From Ski Day Struggles to Smart Solutions: Julie Gacnik's Pure Mountain Fun Story

In this episode, the Ski Moms are joined by Julie Gacnik, co-founder of Pure Mountain Fun and mom of four who turned her family's ski day frustrations into a thriving business. A former university administrator who learned to ski in Iowa, Julie's journey began when her 10-year-old daughter invented a 3.5-ounce ski carrier for a school project. After strangers at Beaver Creek asked where they could buy it, the family launched Pure Mountain Fun in March 2020, just one week before the ski industry shut down.

Julie shares how the COVID pandemic actually helped them build their business, giving time to figure out domestic manufacturing and navigate virtual trade shows. All four children remain actively involved, from choosing product colors to inventing new items like the ski mat and ring toss made from remnant fabric. The family's commitment became clear when they turned down an offer to sell the business after the kids insisted they wanted to maintain control over their story.

The episode concludes with their après ski traditions: chips and salsa, root beer for the youngest, and blowing bubbles that freeze in the mountain air while watching "Foxana" the fox visit their condo patio.

Quotes:

"The ski pack is a 3 1/2 ounce ski carrier designed to fit like a backpack, but also intuitive enough that a little child such as a three year old understands how to carry it."

"If the kids have fun, if the memories are left on the mountain and not in the parking lot from a negative experience, they had a positive experience on the mountain."

Links:

Pure Mountain Fun: PureMountainFun.com Special Offer: Use code SKIMOMSFUN for 15% off

Participating destinations include:
🏔️ Steamboat 🏔️ Winter Park Resort 🏔️ Arapahoe Basin 🏔️ Palisades Tahoe 🏔️ Mammoth Mountain 🏔️ Big Bear Mountain Resort 🏔️ Snow Valley Mountain Resort 🏔️ Stratton Mountain Resort 🏔️ Sugarbush Resort 🏔️ Snowshoe Mountain Resort 🏔️ Crystal Mountain 🏔️ Schweitzer Mountain Resort 🏔️ Deer Valley Resort 🏔️ Solitude Mountain Resort 🏔️ Tremblant Resort 🏔️ Blue Mountain Resort

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Transcript

Nicole: Welcome back to the Ski Moms podcast. It's season five and we're hitting the slopes. We're sharing real unfiltered stories of motherhood on the snow. From conquering the bunny hill with toddlers to squeezing in your own powder days, this season celebrates every type of ski mob.

Thanks for joining us. We've got a great season lined up and be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. Today on the Ski Moms Podcast, we're joined by Julie Gasnik, the creator, kind of the mom who helped the creator behind Pure Mountain Fun, a brand built around simple,

purposeful ski accessories that help families enjoy their time in the mountains without all the stress.

As a mom who understands what it's like to juggle boots, skis, snacks and kids all at once, Julie has turned her own ski day frustrations into smart mom approved products.

And Sarah and I have tested them. We love them. We are so excited to talk to Julie about what has become a family business. So welcome, Julie.

Julie: Thank you.

Nicole: Sarah and I love a good ski show. We trolled the aisles and she saw the pack and she's like, what is this? And it's so lightweight. It's so clever. It's so simple.

Tell us what the ski pack is that kind of started it all.

Julie: Yeah, you bet. So the ski pack is a 3 1/2 ounce ski carrier designed to fit like a backpack,

but also intuitive enough that a little child such as a three year old understands how to carry it. And then when they're done carrying their skis, it literally stuffs right in their backpack.

The beautiful part is it lets a child carry their skis hands free. And so when a family member's navigating a parking lot or walking between cars, you're not getting those door dings or those racing stripes down the side of the car because the skis are scratching them, they're not dragging them.

It literally is secured to the child's back. So a parent could lift a kid up,

carry em like you traditionally would, or just hold their hand, load a bus. It just, it really simplifies the process very.

Nicole: As they say in the tech world, elegant design like less is more.

So we'll dive more into that, but first we want to hear your ski background. Where did you learn to ski? When? How did it all come together for you?

Julie: So I grew up in the Midwest, which is kind of funny considering now I do a lot in the ski industry.

I grew up in Iowa and so I actually learned to ski at Snowstar.

They called it a ski Mountain.

And I think there were three runs at the time. And so we always joked and said, if you grew up skiing in the Midwest, you know how to ski on ice, and so you can ski anywhere.

And that was really true. I was the youngest of four, so I was always chasing my older brothers and kind of learning to navigate all the terrain they would take me on, which was wonderful.

In my early 20s, I kind of wanted to get out, so I moved to Colorado. And so I was really, at that time, skiing more in the mountains here. I'd had exposure to it prior to moving out here, which kind of just enhance that love for the outdoors in general,

but specifically that winter. The winter sports on. On the mountain. So. Yeah.

Sarah: So you're saying you're the youngest of four. Were you taught in lessons, or did you just get out there and they just threw you out there behind the brothers?

Julie: That's a great question.

You know what I remember? Okay, so there's another kind of mountain back there, and it's called Chestnut Mountain, which was, like, big time getting to go there on a weekend because there were more than three runs at that time.

