Colorado’s 10th Special Forces Group based in Fort Carson has tapped a Colorado company to fit its soldiers with special skis.
Romp Skis, based out of Crested Butte, is co-owned by two brothers, Caleb and Morgan Weinberg. They specialize in custom skis. But the ski they’ve designed for the soldiers is more of a tool than a toy.
Caleb Weinberg says the military had some very specific requirements to accommodate soldiers: Each soldier can weigh more than 200 pounds on their own and they carry 75-pound backpacks.
“So it can be up to 300 pounds of load,” he said. “And they want to ski in the backcountry on these skis, and be able to use them for touring and traveling.”
Crafting a ski that can meet all of these requirements is a difficult task.
“It’s tough to make a ski that isn’t going to sink, or do what we call ‘trap door,’ where the middle sinks and the ends float with that much weight on it,” said Weinberg. “So, that was kind of the challenge of the project.”
The challenges didn’t stop there. Many of the soldiers aren’t necessarily accomplished skiers, so many pairs will need to be shorter than usual.
One of the biggest challenges for Romp Skis is the order itself. The 10th Special Forces has ordered 350 pairs of skis, the biggest order the small company has ever filled.
