The Sneachda wins gold at ISPO 2016

I have wanted to go to ISPO Munich for several years and it has been a long-term goal of mine to send a ski in for their prestigious awards. The Sneachda ski concept has been in development for several years now. It was always my objective to design a fun and stable 100mm waist ski that would give one confidence in any terrain or condition. The first run of the skis was finished in November and I felt it was time to send one to ISPO Munich.

It was Tuesday the 5th of Jan, I only had a week to finish the application and send in the ski so I rushed to the Birnam post office to get the quickest delivery to Germany for judging on the 7th. I finished the application that night and waited patiently. A week passed with no news until I received an email late on Friday the 15th. It looked like a standard “unfortunately this time you have not been successful email” but I scrolled down and it read “Lonely Mountain Skis - Sneachda - Gold Winner” I couldn’t believe it so I had to keep checking the email for a while. LMS won pretty much the most prestigious plaudit in the industry, the gold award! I quickly poured a home brew and rang co-designer and tester Dr Phil to tell him the good news. I was so excited the Sneachda had got the award I couldn’t sleep for the next few days.

To Munich

I had a pretty good excuse to head to Munich now, so I took the aeroplane the following Friday. On arriving in Munich the air temp was so cold it took my breath away. Snow covered the ground and it was all very exciting. The next day I went to pick up my award package of ‘Gold Winner’ stickers and tabs to stick on the skis before the award ceremony on the Sunday. Everyone was setting up and there were joiners and cherry pickers whizzing around assembling booths. I had heard ISPO was big but the scale of the Messe Munchen is truly elephantine. You could quite easily clock up 15km or more every day walking around it. That night I visited the famous Hofbrauhaus. The gemütlich atmosphere was high and an oompah band stomping away in the middle of the beer hall. I escaped to a quiet corner and enjoyed a Münchner Schnitzel and a litre of dark wheat beer.

The ISPO opened its doors on Sunday 24th Jan. There was a great buzz as people flooded into the halls to check out all the latest gear. After some great chats with Entropy resins (sustainable epoxy) and B Comp whom supply my flax fibre, I went over to pick up my award. All the other gold winners were there. It was amazing to rub shoulders with these great designers and innovators. Ski touring came up and I proudly walked onto the stage with the Sneachdas in hand. The judges’ comments were read out and I was handed a lovely waterjet cut trophy weighing about 10kg. The award opened so many doors for me at the show, I was treated like royalty wherever I went.