And I learned to ski between my dad's legs, you know, going down on that nice little snow plow, or pizza, as they call it now. And I remember doing that.

And once I could make turns and stop efficiently, then I was just chasing my. My older brothers.

And I do recall one trip to Keystone Resort when I was a kid, and my dad had hurt his knee,

and so he. He took me to my first lesson ever, and they said, well, what does she ski? And he goes, oh, she skis a whole mountain.

Well, there's a very big difference between skiing a whole mountain in Iowa or Illinois or Wisconsin and skiing a mountain in Colorado. And so I was on Diamonds and double diamonds the entire day and had the fear of God put into me at that point.

So. But it also taught me that,

you know, if you really are coachable and you listen to the instructor, you can get down anything. And after that, I had no problem keeping up with my older siblings.

It was wonderful. I felt like I really had stepped up the game, so.

Nicole: And now tell us a little bit about your family and how you've gotten them up and running.

Julie: Sure. So we're a family of six. I have four children. They all started skiing around the age of three,

and partly no one wanted to be left behind. And anybody younger than that would kind of pout or throw a fit at a lodge or anywhere. I remember one time, our youngest had thrown on her mittens and she was like a toddler.

Had her mittens on and her snow boots, not even ski boots and thought she was going, you know, threw a helmet on.

And so we just got them on the mountain early. I honestly did teach most of them to ski. They all did have exposure to lessons. Some of them at Loveland they had a kind of a little family pack to start em off.

And that was great when we relocated back out here.

And so it was just. That is our weekend adventure. We call that our backyard. We live right outside of Denver. So going up to the mountains for a weekend is 45 minutes to an hour and a half.

You know, drive without traffic. We all know what it is with traffic a lot more.

But it really is a way to get us out. We do things as a family. Even now I have a 16 year old and she still prefers to ski with the family because we make it fun.

It's really about the experience and how you start and finish the day really I think impacts if a kid wants to come back.

Sarah: It sounds definitely like the early days were probably very challenging with four little ones. Tell us about the origin of the ski pack and you know, how it all started.

Julie: Great question. Okay. So in 2020, my husband had had. He actually had long haulers from COVID that started right.

And so everything, the way it all came together is so unique. 2020, my daughter did a Destination Imagination project through the elementary school. She was 10 years old.

We went on a demo day to Beaver Creek and we got approached as we loaded a shuttle from some grandparents saying where did you buy that?

Because all four kids literally walked onto this shuttle, grabbed onto the bar and were ready to ski. And nobody else could do that. And our youngest had just turned three.

So here's this three year old kind of walking like she owned the place, right.

And I, I kind of told them who we were and whatnot. And I didn't have the heart to say it was sewed on a $40 sewing machine, you know. Cause this was for a school project.

But we knew we were onto something. Cause we got approached more and more then. And so we quickly threw a utility patent on this pro, this idea that she had not knowing what it would become but more so just giving us time to think about it.

So for $140 you file, file this paperwork just to safeguard it.

And we decided, okay, we're going to do something with it. She presented it for her project at Destination Imagination and then we really kind of rolled with it.

We launched Pure Mountain Fun in early March. And a week later, the ski industry shut down.

So during the time of COVID it gave us time to figure out how to build a business around this. How do you manufacture when everything had to move domestic?

Where should you be if trade shows are closing down? Like outdoor retailer was virtual that year.

You know, all these unique experiences that all of a sudden were done behind that usually were kind of at large. Trade shows were not. And so we were kind of navigating that the following year.

As you recall, it was reservation system to ski at that time. My husband had long haulers had kicked in. And so I was navigating a resort with four kids under the age of 11 and Ellie was still three.

And so it was quite comedic of my deal to them was, if you carry your skis, I'll take you every weekend. And they did the very few times. Did not all four kids go to the mountain to ski.

And so, you know, they would carry their skis. There were no complaints. They would finish a day with a lollipop, walking back from the slope, which.

And laughing. And suddenly I knew we were really were onto something because I was getting approached as people would kind of look back at this like little line of ducks walking almost.

You know, our oldest would lead the way and I would be at the tail and they would just walk up and people would just stop and turn as four kids and one parent were walking.

Totally no complaints, no stress.

Sometimes I still had a little cup of coffee in my hand on the way there.

And we would get to the slope or the chairlift, stuff these things in the pocket, and off we went.

I mean, it totally changed the game for us because there just wasn't that stress. There was no complaints of who had to carry somebody else's skis or somebody hit me with their skis.

Cause they turned around and played a game of whack a mole. You know,

just took the stress out of getting to and from the chairlift. It was so crazy.

Yeah.

Nicole: And that mindset of, like when you arrive, like if you're in a hot sweat and you've been picking up the mittens and the skis when you arrive there, you know, the, the, the sweat of failure is not a great way to start a ski day.

But you are, you know, the kids feel empowered, like, what a great thing.

And they're, they are bright colored,

well made, they're super lightweight fabrics. So you won't even know that you're carrying this thing there. It's definitely like, we're going to put some Pictures up so people can see them.

Has it changed much from the original version to what we know now? So now we're like five years into it.

