Consumer Demos

It seems like on mountain consumer demo days, especially in this area, are a thing of the past.

Any local suggestions? I'm looking to replace my all-mountain skis (2018/19 Kores) & might even check some ski more carving oriented skis (demoed Stockli SCs out west last season).

Before getting my Kores, I rented demos on mountain in Big Sky to narrow the field. Any local shops have any kind of premium demo program? Locally, I mostly ski Timerline & Snowshoe.

Scott wrote:

I don’t have an answer for you, unfortunately, but your post did make me realize that demo days really have kind of disappeared. They used to be very common in the Mid-Atlantic. I wonder what happened?  Were they more popular during the transition from “classic” to shaped skis when people might have been more hesitant about trying something new?  I seem to recall these local demo days were sponsored by the manufacturers, who traveled from mountain to mountain. 

 The pandemic seasons were a factor for demo days going away.  In PA, the ownership change to Vail Resorts probably made a big difference.

For Massanutten, the fact that the great ski shop in Charlottesville shut down meant that the demo weekend went away.

In New England, demo days have been coming back in recent years.

Sugarfest at Sugar Mountain in NC in early December has continued.  The set up doesn't seem any different now than twenty years ago when I started thinking about buying my first good skis.

Doesn't help you for the mid-Atlantic, but I enjoyed 5 days of demos last April at Snowbird as part of the Blister Summit.  I had a coupon and it cost me only $10 total.  I took full advantage of the demos.

Believe they are coming back next April too.  Without the coupon it costs about $100, but that's not too bad for access to about 25 different ski brands and a couple of snowboard brands, all day long for multiple days.