Here’s a bit of good news to start the week… The U.S. has seen a record season in sales for snow sports gear. There was a total of US$3.3 billion in sales made – $300 million up on the previous record set over the ’07-’08 northern winter. Chris Clark, the director of marketing for skiing/mountaineering company Scarpa said, “… In general, sales mirrors snowfall. It doesn’t matter what the economy’s doing.” That’s great news for Australian retailers right now with significant snow already on the mountains. Let’s hope this is a great year for local core stores! For more stats on the sales, hit the ESPN article here.