Julie: That's a great question.

So what has changed with it are more on the materials. We've also partnered with the university, and part of this was, don't work harder, work smarter. Right. I had to think like, how do you navigate this while managing life as it normally is for all of us?

And so it was more of moving away from anything that contained nickel. So you'll notice that all of the hardware on it are actually made from aluminum, which is kind of cool.

It looks classy. It kind of just sharpens it up a little bit more versus like a plastic that in cold weather could eventually crack and break.

It's not a nickel. So if your kid chooses to chew on the adjuster straps, you know, they're not at risk for some harmful chemicals. There's a year ago some new regulations started coming down and around pfas.

It's pfas.

And you might hear of this in the industry. You might see changes in the number of colors that,

you know, brands are offering. And it really comes down to fluorine, a forever chemical in materials. And we've spent the past year completely eliminating fluorine from our products, which was a really big task.

And that's. It takes a lot of time, a big commitment, and a lot of testing,

because companies might say it's fluorine free, but unless they've gone through certified testing, which is required to sell through different partners,

you won't really know. So everybody says their product is safe, but is it really?

This hit the outdoor industry very hard because a lot of materials that you might think of, I'm using an example of like a raincoat, that wicking material, or that slick that requires some of those things typically.

Okay. There are ways around that now, which is great.

So it's more.

What we've changed is more in the materials to support it. Or when we worked with this university, it was, are we using the right thread to keep the strongest hold of those straps to the pack?

Right. We've. We've tested these packs up to like, I think it was like £80 that it held. So when people were like, oh, our skis would certainly not work for this, I'm like, you'd be surprised.

I mean,

ski schools use it for beginners because it's very easy, lightweight, works great with little kiddos. We also have so places like Aspen Highlands. Who's using it with their ski Club where they're going beyond the last chairlift to the summit because it's easier to trek to the top when you're not lugging everything.

They use their poles for trekking at that point versus stuffing them in the pack as well.

So it really is.

The fabric is really the critical component. If you use something that is rip stop type material, even if you got a little puncture, it doesn't allow it to tear. So it really does work slick.

Sarah: So it sounds like you, you have a lot to navigate with regulations, maybe, maybe some tariffs. Now,

what was your background before you started this? Did you, did you just have to figure it all out?

Julie: I did figure it all out. That's a really great question.

Yeah. So I worked for, I was university administrator for 20 years actually. So my family would relocate around the country and I would go in and lead organizational change a lot of times with marketing and enrollment departments.

And really looking at,

honestly, it was a lot of data analytics. So it's understanding what consumers want versus how we supply it to them. And that is true for every industry. Right. So it's really understanding your audience.

I stepped out when our youngest was about a year old. It was just time, like I really wanted the time with family. That was really what was important to me was my family.

And so I did consulting then. And then I started doing data analytics for a technology firm. And so not at all what you think of when you think of, wow.

Outdoor industry and how.

But yeah, a lot of it was learning as we went. So people would say, does your, does your product meet this certification? You know, I'm googling what that means. Even I was like, oh yeah, I'm right on top of that.

Like, I don't know.

And so it was a lot of you don't know what you don't know. And so as we've navigated each of these changes,

it feels so overwhelming at the time, every single time, like, oh my gosh, this might be the break point.

And usually like anything in life, doesn't matter what your scenario you're talking about. When you slow it down and break it into a step by step, what would it take?

Not a, can we do it? Yes, no,

but what would it take? You can overcome any, almost any challenge really. But you gotta be willing to slow it down and really look at it intentionally and think about,

you know, that ultimate question, what would it take? And how do we get there? What do they say? You know, how do you eat an elephant one bite at a time?

And it's very true. For everything else, like that flooring piece was,

that was a gut check for us this past year because we really did have to hit pause on selling in a lot of places around the country until we solved that.

And that integrity and ethics and playing it fair is really important to us. And we're not. And even our kids know that because they're very much part of it. The kids choose the colors of what we sell.

They hop on the computer and look at the analytics to know who's buying from what regions of the country. And so it's very much family conversation.

Even at the dinner table, we had a third grader ask us, is it worth it? What's it cost to make the pack versus what you can sell it for? I mean,

so all these things become a learning moment for everybody, which is great.

Nicole: The child who invented the product of your four, do they feel specifically invested in this company? Tell me about that.

Julie: Yes. So we were approached in the spring with an opportunity to sell the business.

And we did really think about it, honestly. And at one point I thought we would.

And one dinner table conversation at night,

my husband and I basically got attacked by our four kids saying, you can't sell this because then we have no control over how people talk about it. The story behind it,

they took a lot of offense to it. And our oldest, who did invent it, is very invested. She travels with us to shows she has presented to the.

The Snow Pros group.

Yes. In terms of when people ask us, we really want a black ski pack, we want that. Just sleek black. She's like, that totally goes away from the point though, of bright reflective gear from a safety component, which was really important to her, of when she.

Her initial target audience was children.

You know, she didn't want to lose the why for her.

