About Us

Lonely Mountain Skis is a micro ski company based in Perthshire, Scotland.

We build handmade custom skis that are a blend of traditional and modern materials and techniques. We currently have three ski shapes in our library and we also do bespoke ski commissions.

Our Story

I had my first go at ski-making after watching a Ray Mears episode where a Swedish ski-maker made a ski from dead standing pine. I was studying product design at Dundee University at the time and had the perfect workshop environment to prototype these simple wooden skis. They were very basic - solid pieces of redwood pine - steam bent at the tips and coated in pine tar. It was incredibly satisfying to ski on these traditional skis even if they were a little out of control over the Scottish ice.

— Jamie Kunka Head Ski-maker

Two and a half years of prototyping later, our skis now have an 8-layer laminate in which there are natural and synthetic fibres bracing a laminated hardwood core. The bases of the skis are a racing sintered 7000 PTex and the whole ski is capped in a one-of-a-kind hardwood veneer. The result is a beautifully honest and well-crafted product which will perform as well or better than anything you can buy off the shelf. The wood and natural fibres do an amazing job absorbing any shock and vibration making for a really smooth ride.

We want to make skis that will last a lifetime and be beautiful enough to hang on the wall between the seasons.

Inspiration

We are inspired by the terrain of the Scottish Highlands. Our models are particularly inspired by backcountry skiing in Scotland, and have been designed to be able to deal with every kind of snow condition you may find on the mountain. Light enough to climb up the gullys and Munros, and stable enough to blast through the variable snow conditions you may find on the way down.

Manufacturing

All of our skis, cores and tooling are manufactured in-house at our Birnam workshop. We take pride in overseeing every stage of the ski making process to ensure every product that leaves is of high quality and accuracy.

Cores

Our cores start life in FSC-certified woodland where they are felled and arrive as boards at the workshop. They are then ripped into strips before being glued together into cores. This way we can ensure consistent defect-free ski cores.

Press

Our skis are pressed together in a vacuum moulding system which ensures every ski has an even flex pattern and is free of air bubbles.

Laminate

Our skis use a wood core surrounded by flax and carbon fibres. Flax is an amazing natural fiber that is stronger than fibreglass and offers improved damping. The carbon enables our skis to be stiff where they need to whilst keeping the ski weight low and giving great power transmission.

Resin

Our skis are glued together with Entropy Resins' Super Sap epoxy resin. This is especially developed as an amazingly elastic and durable ski resin that is derived from sustainable sources.

Base & Edge

We use the best quality base and edge material we could find to ensure a fast hassle-free ski that’s going to last for years. The base is a sintered racing PTex 7000 which is capped with a special NV4-coated steel edge. This special NV4 substrate coating ensures the best bond between edge and ski to prevent pesky blown-out edges if you decided to ski sideways over rocks.

Sustainability

Where we can, we try to keep a low carbon footprint, which is why we use as many sustainable and natural materials as possible. From the wood and bio-resin that holds the ski together, to the flax fibres that give the ski spring and smoothness, 80% of our materials are from grown sources. This way we know we're not negatively impacting the environment that gives us snow. For every ski we sell, we aim to plant two trees to offset the CO2 we may produce when making the skis.