February 4, 2009 E-MAIL PRINT

The traveling on-snow demo show

by Marty Basch/

Owner Brenda Einstein has scheduled Nevado demo days Feb. 8 at Saddleback and Feb. 28 at Gunstock.

Owner Brenda Einstein has scheduled Nevado demo days Feb. 8 at Saddleback and Feb. 28 at Gunstock.

Call it the traveling on-snow demo show. The 20-foot heated trailer teeming with skis, snowboards, boots, other gear and accessories rolls out from Conway, N.H., in early morning to meet up at a ski area with a team of about 15 members. Like roadies at a concert, they set up 4-6 tents, a corral of banners and tons of gear.

By 10 a.m., skiers and snowboarders are testing the products in hour-long sessions.

By 2 p.m., the team starts taking down the tents only to do it again another day.

"Skiers and snowboarders can feel the products, touch them and use them," said Brenda Einstein. "We then refer them to a retail store either locally or nearest to them."

For some 25 years, the 51-year-old Einstein has owned and operated Conway-based Nevado Mountain Adventures, which provides demo days at northern New England resorts and on the West Coast.

With gear from about 20 manufacturers, skiers and snowboarders with a valid drivers license (under 18 must have a parent with a valid license) can play on the snow in one-hour blocks. It's free. They learn about the products. In return, manufacturers and retail stores get educated consumers who know what they want, even down to their size.

Though skis and snowboards are popular, gadgets and accessories are hot in '09, according to Einstein.

A passionate telemark skier, Einstein worked various ski area jobs in the late 1970s, from Attitash ski patroller to Black Mountain bartender, before becoming a co-owner at International Mountain Equipment in North Conway. Einstein wanted to create a special niche for telemark gear and had an idea: Go to the slopes to find customers.

"I thought it would be best to to market telemark skiing at the ski areas, find my customers there, teach them how to ski and then walk them into the store at the end of the day to sell them the equipment," she said.

Also a climber, in 1981 she began guiding trips in Peru and Nepal, where she developed an "entrepreneurial spirit" by buying alpaca sweaters and importing them. She needed a name for the labels. She chose the Spanish word that means snowy peaks: Nevado.

In 1984 she started Nevado Telemark Series and ran 58 demos that included 20 races. A windsurfing accident sidelined her with a shoulder injury that winter, so she did the behind-the-scenes marketing and selling while two instructors did the teaching. Over time, the instructing was phased out and other gear was included. She left IME in 1995 and went full-time into Nevado Mountain Adventures and soon went to include the Pacific Northwest, where she ran 11 events in Washington and Oregon for two years with her sister, Beverly Einstein.

Nevado is largely a one-woman show with a team of sub-contractors working the demo sites.

"Ultimately, I would like to see Nevado operate nationwide and year-round," Einstein said.

Nevado has stops planned at Saddleback in Rangeley, Maine, Feb. 8 and Gunstock in Gilford, N.H., Feb. 28.

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