Alpine Base & Edge

Brilliant at what they do, flexible with what you need, eminently helpful. So impressive.

This is a fabulous place to shop filled with well-​informed people. Finding race suits for teenagers is never a fun activity. Peter and the crew made it a great experience and were kind enough to go over aspects of the suits that I as a non skier had no idea about. Nice to know that stores like this exist!

Zero Stars, more like it. Alpine Base & Edge seems to have a good reputation from people you talk to in town, but let me tell you about my experience and some experiences I have heard from others. I recently took my nearly new skis into them for a simple hand wax. The skis came back to me with delamination/​base bubbles in the tips of not one, but both skis, that were the result of overheating the skis with the waxing iron. I happen to know who did the waxing job, and it was one of Alpine’s long-​time employees. This is obviously one of the most careless mistakes a tech can make working on skis and shows a complete lack of attention on the work. For the high prices they charge, I expect top notch work, not careless mistakes that damage new skis. While lots of folks says Alpine is one of the best shops in the area, be warned. I’ve also heard from some friends about some very sloppy mounting jobs done at Alpine of late.

I was fitted for new ski boots at Alpine Base & Edge… the gentleman spent well over an hour with me. He was truly a miracle worker! I had been so frustrated with my boot experiences over the years, including 3+ pairs bought from BSD (store on Arapahoe). I really wish I had the name of the guy that helped me with my boots… he made skiing fun again! I was about to give up, but he told me to trust him, I was skeptical as he was recommending a smaller size than I had been in the past. I’m so glad I did! I also bought a helmet and goggles that were on sale. Great store and ski boot fitting perfection!!! Thank you Alpine Base & Edge!

What a great local resource though! Employees and owner who are passionate about skiing. I’m not a high-​performance skier, I snowboard these days, and I’m not really a high-​performance snowboarder either. Ha. But you can tell that this is the crowd that we are catering to here. Not that they don’t have useful stuff for us average skiers — I didn’t see anyone being talked down-​to here.
You’ll see a beautiful store, recently expanded from what I understand. Various areas of skis, poles, some clothing, a good selection of maintenance and repair items! And oh the machines they have in the shop — I dunno what they do, but they sure are pretty. :)
Apparently there’s an upstairs boot fitting room, I didn’t visit.
My main experience was attending their waxing clinic (they also offer edge and p-​tex clinics) — taught by their employees. I can’t say enough good things about making self-​repair and understanding of equipment a sharing opportunity for a business. Certainly within skiing, you’d have a lot fewer ignorant customers/​equipment owners! I know that at least some of us will learn from the clinic, but still hire someone to do the work.
I get a good impression, based on both their floor sale and seeing behind the scenes in the repair shop. If I were looking for somewhere where I thought the tech working on my equipment actually cared and has been around long enough to acquire some skills (through time, experience, training or osmosis), I’d go here. Not that other places are bad, but the shop area is really decked out and a place where mechanics can go to town doing what they do.
After saving this review, I’m gonna go put this shop on my Boulder «list».
Note — their hours are longer than indicated here on Unilocal right now — closing at 8pm many nights. Perhaps these are their winter hours.