Who We Are
We don’t just work at Wagner Custom—we are Wagner Custom.
We’re all passionate skiers and locals in Telluride, Colo., who believe that the right skis matter. We have built a life around this great sport of ours, and we know first-hand what a difference having the perfect gear for you makes.
Wagner Custom: those who ski together stay together.
We’re one of the the only brands in the U.S. that truly makes custom skis from start to finish, and we make more than 1,000 pairs of skis per year, which works out to roughly six pairs of skis each day. Each one is completely unique, created using proprietary software and algorithms our founder, Pete Wagner, designed.
We work in our factory smack dab in the middle of Telluride’s Mountain Village base area, and when we’re not hand-crafting your custom skis, we’re out skiing on our own.
Meet Our Team
PETE WAGNER
Pete at Tordrillo Mountain Lodge, Alaska
Birthplace: The skier's mecca: Dayton, Ohio
Why Telluride: I moved here in 2000 to ski. Favorite lines on the mountain: Steep trees and pillows are my absolute favorite (so I love skiing in interior British Columbia). I look for soft snow and untracked lines, so my favorite areas around Telluride are Chair 9, the hike to terrain around Black Iron Bowl, and the sidecountry.
Current favorite ski/board: 179cm with a 105mm waist, aspen core and carbon fiber torsion box construction with a World Cup base. I like a light and nimble feeling for my daily driver, and I prefer a ski with a 100 mm-plus waist-width for most days.
Passions: Spending time outside with my wife and 4-year-old son, who wants to ski Wilson Peak (but just learned how to make a turn on skis last season).
Why I started Wagner: When I first moved to Telluride, I bought a set of telemark skis that seemed great: They were the right length and width, and made by a good company. I mounted them, skied them, and didn’t think much about it. After about 70 days on them, I tried another set of skis and realized that I had been crippling myself with skis that were much too stiff and demanding for me. I was spending a lot of my time developing software and fitting systems for determining the perfect equipment for golfers. I wondered why nobody was doing fitting systems and customization for skis. At that point, I began converting my design software from golf clubs to skis. I finally founded Wagner Custom in 2006.
Quirk or peeve: I might have a Caddy Shack–inspired set of skis that only come out on really special powder days.
HERB MANNING
Photos of Herb Manning skiing still pop up in the most surprising places.
Birthplace: I grew up skiing at Sunday River, Maine.
Why Telluride: I came to Telluride in 1993 to ski bum for a couple seasons. Never left.
Favorite lines on the mountain: I really like Telluride's access to out-of-bounds skiing. High-adventure skiing is available on a daily basis. Steep powder lines and narrow couloirs are my favorite.
Current favorite ski/board: My current favorite skis are specifically designed to excel in Telluride's sidecountry terrain: 183 cm, 108 waist, Woody Smith original graphic. They are my everyday ski in my current quiver.
Passions: I'm passionate about the ski industry in general. Where it came from and where it's bound to go. Skiing is such a healthy and sexy sport!
What I do at Wagner: I do pre- and post-production and am a ski design and binding tech. I've been with Wagner since the very beginning.
Why I work at Wagner: I gave up skiing on my well-established ski sponsorship when I started with Wagner. That's all I've got to say about that.
Quirk or peeve: My pet peeves are people who aren't genuine, slow walkers in crosswalks, and pop-country music. I'm proud of not owning a suit or tie, having lived my whole life in ski towns, and am on my 37th consecutive free season pass this year. I also gave Pete his first ever ski tech job back when I managed a ski shop decades ago in Telluride. Now I work for him.
SHERWOOD SMITH
Woody likes to be upside down.
Birthplace: Telluride
Why Telluride: I was born and raised here. I moved back after I finished shopping around the U.S. attempting to find something similar and have some more exciting experiences in my 20s. I feel that was important for me, but there is no place like home!
Favorite lines on the mountain: I used to be a full-blown park rat, but nowadays I enjoy Mt. Quail and all of the Gold Hill Chutes the most. It is fairly dynamic terrain out there and offers some of the only cliffs and side-hits in this area where you don't have to dodge trees in the landings.
Current favorite ski/board: They’re 187 cm, 140/112/129 mm, ultralight carbon wrap with my Mourn Tree graphic on them. These were built for the terrain mentioned above; being able to ski everything I can switch brings me joy, and maybe one day I will have a switch landing off of one of those cliffs to be proud of.
