeska's Mountain Manager, he hired Haren to run the company's tuning shop.

For the past few weeks, Haren and Britton have worked to clear a wall to make space for a "Infrared Waxer". "The new machine will be super bitchin," he said, adding that it is user-friendly and has zero waste.

Haren, who began tuning skis more than 30 years ago, said it's good to wax bases after 20,000 to 30,000 vertical feet of usage. "Wax doesn't last as long as people think," he said.