Mountain Home ‘maintainer’ readies skis for season

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Lance Cheung
  • Airman magazine
MOUNTAIN HOME AIR FORCE BASE, Idaho (AFPN) --  Flanked on two sides by nearby mountains, this high-desert fighter base is a short drive from prime wintertime skiing, snowboarding and sledding hotspots.

Though the temperature is still in the 80s, Idaho’s winter season starts in mid-September for the staff of the busy outdoor recreation supply office here. By mid-October, the staff must have the equipment it rents ready.

Raul Hernandez maintains and repairs the equipment. To ensure it is all ready by the start of the ski season, he began checking his maintenance tools recently. By late September, he will begin his refurbishing work, because after a hard weekend on the slopes, equipment can come back gouged, broken, scraped and “generally in bad shape,” he said. He fixes what he can.

“Sometimes people can’t believe the types of repairs I’ve done,” he said. “But gouges are the hardest to fix because they take filling and sanding.”

Mr. Hernandez said the office gets plenty of weekend business starting Oct. 15. That is when the outdoor recreation office’s 600 pairs of skis, 100 snowboards and countless cross-country skis, snowshoes and sleds must be ready for rent.

But the busiest time of the year is when the 366th Fighter Wing commander holds the annual wing ski day at nearby Bogus Basin ski resort. Mr. Hernandez said the staff rented nearly all its inventory for last year’s event, including snow suits, boots, poles and other accessories. The event generated more than $8,000 for the base’s morale, welfare and recreation fund.

Mr. Hernandez, who arrived in Idaho in the early 1990s, revamps all the equipment by himself. He went through a ski maintenance school to learn his trade and has been a fully certified ski-equipment maintainer here for 10 years.

Keeping equipment in top form takes skill and attention to detail, he said. Tuning a pair of skis, for example, can take more than an hour. Mr. Hernandez must repair gouges, sand and file ski edges, apply wax and scrape the wax surface. It is the same process for snowboards. But he said he likes his job.

“Yes, it is hard work, and I spend a lot of time doing it,” he said. “But I like what I do because I get a great sense of satisfaction.”