Waxing prosperous

When the news hit workers in April 2005, it was an icicle stab to the heart: the legendary LouLou’s Ski Chalet was shutting its doors, leaving one of the area’s greatest repositories of ski equipment knowledge without a home.

The 30-year-old Spokane ski shop was known throughout the region as the go-to location for customer service and expert advice, but when it closed, it sent top-level talent scattering like dry snow in the wind.

“Not a day goes by that I don’t think about that place,” said Fred Nowland, a master technician whom customers would seek out for his precision ski tuning techniques. “I couldn’t believe that it went, but all good things do come to an end.”

Following one of the worst ski seasons in memory, LouLou’s couldn’t make ends meet and owner Mike King closed down the shop.

In the weeks after the store closed, Nowland started to get calls from Vince Zimmer, owner of the Spokane Alpine Haus on Spokane’s South Hill, who offered Nowland a place to work. Nowland at first declined, thinking instead about opening his own place. But 10 more calls from Zimmer changed his mind.

“He allowed me to run the same show,” Nowland said. “He let me change things around a bit.”

So began the slow migration of workers to the Alpine Haus, where five or six of the former LouLou’s crew now offer their advice on equipment and tune skis. Nowland purchased the unique stone grinding machine from the old LouLou’s location at Sherman Street and Pacific Avenue and it now sits in the basement of the Alpine Haus.

Now much of the crew is working at the new location, which they jokingly call “LouLou’s South.” Customers are also finding their way there.

“People are saying, ‘Hey, it’s the same guys at this shop,’” said former LouLou’s employee Brad Northrup, who works at the Alpine Haus. “You have a core of clients and they come to see you. We’re not surgeons or hairstylists, but we’re somewhere in between there.”

Some people are so loyal that when they bring their skis to be serviced, they demand only Nowland handle them, Northrup said.

LouLou’s creaky floors and hodge-podge assortment of additions and remodels made for a unique working environment, one many of the old crew said would be hard to duplicate. But with so many former workers back together again, they’re reminded of the things that made LouLou’s a unique place.

“That was definitely a family atmosphere,” said Brian Ellsworth, a former LouLou’s worker who now helps manage the Alpine Haus. “When you’re working with people you know, it’s fun to come to work.”

The old core of about 10 or 12 employees now keeps in touch — by phone, not e-mail — and they sometimes hold bonfires and ski together.

When they all worked at the same store, it was hard for them to get off for a day so they could ski together, said Gary Bick, whose 14-year experience fitting boots at LouLou’s is now utilized at the downtown REI store. Now that people are a bit more scattered, schedules are easier to coordinate, he said.

“We’re still friends and I still pal around with them,” he said. Last week Bick stopped by the Alpine Haus to help out and visit with the crew.

Bick said he doesn’t mind the new digs — he now has health benefits — and the others up at Alpine Haus are glad just to be working in the industry again.

“We’ve all been skiing our whole lives,” Northrup said. “We live and breathe this stuff, and that doesn’t change even if the location does.”