And so,

yes, the kids are very invested in this. In fact, I mean,

so we went with the ski pack in 2020, 2022. You saw the rider pack hit, which is for carrying snowboards. Exact same way. It carries kind of like a backpack, but it elevates it high enough in the back where it's not hitting the back of your legs as you walk.

This year I had a 10 year old. So of course at the dinner table that night goes, whoa. The other two got to invent something. It's my turn. And I was like, oh, heavens, here we go.

Cause there's a fourth one then as well. They get excited about it. I think that's part of it now.

Early on, there were times where it was, you know, that Real conversation of, we're at a ski resort in a parking lot, and you'd see another family just they're at the start of what you know is going to be a challenge.

And these oldest two now will approach a family, and they'll say, hey, I invented this. I have an extra one. Would you like it? And they have their skis on their back.

And families get pretty excited about it because it just, again,

simplifies the process. There's a smile to a kid's face.

Everybody's happy. You kind of prevent that meltdown mode. So the kids very much are very active with this now. Yes.

Nicole: Did you feel embraced by the industry as you were going along, or did you feel like you were really going on this alone as an outsider? How did it feel?

Julie: That's a great question. Okay, so I think we experienced both, which was real interesting.

When I went to individuals that I didn't know,

yes, we were fully embraced because people wanted to see success of new brands they wanted to support.

I reached out to some friends who were actually work in the industry, and I had one friend, and I think it'll stick with me forever. And I said, this is what they've done.

Here's what we're thinking of doing. And she's like. Her response was, well, it's a very competitive industry.

And I was like, go get them, tiger. That's the pep talk I needed. Let me tell you. Nothing like a good, swift kick in the tush.

But that also inspired me. Cause I've always been one of those. The minute you tell me no,

I will figure out a way to make it happen. I mean, still playing the game the right way.

But I think it inspired me. Cause I'm like, yeah, but if you tell everybody no, nobody will ever try. And what we learned was there's a power in saying yes to an idea.

It doesn't mean it'll go anywhere.

But what's the harm in letting a kid or an adult chase an idea that really could be something beautiful?

And so,

yeah, I mean, there's times, though, like, we had people reach out, and they're like, hey, could you send us a sample? We think we have a friend who would love this at their resort.

And so we get those moments,

definitely. Yeah.

And we've felt it very much through, like, you know, the Professional Ski Instructor Association, Huge partner with them, and we love them dearly. Partly it's the love of the sport.

You're trying to get families out there so that you're developing those new members kind of New members in the industry like that three year old might develop a love and then five years down the road, take a friend and it just grows like wildfire.

In a positive way, not in a negative way. That might have been a bad one to use. There's definitely been strong supporters. Then we had that one who just told us it's a really competitive industry.

Nicole: It is a competitive industry, but that's not to say that there isn't space for something that really works. I remember walking through the ski show and your, your booth stands out because it's.

First of all, it wasn't cluttered. Sarah and I like that. We actually like being able to see the product.

I believe some of your kids were there wearing the packs, which was great. So we understood right away what it was and how it worked. And it was brightly colored, you know, it was definitely like fun and joyful in a sea of.

There was a lot of black, there's a lot of navy. Who are your best retailers? Are you selling the most through wholesale, through independent stores, or are you selling the most where people are like coming right to Pure Mountain Fun directly and getting them from you?

Julie: That's a great question. So we're relaunching our whole Amazon site right now and we do really well with Amazon. We're just kind of doing a full facelift, refresh it, kind of clean it up.

Right.

E Commerce partners are very strong for us, which is odd because this feels like a product to me that you would say, well, of course, you need to feel it, touch it, try it.

And people like the videos. They love seeing it.

Uncommon Goods sells out typically within the first week of posting them every year, which is a huge piece. And they're, they're relaunching them this fall again.

But otherwise our website is just always booming. Up in Summit county we have a couple little shops.

My, I'm going to say one of my cutest little ones is Breck Kids and Breckenridge, because it's right there in town, right on Main street and we have a display there with a little set of skis.

And it cracks me up because there's all these different ski packs in it. But we have a demo set right there and the owner, Michelle, tells us every time, she's like, it is funny how many people come in and the kids just start wearing them around the store.

So suddenly by the end, the kid wants to keep the skis as well. Or people ask, can I just buy the skis? Because it's hard to find skis that Tiny.

But parents are buying the ski pack there because their kid has walked around a store without complaining about ever holding skis one and two. They didn't take out a display.

And that in itself is impressive when you've got a three or four year old. Right, so.

Sarah: And so there's this ski pack which is obviously to carry skis. And then I think you called it the Rider pack.

Julie: Correct.

Sarah: For the snowboards. Do. Do you have other products in the line as well?

Julie: Of course, yes. Right. So the. My third child.

Well, she's the one who told us. She's like, well, I'm 10 and technically I turn 11 in October, so it's my turn. So it was like June or May. May, I think this year she started working.

I said, well,

what don't you like about skiing? Tell me, what would you solve? She's like, I don't like standing behind the car trying to hop on a foot to get my foot out of my ski boot into my ski boot without stepping in the snow.

And we all sat at the table and we kind of cracked up. Cause I'm like, that makes a lot of sense.