Passions: I am passionate about art... duh, music, skateboarding, and living in the mountains.
What I do at Wagner: I am on the graphics team here at Wagner. This will be my fourth season.
Why I work at Wagner: Wagner provided me with the opportunity to live out my childhood dream of creating rideable artwork, and it continues to challenge me and be a pretty good time.
Quirk or peeve: I center-mount my skis and get made fun of for it at the factory. I miss full rocker with reverse camber builds; turns out my opinion on this is not as popular as I had assumed. Over-planning and details tend to bother me, in travel and my own art. I prefer starting with an idea and letting things happen around that, which typically provides more adventure!
CORMAC BURKE
Cormac overseeing his domain of the CNC room.
Birthplace: Dublin, Ireland
Why Telluride: I moved to Telluride in spring of 1992, so I basically grew up riding in Telluride. I moved here through a series of lucky coincidences and knew it was where I wanted to be from the first time I saw the valley.
Favorite lines on the mountain: I like the tree runs off of Chair 9. There are just great lines for snowboarders—we make snowboards too!—there, and the trees are quiet and hold the snow for a little longer than the open runs.
Current favorite ski/board: My current favorite board is a tapered 158 all-mountain, 320 mm at the tip and 305 mm at the tail with a moderate sidecut. It’s got a poplar core and some good rocker in the tip for a little more float on deeper days. It absolutely rocks in the trees but handles really well on the bumps and holds the edge well on the hardpack, too. For the graphic, I used two contrasting colors of wood veneer and then used the laser on the CNC machine to cut a profile of the Telluride valley skyline from Dallas peak to Gold Hill taken from a photo I took. Then I matched them with the lighter of the two veneers representing the sky and the darker one the mountains. It looks sweet.
Passions: I'm passionate about being outdoors in the mountains and the desert, snowboarding, cross-country skiing, hiking, and mountain biking. Sometimes it's hard to believe how lucky I've been to be able to live here for the past 30 something years.
What I do at Wagner: CNC master. Why I work at Wagner: We're not like the other ski companies out there. We work with every customer to build skis or snowboards from scratch based on your abilities, preferences, and style. And if you don't like them, we'll make them again. We can literally make you a better skier.
Quirk or peeve: I lived in the woods for the first two years I lived in Telluride. My pet peeve is the skier vs snowboarder silliness.
ERIC MULARZ
Eric (right) skis into the factory whenever he can.
Birthplace: I grew up skiing in New England and Europe.
Why Telluride: Not really sure what brought me to the area, just someplace new to explore. I've been with Wagner since 2016.
Favorite lines on the mountain: I like skiing Bridger Bowl and Red Mountain pass.
Current favorite ski/board: I ski a 183 metal build, 106 underfoot, flat through the belly, rockered tip and tail. Makes for a good Western daily driver.
What I do at Wagner: My task is to finish the raw skis through to wax, making them ready to ski.
Quirk or peeve: I enjoy doing Wordle.
TYLER CAMPBELL
A happy Tyler on the lift.
Birthplace: I grew up in Duluth, Minn., and didn’t learn to ride until after high school. I started at Spirit Mountain in Duluth and quickly became obsessed. I worked a couple seasons as a liftie there, then moved to Breckenridge for my first winter out West.
Why Telluride: After that first winter in Colorado, I had a close friend from home who was dead set on moving to Telluride, so I followed him here. I fell in love with the terrain and the backcountry here.
Favorite lines on the mountain: The Dark Side lifts, Gold Hill, and Black Iron Bowl. Current favorite ski/board: My current board is a 163 cm poplar carbon wrap. It’s stiff, it’s directionally cambered, and it loves to go full throttle down Dynamo.
Passions: I love all things outdoors. From riding the resort and touring our local backcountry all winter, to biking and boating all summer. If you don’t catch me on a trail, skin track, or river, you’ll find me at the bluegrass festival or a Phish show.
What I do at Wagner: I’ve been at Wagner since 2019 and do all things production, from the CNC room to the wax room.
ERIC SHEETS
Eric out west.
Birthplace: I grew up in the Hudson Valley of New York in the suburbs outside of Poughkeepsie. I made my first turns on skis at Loon Mountain in Lincoln, N.H., when I was 6 years old.
Why Telluride: I ended up in Telluride fall of 2013 after getting offered a job doing land surveying. After a decade of land surveying, I decided I needed a change, and Wagner Skis was hiring. I started working for the team at the end of July 2024.
