Part-time Wood River Valley resident Heidi Blum was testing skis for Scott, Salomon and several other ski manufacturing companies when she was approached to start a ski company. Blum decided to start her company to serve the niche market of corporate gifts. Heidiskis manufactures handmade skis with custom graphics.
"I revamped a mold and did a lot of testing," Blum said. "The skis are made in Austria, and I live in Switzerland."
Blum grew up visiting Sun Valley from Marin County, Calif. She learned to ski at the age of 6. A resident of the Wood River Valley off and on from 1983 to 1990, she still has a home in the area, which she visits most of the summer and during the winter. Blum skied for the University of Colorado and continues to ski and do limited guiding. In addition, she is an avid climber who has climbed several Himalayan peaks.
"There is no metal in the skis," she said. "They are made of fiber and wood. The wood is Norwegian white ash, and it is expensive."
Ordering skis from heidiskis.com will take a customer through a step-by-step process describing model, length, construction and customization as well as graphics, which are unlimited. Anyone can create a one-of-a-kind ski. Experienced technicians design skis to the exact flex to correspond with a customer's weight, height, skiing ability and type of ski preferred.
"You can have anything on the skis," Blum said. "You can have any graphic you want, or if anyone wants to buy a graphic that I already have, they can do that too."
The skis are produced in limited-edition graphic prints and cost about $5,700 for a totally custom, one-time production; otherwise skis can run from $1,200 to $1,800 depending upon the order. Heidiskis gives 10 percent of all proceeds to the American Himalayan Foundation.
Heidiskis has donated two pairs of skis as prizes for 48 Straight with a custom 48 Straight graphic, to be given out on Friday. In addition there will be skis to demo at Dollar Mountain. To demo Heidiskis call Jim Kjelland at 720-2778.
Heidi Blum makes Heidiskis the boards of choice at the 2008 Director?s Cup race in Aspen, Colo. Photo by