She's like, I want a ski mat.

As you can tell, they're into literal naming as well.

And so I was like, well, that's very intuitive, a ski mat. I said, what would that look like? And so she talked about it. And so we went and tested a bunch of materials, fabrics.

And she played with this to understand was it big enough to kind of get in and out of her ski boot without stepping in the snow.

Once the concept was correct in the sizing, then it was finding the right materials, which is where we spent the bulk of our summer. And we actually found a supplier out of Minnesota in St.

Paul, which was wonderful.

And really what we had to find was something that wasn't only waterproof,

had to really be not just tear resistant, it had to be tear proof. Like this thing was going to hold up. Because if you think sometimes you're in a parking lot where there is still rock, gravel,

dirt, grime there,

but waterproof. And then it has a top layer which is,

you know, right now it's green. It's a ski mat. It folds up very small, 6 by 6 inches, goes in a little pouch. So once you're done, that grime or dirt from it is not getting into your car, which was the big trick to this all.

But it weighs about two and a half pounds. That one does weigh more. And it is only because of that bottom layer fabric. We had to use so we have a ski mat now.

And what's funny is, we had people this summer, some members of the snow pros said, oh, my gosh, this could work really great for mountain biking. Because after mountain biking, we're standing behind our car, sometimes covered in dirt,

and I just need to change, but I'm standing on gravel. We've also had people from fly fishing that were like, I'm gonna try it for fly fishing, where I change in and out of my, you know, their waiters.

Things that we hadn't thought about. Once we did, we asked her to think of other naming conventions. And she goes, no, it's a ski matt.

Okay, so it is the ski mat. Even though it's used all year long, we're finding out. So. And that hit. And then the original inventor, she actually, this summer, really thought about it, and I was really proud of her for this.

We talked about remnant fabric. What happens to the extra,

you know, when we. When it's cut at the manufacturer? And I said, well, that's a great question.

So we went through how much was left, and she goes, I think I have an idea.

And that night, we drove to Home Depot to buy some other stuff that she needed to try to create a prototype. And she invented the ring toss. She goes, mom, I think, you know, when we're at the lodge, a lot of times we see families and,

you know, the younger kids might be tired, their legs are done, they don't make it all day.

She goes, but we don't take technology with us at all. We take a deck of cards as a family. That's our thing. It's small and easy. She goes, but this fabric, I could make a ring toss out of so that a family could stick out their ski poles in the ground,

in the snow and play a game outside. So, yes, you might have some inside time, but there's also time where your kid still wants to move and groove. No child sits still for three hours on end.

But yeah, it comes with six rings. You toss em around your ski poles and you've. You've invented your own ring toss game for Snowplay, right?

Um, and so she invented her second product this year, which was real exciting as well.

Nicole: Love that they're continually growing how they view business and inventing. It's amazing. And I did want to say about the car pack, the ski pack I'm envisioning, it's something like you leave in the car.

And we have so many road warriors,

either from the Front Range or from the Tri State area or from Boston that are going every weekend and they're living out of their cars. You know, Sarah and I joked that for many years, where do you live?

And I was like, I live in the XC90.

That. That is my home. And, you know, these little conveniences and comforts can make a huge difference. As we were talking about at the beginning of the podcast on how you end and begin your day.

And those bookends really do make impressions on everybody in the family, like mom and dad, like, how hard was this? Am I going to do this again? And the kids, how fun was this?

Do I want to do this again?

Julie: Yeah, that's totally true. I think that's it. If the kids have fun,

if the memories are left on the mountain and not in the parking lot from a negative experience,

they had a positive experience on the mountain. They're not worried about the lugging.

They do want to go back. And that's what we're finding is people are like, it just simplifies the process. We had a fam. We get some really cool feedback and testimonials from families who are like, you know, maybe I've gone through some tough scenarios or situations and it's like a single family home now or whatnot.

And they're like, I didn't think I could do this anymore because it's just hard.

And we had a mom last year and she's like, I hadn't seen a mountain in two years. And she's like. I was like, I'm going to try it.

She's like, we've gone three weekends in a row. She's like, this has changed it. And I'm like,

when people say the why, I'm like, it really is worth it. It brings families together and that's really what it's about. We live in a world that's pretty chaotic sometimes.

There's a lot of noise and it's quiet on the slope. It just. You get the laughter. You get some of those moments where you're like, well, I didn't see that coming.

But apparently,

you know, we ended up on a diamond today and it's going to be a great moment. You know, those. You laugh about those scenarios. It's not about kind of every.

The everyday stressor everywhere else. And so we know it's an expensive sport. It can be. And we know, though, that if you have a pass and you can maximize your time there and this simplifies it.

We're. We're just helping create those memories for you.

Nicole: What's your home mountain now? Julie?

Julie: Oh my gosh. Yeah. So our family,

we ski Summit county in Colorado quite a bit. Okay.

Our kids have two favorite mountains, so it's very split. Breckenridge and Copper are their favorites.

Breckenridge for the variety of terrain for sure. And I'm not gonna lie, there's a gelato shop on Main street that they love and a cookie shop. They're in it for the food.