Favorite lines on the mountain: I love skiing in the San Juans. It's steep and fun and the snow quality holds up pretty well because it rarely rains. The snowpack can be very avalanche prone, but if you are patient, you can find opportunities every winter to ski mind-blowing terrain. The summers out here don't suck either...
Current favorite ski/board: The first pair of Wagners that were made for me are sidecountry destroyers (a downhill-oriented soft-snow ski that I can still go tour uphill on in a pinch). They’re 185 cm length and 108 mm underfoot with a medium-weight core with a medium flex mounted with Cast Freetour 1.0 Bindings. They came out sweet! I had Woody use one of my favorite album covers as inspiration (Sleep's masterpiece, “Dopesmoker”) to create a topsheet with a bunch of nomadic beings crossing a desert on a different planet. I think it's cool to be able to combine my passion for music with ski design.
Passions: My other passions include mountain biking, whitewater rafting, and listening to many different types of music. I am also addicted to getting burritos for lunch.
What I do at Wagner: I've mostly been doing parts preparation and hand-bending edges, but Pete also has me running the ski-testing program. The ski-testing program is a way for us to get real data (stiffness, camber, sidecut shape) on skis that we produce or skis that other companies have produced that our customers fancy. The data we get is always interesting, and it will be cool to see how Pete uses it to design skis.
SCOTT HARGREAVE
Scott looking pretty epic.
Birthplace: I grew up racing on Nordic skis in Michigan.
Why Telluride: I moved to Telluride in 1997. I'm only partially joking when I tell people that this was to get closer to southeast Utah without actually living in Utah.
Favorite lines on the mountain: After years of pounding the bumps here in Telluride, you are now more apt to find me skiing wild snow out the access gates or off of Red Mountain Pass.
Current favorite ski/board: As far as skis are concerned, I prefer to keep things simple and only use two designs: 140/110/125 for 3D skiing in soft snow, and 133/101/120 for hard conditions. I have both of these shapes in two different layups one heavier (metal layers) for lift-served skiing and one lighter (carbon) for backcountry touring.
Passions: When not skiing, my favorite hobbies are rafting, mountain biking, drinking piña coladas, and makin’ love at midnight in the dunes of the Cape.
What I do at Wagner: I've been the Production Manager here at Wagner Skis since we opened the doors in 2006. I split my time here at the factory between hands-on making skis on the production floor and sitting in front of the computer communicating with clients and other administrative tasks. I trend towards introversion. Believe me, my girlfriend talks enough for the both of us, and between my teen daughter and our crazy dog, I appreciate the solace of podcasts on the production floor.
HEATHER BALTZLEY
Heather's favorite photo of herself skiing, ever.
Birthplace: Born in Pennsylvania, grew up in New England. My first ski pass was at Bolton Valley, Vermont.
Why Telluride: I did a four-day snowboarding camp for a 25th birthday present for myself. I was the only one signed up! As I was there by myself, my instructor (Michael "Spicky" Blanton, who still teaches at Telluride) introduced me to all the other instructors and brought me into the fold. I moved to Telluride for a six-month job as a snowboarding instructor the next year, and the rest is history.
Favorite lines on the mountain: Dynamo/Electra/Millions in any combo (depending on the day/conditions).
Current favorite ski/board: I have a quiver, but my most-skied are my 161-83 daily drivers. They can handle almost anything on the resort except the deepest powder days. I stopped designing my own graphics and started getting wood veneers a few years ago (after a painful battle with indecision) and will never look back.
Passions: The outdoors, food, pottery/clay/ceramics.
What I do at Wagner: I was the original "Graphics Girl" until I gave myself a promotion and became the "Graphics Guru". I told Pete I could solve their "color problem" in 2007 (or so) and here we are.
Why I work at Wagner: Because we're a passionate bunch who knows what we're talking about.
Quirk or peeve: I am a full-certified ski instructor of 25+ seasons, which is why you won't find bad skiing in our photos/videos.
--
Article by Kimberly Beekman
Kimberly Beekman is the un-official 10th member of the team. She is the former editor-in-chief of the late, great Skiing Magazine (RIP), and a longtime editor of SKI Magazine before that. She currently uses the title of “freelancer” as a beard to ski powder all over the world. She lives in Steamboat, Colorado, with her wonderful daughter and terrible cat.
