“Customers would—and sometimes still do—walk into the rental shop with their skis still on their feet. One ski instructor told me of a student complaining that his ski boots were too tight, and it turned out he was wearing neoprene stocking-foot waders inside his rental boots. Another employee recalled the time a family from Alabama showed up in mid-May, expecting to ski. When told that there was no snow, the father was confused. ‘Then what do you do with all that artificial snow?’ he asked. In spite of such misapprehensions, Paoli has thrived.”

From “Graveyard Shift,” Tim Sohn’s story about Paoli Peaks in Indiana.

The boot-rental room at Paoli Peaks, Indiana, by Ilja Herb.