You can tell it. We mo. We motivate through food. Copper Mountain,

there's a few runs at the top they will do on repeat because it's away from everybody else. And it's like, I think it's Ptarmigan is one of them. And it's just this little loop and they would do it all day long if I would let them.

There's times I'm like, we should probably explore other parts of the mountain and they're just content. But we tend to go there when they have fresh snow,

which makes it so fun.

And you have six inches under your skis and kids are just laughing, having a hoot, you know.

But it's an area where I feel really safe as well. It's a, it's kind of a, an isolated area where I'm not like, where'd my kid go? They also all ski in bright color clothes because as a mom it lets me find them very quickly.

Or if we're skiing trees, I can find them very quickly.

You know, when we're going through, it's like, well, there's that orange jacket.

Pretty obvious.

Sarah: So are you mostly doing day trips?

Julie: We actually do both. There's times we are doing the day trips, absolutely. Like a regular family. We have other sports that the kids like to do. So if there's a basketball game on a Saturday,

10 to 1, it's a Sunday type event. There's other times we try to get up there like maybe Friday evening and come back Sunday evening. There's also a little trick where we've gone up and with the Epic pass, for kids in Colorado, they can ski epic resorts four days.

So they get this free pass.

It's the biggest gift, but it also hooks you in cuz they fall in love with it and then you end up buying once they're past fifth grade. So we do that.

But you know, we'll leave at like noon on a Saturday, kind of past the, the rush hour craze in the morning and there's people already coming back. We'll get up there at 2 and kind of set up.

Cause you gotta, you know, just taking your Time enjoying this,

get em set up and they can ski Keystone. Cause Keystone has late day and evening skiing part of the year. So that you could ski, ski Keystone,

stay overnight, ski someplace all day Sunday and then still come back. So there's ways we can do it and kind of offset that traffic and still make it really enjoyable experience for the kids.

And I say offset traffic because much like other places, you know, what could be a one hour drive will quickly turn into,

you know, two or three times that if there's weather conditions rolling in or if everybody in Denver thinks they're going up skiing for the day too.

Nicole: Sarah and I, we make fun of i70 more than anything else for this podcast.

What do you keep in your car or what would you advise new families getting into this to keep in their car to make sure that i70 is safe? And also, you know, if you get into, what is it called, like a deadlock, A traffic jam.

Yes, stand still is the word I'm looking for.

Julie: I never leave Denver without a full tank of gas. I just think that's always a safe thing in winter conditions. Or like it's just smart, right?

Every kid has a blanket in there. And a lot of times there's two reasons. One, yeah, you never know what's going to happen.

But also I, I found that when they're done skiing on the way back, they pull that little blanket up and sometimes I have little catnappers in the back, which is great as well.

So we get that. I also have gadgets for em, like we're big on like building. I think there's these like, it looks like straws and connectors and so they're building stuff in the back or those little,

I'm telling you, in the 1980s it was awesome. You remember those snowflake looking plastic or wood pieces and you build with them? Yeah, they still sell those. And my kids think that's like the cat's meow.

The youngest ones do because they can build and create. Right. And so it just keeps them busy, occupies the mind.

We just have little things for them to tinker with with their hands to keep busy. And then I always have one kid who doesn't matter where you live, some kids just will get car sick.

And it happens. And so we have those little blue bags, the air sick bag, car sick bags or whatever. We buy it in bulk because we go to the mountains frequently all year long and we always have one in the back of every seat just in case.

But everybody has a water bottle in the car. We have Snacks.

Nicole: And we were big books on tape,

too.

I mean, now you can do audible. Back in the day,

I think we had, like, the CD player and we would have all these children's books that were read. I remember Imelda Staunton did this series of, like, Room on the Broom.

They were so sweet. And the kids can still say. Cause we listened to them so many times. They can still say, recite a lot of the.

The lines from the books.

And then during the early ski racing years, like, Harry Potter series just absolutely saved us.

Julie: Well, and it cracks me up because, like, we'll do this thing now. And then it's like, okay, I'll just rotate around the kids. Like,

my husband and I. Like, we don't. Like, we don't pick what song they're listening to. Like, he and I will just be like, now we're just still. You pick the next song.

So it goes down the oldest to the youngest type thing of. Okay, you get to pick the next song, which.

With three girls and a boy, the boy is always traumatized because I guarantee you there's a lot more Taylor Swift in his life than he hopes for. And so there's days we will put a band.

And I'm like, okay, you can't do a Taylor Swift. Like, your brother is, like, dying here. Guys or kid is the one snowboarder. And he's just. He's such a trooper, though, with the girls.

And he really does look out for them, though, as well. So.

But it. Yeah, they. They like to taunt him with music periodically.

Yeah.

Nicole: That's so funny. So one thing I do know that happened to you this year that we want to touch on briefly, is that you did have an accident last year.

And I am thinking about this with four kids, like, how it played out on the mountain. And we want to check in. Like, how. How is your recovery going?

Julie: It is, like, the biggest laughter moment in our life. I'm probably the biggest kid of the family, as my husband will say. He's like, I have five children, not four. Because I am the ringleader of fun.

