The last pair has sold

The side effect of AI, the bonus is that we have this incredible mountain community. We raised another $3,350 from the ski auction.

Elisabeth Smajda from Biel, Switzerland is the official auction winner. She’s an outdoor lover who met JP and Ingrid when she was working the skier’s cup in Chile and Zermatt. She was inspired by his kind passion, creativity and his work with Alpine Initiatives. Eli liked the idea of the drawing of canary, how this fragile bird was depicted as so determined, tenacious and strong. A collector of the stickers thru the years, they are plastered to her car, computer , surfboard and now skis. Like us, Elisabeth believes that everyone should be able to enjoy the mountains, to be amazed by the beauty of nature. She’s happy to support the cause and in a way carry on a legacy of sharing the mountain experience.

We also had an active bidder from Australia who was keen to grab a pair, so one of the AI team gave up their personal pair for an ante’d up bid. Blake Stelzer bid for the the love of skiing, the admiration of JP and for supporting AI. He followed JP thru his career from revolutionizing freestyle skiing to co-founding Armada and developing the radical and brilliant JJ with Julien Regnier. Blake’s admiration only increased with the work he did with AI. As he repeated to us, “I think it is not about doing less but it’s about doing more,” and that is the heart of what you are doing with AI. Blake said those simple words ran deep for him and he hoped it does for many others. He’s skied all over the world with his JJs and if purchasing another pair helps kids enjoy the backcountry, well that’s pure magic.

Thank you to @evo and @armadaskis for endlessly encouraging us to keep doing more.