Inside the High-Tech Wintersteiger Ski Tuning Machine Pros Use

We all need to tune our skis more, but it's understandably easy to put off, or simply ignore completely. But, while we're all waiting for snow to pile up and chairlifts to start spinning this pre-season, it's worth thinking about. Better yet, if you’re heading into a shop with as much attention to detail as Jackson Hole’s Nomad Sports, your skis are in for a real spa-day treat this year. Nestled into the back of the small but bustling shop right across from Jackson Hole’s aerial tram, a massive ski and snowboard machine is whirring to life this winter that’s completely changing the game of how skis are tuned to perfection. Nomad recently invested into the state-of-the-art Wintersteiger Jupiter machine, a fully-automated behemoth that is among the most technologically advanced ski tuning machines in the world.

Gov Carrigan, Nomad’s Founder and longtime Jackson Hole local, has been obsessed with tuning skis ever since he started sliding on snow as a ski racer and working his way up the ranks in various tune shops. The man has seen it all in terms of tuning tech, but the new Jupiter machine is truly a quantum leap in terms of the shop’s capability. “Your skis are only as good as their tune,” says Carrigan, whose shop has become the go-to destination for local pros, ski school instructors, and anyone looking for an elite-level tune. Carrigan and the shop’s team have a reputation to uphold, so the upgrade to Wintersteiger’s latest machine was a no-brainer.

How Does The Wintersteiger Jupiter Work?

The new Wintersteiger Jupiter is an all-in-one automated conveyor-belt style ski tuning machine that performs base and edge maintenance on skis at a rapid pace. The modular unit is nearly 30 feet long, taking up space wall-to-wall in the back of the shop. On a large computer screen, a ski tech can select and customize various tuning programs, selecting any number of base grind structures and base/side edge bevels, trim and cut sidewalls, and even create variable edge profiles along the length of the ski.

Want a deep-cut pattern for wet, sticky spring snow? The machine has all that pre-programmed. How about a super-fast structure for ice-cold January race days? Also there. What about resetting your ski to factory specs? Look them up from your manufacturer, and you can load those into the machine too to get things back to where they were.

Before loading a ski into the machine, any base damage must be repaired with P-Tex or a base weld and roughly finished by hand. This step usually takes a few minutes per ski and is done in a room next door. Then, the tech opens a hatch on one side of the machine, placing the prepped skis inside, where a set of arms center the ski on the track and send them via conveyor belt into the next section. Depending on the selected program, the skis then pass over two stone grinding wheels to flatten the bases and cut the selected base pattern into them, before being sent into the next section where edge work is performed. The skis are held down onto the grinding stone by vertical pistons that ensure even pressure across the entire length of the ski–meaning the newly cut pattern stays uniform from tip to tail.

Inside the next section of the machine, multiple sets of grinding wheels cut and polish the skis’ metal edges to a selected base and side edge angle. If necessary, the machine can cut the skis sidewalls to match the edges. Finally, everything is washed down and polished by ceramic discs, before the skis are sent back to the start where the ski tech can inspect the final product.

Once the skis come out of the machine, they’re wiped down and checked for accuracy on a standard ski tuning bench. “We still check every pair of skis that comes out of the machine for accuracy,” says Nomad’s Service Center Manager Eric Bidlack, but he jokes that–thanks to the machine’s incredible accuracy–this has become more of a formality than anything else. 

After checking everything over, the skis receive a final wax job from another Wintersteiger machine, the Wax Future, which passes a strong beam of infrared light over the ski bases to melt rubbed-on wax into the bases without needing a manual scrape. It's the same idea as the Mountain Flow IR Waxer–just on a commercial scale. Finally, the ski bases are brushed by hand to achieve the perfect finish and are ready to go out on snow.

What’s The Benefit Of A Machine This Expensive?

It sure is tempting to discount the point of a ski shop owning such an expensive piece of equipment. The machine costs roughly $600,000, with the shop investing nearly a three-quarter-million dollars total once installation and additional equipment to make it work gets factored in. That's a lot of money going to simply tuning skis. However, would you bring your car into a mechanic who only works with a hammer and a screwdriver? If you care about your gear, it makes sense to keep it in fighting shape all season long.

Carrigan points to two main benefits of the fully-automated Jupiter machine. First and foremost is the replicable quality every single time a ski goes into the machine. This is the same machine that World Cup athletes rely on to win gold medals, now accessible to everyday skiers. It’s pretty obvious to most skiers when the tune on a pair of skis is off, but a pro-level tune like what’s possible from a Jupiter machine is a different experience entirely–your skis handle more predictably with smoother turns, effortless glide, and a boost in safety in all conditions.

Ski tuning can be done by hand, but the accuracy and quality of the tune depends on all kinds of inconsistent factors: the tech’s level of experience, the steadiness of their hand, the quality and state of their tools, and (in all seriousness) the sobriety of whoever is sending your skis across the stone at 3am after an epic powder day.

Secondly, the machine can fully tune a pair of skis in about five minutes, meaning that the shop can get through a huge number of tunes every single day, and can typically guarantee overnight turnaround. Take a chunk out of your bases but don’t want to skip out on tomorrow’s epic skiing? No problem. That quick-turn capability keeps skiers happy, money flowing into the shop, and prevents backups when things get crazy during high season.

Finally, Carrigan points out the fact that working in the backroom of a ski shop has traditionally not been healthy for techs, and the completely self-contained and ventilated Jupiter machine is a huge step forward into reducing fumes, sprays, and plastic dust buildup in the shop. In a world where we’re just now realizing the full impact of PFAS and other chemicals on the human body, that’s a nice touch.

So, what are you waiting for? It's snowing, go get your skis tuned!