Like, if there's something to be found, I will find it.

And so I'm the one who's like, it's a great snow day. Let's get to the top of the mountain and drop into the powder or this and that. And we had played really hard for two days.

I mean, we were hitting jumps. We were going through the trees, coming out, like. And we had found a really great one at Breckenridge. We were hitting it And I will go through and hit the jump first.

Yeah. Make sure it's great.

And then I turn around, I stop. Well, I stop, turn around and I take video of them coming through. Cause they, they think it's so fun to see who can, you know, what's the term, get the most air.

Even if it's only an inch, we make them feel like it's wonderful.

And so I went through. It was a great jump. It was at 3 o' clock in the afternoon.

And so we had done this two days in a row, went to stop and they had had 18 inches of snow on the, those two. Over the course of those two days, I went to stop and I caught my left ski edge.

My right ski did not slow down,

it came right up and took out my left knee. First time in 45 years I ever had anything happen.

And it was, it was a weird feel. People were like, did it hurt? And I'm like, it didn't hurt. It was this odd like numbness. It was, it was, it was weird.

But I couldn't get up right away and I was like.

So I think I was more shock.

And so I quickly got my phone out cuz my kids are yelling, are you ready? Are you ready? And I'm thinking, I don't know what I just did, but I gotta get a video.

And so I take this 4 second video of my son, son coming through. And you can tell at the end of it I'm like, great job bud.

You could hear this. Oh. And they get to me, they're like, my daughter comes around and she does one of them, doesn't like to hit jumps. She goes, you okay, mom?

And I said,

I don't think I am actually. And they're like, do you want us to ski patrol? And,

and this is where you shouldn't take advice from me, okay? I said,

no, I'm not going down in a body bag. The dumbest thing I did. It took me a couple minutes to get up. Let me just see. Maybe I just sprained it.

I'm like, man, that felt weird. I don't know what I did, guys. And we started going and I made a right turn and that was fine, no problem. I went to make the left turn and my knee popped out again.

And there were some choice words flying outta my mouth. I will assure you it was not a be beautiful moment to be a parent. Don't lead by example on that one, right?

And I know I was in shock. Now hindsight, I'm like, listen to your kids when they Say, get the ski patrol, take the ride down the mountain. And I figured out how to position my ski.

I was going down, kind of on just the edge for a while. Then I was like, no, this is not gonna work. So we're still halfway up the mountain and I kind of figured out how to do a snowplow.

And I got down, but I went to walk and my knee popped out again. And my daughter's like, hey, mom,

thank God for the ski packs. She's got ski packs on. She's carrying two pet sets of skis on her. And I'm using poles as crutches. Just taking it easy. I could walk if I went slow.

And later on they all said they're like, that was the slowest walk to the car ever.

And they're like, we were trying not to pick on you because we knew you weren't happy.

But it was my left knee, so I was able to, you know, get in our Suburban. You still drove?

Still drove, yeah.

Again, smartest, smartest person out there, obviously.

But I had, yeah, I had blown out that knee pretty good. So I had surgery at the end of April.

Of course, I waited till the end of ski season. Even though I wasn't skiing, I would still drive em up and they would ski with a friend.

And so I would just sit in the lodge.

And so, yeah, I did pre surgery physical therapy to strengthen that leg as much as we could.

And then I've been in PT twice a week since then.

Totally worth it. I mean, we're now at a point I'm cautiously optimistic is how we're say this.

We're doing a lot of plyometrics, we're doing a lot of jumps and I'm back to running and things like that. And they said they really think I'll be skiing before Christmas if I want to.

And I do. And people are like, would you do it again? I'm like, I think if it's what you love, yes. Accidents will happen. You can't. You could live in a bubble, but if part of living is getting out and exploring, you run a risk of like twisting an ankle,

just walking down a stairs. Right. And so I'll be cautious. I might not.

I probably won't be quite as adventurous with some things this year,

but at the same point, absolutely. I mean, it is our family fun and obviously laughter since we can laugh at each other like after we know you're okay, but we can laugh at.

It happened to me. It wasn't one of the kids, thank goodness, you know,

and you know, they've seen what it is to kind of come back from a challenge in life where it's like you gotta work hard. Like going back to ski isn't just have knee surgery and you're right back on slope.

Like it's a lot of hard work.

But I think those are good examples for kids to see and parents and very real life scenarios. So yeah, it was good. It was good humor though at the time, I'm not gonna lie.

Sarah: So you think you'll still be hitting some jumps this winter?

Julie: Yes.

Sarah: I love that.

Julie: I don't think we should ask my husband what he thinks of that part. But yeah, I don't.

Sarah: He's not here, he doesn't decide.

Julie: I'm not gonna take anything too extreme that early on. Right. But like at physical therapy yesterday, we're jumping off boxes and we're landing and there's things that it's like you're landing.

There's a lot of one legged things. So yeah, it's a lot of strength and endurance and. Yeah.

Sarah: And it wasn't actually the jump that got you.

Julie: No.

Sarah: So I feel like I approve of this.

Julie: Really.

