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It took awhile to get up to speed, but two entrepreneurs have made it by sticking to their Nordic roots.
Skinny Skis owners Jeff Crabtree (left) and Phil Leeds.
Thirty-five years ago, valley native and cross-country ski racer Jeff Crabtree graduated from the University of Colorado and went to his first job interview with a Denver bank. Dressed in suit and tie, he sat in a sterile corporate office and faced the question, “Why do you want to work for us?”
Crabtree thought for a moment, envisioning his hometown view of the Tetons, the incomparable Nordic loops at Trail Creek Ranch, the backcountry powder on Teton Pass, and the winter trail to Jenny Lake.
“I don’t,” he responded.
Instead, he returned to Jackson and took a job as Nordic coach for the Jackson Hole Ski Club. He soon realized something was missing in Jackson, telling friend Owen Anderson: “You can’t buy racing skis in this town. We ought to start a store.”
Today, Skinny Skis is one of the leading outfitters in Jackson Hole, occupying a niche that emphasizes Nordic racing and trail running. It sells a variety of other outdoor gear, as well, from cook stoves to clothing to climbing paraphernalia. It also has a summer branch, Moosely Seconds, in the Dornan’s complex at Moose, inside Grand Teton National Park.
Crabtree’s family had been in retail in Jackson for years, operating Ann’s Apparel, Ann’s II, the Crabtree Studio photo shop, and The Copper Penny, a curios shop. Anderson’s $1,700 investment in 1974 allowed the two businessmen to order a quiver of skis, a dozen wool hats, and an assortment of waxes, poles, and accessories. Ann’s II closed during the winters, so rent was free. There was no salary, and no summer business. “We wouldn’t have made it if I didn’t live at home [with my parents] the first and second years,” Crabtree says.
In the spring of 1977, when working at Colter Bay, Crabtree met nineteen-year-old Phil Leeds, a University of California Santa Cruz student looking for a partner with whom to climb the Grand Teton. The two hit it off. Leeds “fell in love with Jackson Hole,” he says; he took a year off from his economics studies and bumped chairs at the ski area for a season before finishing school and then returning as a partner. The store was on the cusp of success, and Leeds’ experience running a ski shop in California boosted the business. Anderson left the scene in 1984, just before Skinny Skis became a hot enterprise.
Looking back, Crabtree outlines the evolution. “Nordic skiing in 1974 was a fairly lonely sport,” he says; “[but then] all of a sudden, tele [telemark] skiing was getting popular.” There was the Galibier leather boot, metal edges on skis—and cross-country racer Bill Koch introducing the skate-skiing technique. “That was a huge boon to the racing business,” Crabtree says.
Today, Crabtree and Leeds are selling through the Internet, as well, which enables them to stock more models of their niche brands than would be needed just in Jackson. They also have launched a program providing enough skis, boots, and poles so that every third grader in town has a chance to go cross-country skiing.
The partners envision a return to simplicity after an arms race that has seen most gear morph in unimaginable directions. While technology can make learning easier, the corresponding price tag can be prohibitively high. Also, too many youth are kicking back with their PlayStations, instead of kicking and gliding down the Nordic trails.
“We need to turn the tide and get the people out,” Leeds says.
