STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. -- On the second day of my family's ski trip, the weather alerts started coming in: snow, up to 9 inches, was expected overnight.
Among the things Steamboat is known for is its trademarked Champagne Powder snow, said to be drier and fluffier than other powder and which we hadn't had the full taste of yet as we enjoyed skiing under blue skies.
I wondered if we should switch to wider skis and a longer snowboard, to help navigate the expected snow. So while on the gondola heading up the mountain that morning, I emailed Ski Butlers, the rental service where we'd gotten our gear. They suggested some widths and said it would be "set up and delivered after your ski day today."
Sure enough, just after the lifts closed and the snow started falling, two Ski Butlers technicians came to our hotel room. They'd brought a few ski and snowboard sizes and discussed which would work best. In about 10 minutes, we had our new gear. They even carried it all to the hotel's ski storage room for us and swapped it with the skis we had before -- all with no dent in our apres ski time.
Ski Butlers has a simple aim: to offer guests a seamless experience and more time to enjoy their vacation. During my experience, they exceeded in doing that.
A technician with Ski Butlers works on skis. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Ski Butlers
The day we arrived, the technicians came to our hotel room with several options based on the info we'd inputted to its website weeks before. And when we ended up arriving earlier than we'd expected to, they had no problem coming earlier than we'd requested.
Aside from making the switch as easy as it was, Ski Butlers has its own storage facility in Steamboat Square, the ski resort's base area, handy for people who aren't staying in a mountainside hotel but also for us when the storage was full at our property.
But that's not all: On Thursday, Steamboat was essentially closed due to high winds, with only a few lifts open on lower parts of the mountain, and the resort let us move our lift tickets a day with no problems. But our rentals were due back at the end of that day, so I asked if it was possible to extend the rental since we couldn't ski. Of course was the response; no extra charge.
The day we left, all we had to do was leave our skis, boots and snowboard outside our hotel, snap a pic of where it was and be on our way.
Ski Butlers saved us three trips to a rental shop and time waiting on lines there -- hours we could spend doing the things we actually came to Steamboat to do.
No hassle, great equipment
Ski Butlers delivers more than ease -- they also deliver high-quality rental gear. Anyone who has rented skis a few times knows that is not always a guarantee: I've even had to do a repair on a rental while at a ski resort, costing me a few runs that day.
The equipment we got from Ski Butlers seemed new because it buys new gear every year and only keeps it a maximum of two seasons before selling it.
Ski Butlers has a partnership with Rossignol for almost all of its equipment. This year it began offering a premium package with custom skis from Wagner and Parlor and snowboards designed by Shaun White.
Ski Butlers has locations in 50 worldwide ski destinations. It was acquired by the Alterra Mountain Co., the owner of Steamboat as well as 16 other ski areas, in 2022, but it continues to operate as a standalone business at many non-Alterra resorts.