Sarah: It was really the snow after the jump that got you to get anyone.

So where can we find the Pure Mountain Fun products if we want to go on and buy them? I know I would love a ski pack. I think that sounds like the perfect thing to make it much easier for me to get to the mountain.

And maybe a ski mat when it comes out.

Julie: You can go to our website and so you can do puremountainfun. Com, you can do theski Pack. Com.

Any of the product names are also the URL, which is kind of how the kids like it because they said people remember that, you know, like the ski pack naming convention.

That's what people asked us.

What do you call that ski pack or the ski. What do you call the ski pack you're wearing there? And so they kind of helped impact the naming convention. Cause that's what they see and that's what they think.

What is that ski mat thing you're standing on? So it's,

it makes sense, it's intuitive.

Nicole: When you sell to Amazon,

do you have to ship like a certain amount of product to a wholesaler or do you. Is there some like warehouse in Arkansas? You ship everything. How does that work?

Julie: Yeah, that's a great question. So we used to work with a partner and so they would buy it at wholesale and then they would kind of manage. They built outside in that.

I mean a year ago we Said we decided to bring it all back in house in terms of we control that site. So it's not sold at wholesale. So we ship them.

We can change the colors at any time. We can, we have a lot more quick turn control options.

So we do it Amazon or fulfillment by Amazon. It's called FBA and so that's what many things are. So we actually ship to a warehouse for Amazon or with Amazon and then when you order it, that's how they execute all the delivery.

So it's not that we get notified and then it's upon us to ship it is all through them.

Nicole: If you're talking about like somebody's in Breckenridge, they see one of your kids with this ski pack, they're like I gotta have that thing. I'm here for a week and they're going to get it in two days.

Help me understand. The order comes in, you know, I'm sitting online, I've got Amazon Prime.

It goes from your warehouse to Amazon's warehouse to them.

Julie: No, no, it's an Amazon's warehouse.

Nicole: It's an Amazon warehouse.

Julie: So we provide a certain amount of inventory to them and we just see what that inventory count is so we know when to replenish them. So I actually don't have to see when the individual orders are hitting for them.

Nicole: Okay.

Julie: Because it's already stocked and they're just managing all that execution on their side which is great. With we had pulled all manufacturing back domestic this year. So it's all made actually here in western Colorado in Grand Junction.

So it's fun because if we see certain colors are moving quicker than others,

I can quickly have more mate, I should say. Or if you know, like every now and then kids come up with new color ideas, we can turn those. But it not just having them on our website, we can get it into the Amazon fulfillment center.

And so people that are wanting to buy through them. It's not like it's a limited selection necessarily.

Nicole: And then what? So if you know, let's say there's a run on purple, then they'll just kind of shut that down on the site until the fulfillment setter gets them. Is it automated in that way?

Julie: Yeah, good question. So we just get notified when the inventory is getting low enough in a certain area and then our fulfillment just knows ship more, you know, another case or whatever, whatever that volume's looking like.

Nicole: Jen, it's so hard to be a company that isn't on Amazon.

Julie: You have to do.

Nicole: You have to sort of figure that that Avenue out. Well, thank you. Thank you for that. I've always kind of wondered how you navigate that. So they're not sitting in your living room anymore, right, Julie?

Julie: No, no, we needed space back. I mean, when you're com. When your business takes over your house, you know, you have gone big enough that you have to make some changes.

So,

yeah, that we passed that. That phase of life.

Nicole: We love to talk at the end as we're wrapping up about what apres looks like, and maybe, you know, we talked a little bit about what it looks like as you're driving back and some of your favorite gelato places.

Are there any other rituals? Let's say you're staying up there and you have a condo. Like, what does apres ski look like for you and your family?

Julie: Yeah, I think it was like a year or two ago. I shared a little video and we'll be on this back patio sometimes where my kids are blowing bubbles because they freeze when it's cold enough.

It's chips and salsa. But that is my weakness,

hands down.

My youngest is the only one of our kids who somehow she was introduced to soda or pop, you know, coke, whatever you want to call it, depending where you're at around the country.

And she thinks her root beer is the coolest thing.

And so she'll sit there with her chips, salsa, and her root beer,

and we're blowing bubbles because they freeze and they just. They float different and they just think it's funny. But there's one place we've stayed, there's a little fox, and they've named her Foxana because obviously my kids grew up in the era of the movie Frozen.

And so Foxana will sit down below if it's the apple scented bubbles. So it's really. It's just kind of sitting on the back patio laughing about it, having fun about the day, talking about what they want to try tomorrow or what they hope to learn.

I think that's what I really love, is it has kept a really strong bond for our family because we're doing things together on a weekend. There's times that we'll get up there and, you know, if somebody's not feeling it, we can't hit the mountain.

We just have to start slow and we might go sled in a local sledding hill. It's chips and salsa for sure, and bubbles.

Nicole: We are so grateful for Julie for coming on the podcast and even more excited that she's given us a 15% off discount code to share with the ski moms. Use code Ski moms fun for 15% off@PureMountainFun.com that's s k I M O m S F u n for 15% off hey ski moms.

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