Guide to Renting Winter Gear in Sun Valley, Idaho

Ski Gear Rental

With locations in Ketchum, Hailey, Sun Valley and at the base of Warm Springs, Sturtevant’s is perhaps the easiest venue to find for ski gear rental. They offer rentals and demos and event season leases on their skis and snowboards. Ski rental options include their Adult Sport package for beginner to intermediate skiers, Adult Performance Demo package, a line-up of best-selling, all-mountain retail models, Adult Premium Demo for testing Sturtevant’s entire selection of skis, Junior Sport package for first-time skiers up to advanced junior skiers, and Junior Race and Twin Tip package for advanced and expert juniors. All types of rental reservations are available online through their online rental program.

Located on Main Street and 5th, Formula Sports is a great stop to rent or buy skis. They offer four ski packages: junior, sport, performance, and demo with pricing options for daily rate, 5+ days, ski only, and boot only. Each package includes ski, boots, and poles and helmets are also available to rent for $5 per day.

PK’s Ski and Sports offers ski rental packages for kids, adult sport (for softer, recreational skiers), adult performance (for higher performance), adult demo (the best/highest end skis), and demo (higher performance GS/Slalom/powder skis) ski. Rentals are available online or in store.

Pete Lane’s has locations in both the Sun Valley Mall as well as the base of River Run. In addition to in-store rentals, Pete Lane’s offers online booking of equipment. Ski packages are available for novice skiers (new to skiing), kids, sport skiers (for riding groomers), performance skiers (for skiing all-mountain), and demo ski packages (best model for current conditions).

The Limelight Hotel’s Four Mountain Sports offers a large selection of ski equipment rental whether you are staying at the hotel or not. You can book your equipment rentals online to receive 20% off.

Snowboard Gear Rental

Synonymous with all things snowboarding is The Boardbin, a skate and snowboard mainstay in Ketchum for decades. Whether you’re renting or demoing, one of their knowledgeable staff can direct you to a powder board, groomer board, or all-mountain.

Also offering snowboard gear rental in town is Sturtevant’s which includes the Adult Sport Snowboard package for beginners and intermediates, Adult Performance Snowboard package for intermediate to expert riders, and a Junior Snowboard package for junior snowboarders. All packages are available in boots and board prices or board only prices. Helmets are an additional $7 per day.

PK’s Ski and Sports offers a rental snowboard package at a daily rate, 5+ days rate, and a cheaper rate if booked online.

Pete Lane’s at River Run and in Sun Valley offers snowboard rental packages for beginner snowboarders (novices), kids, and sport snowboarders.

The Limelight Hotel’s Four Mountain Sports offers snowboard equipment rental whether you are staying at the hotel or not. Book your rental online to receive 20% off.

Backcountry Gear Rental

Located at the fork in the road of north Ketchum, Backwoods Mountain Sports call themselves “Idaho Backcountry Equipment Specialists” and can provide you with any and all equipment rental needs you may have for your backcountry adventure. Alpine touring setups including skis, boots, and poles are available at half-day, full-day, and multi-day prices. Reservations may be made for equipment that you plan to use for 2 days or more. A la carte options are also available at half-day and full-day prices and include alpine touring skis, alpine touring boots, probes, packs, adjustable poles, avalanche beacons, shovels, and sleds (kids or cargo). Sleeping bags and backpacks are also available for those multi-day adventures.

Check out The Elephant’s Perch on the corner of Sun Valley Road and East Avenue for both individual rentals and rental packages for backcountry gear. Individual rentals are for touring skis, alpine touring skis, premium alpine touring skis, kids skis, touring boots, alpine touring boots, and kid’s boots, all available half-day, one-day, and week-long prices. Packages are for touring, alpine touring, premium alpine touring, and backcountry essentials (shovel/probe/beacon) and kids, all for half-day, one-day, and week-long prices. The Perch also offers classic pole and backcountry pole rental as well as rental of backpacks and ski crampons.

Sturevant’s offers an Adult Backcountry Demo package which includes ski, boots, and skins. A backcountry accessory kit (pack, probe, shovel, beacon) is available for users who know how to properly use these.

Nordic Gear Rental

Backwoods is also a go-to shop for Nordic gear rental. Cross country packages include no-wax touring, kids (12 and under), and skating, all for half-day, full-day, or weekly prices. A la carte options include touring skis, touring boots, touring poles, skate skis, skate boots, skate poles, sled (kids or cargo), gaiters, and NEOS overboots all at half-day, full-day, or weekly prices.

At The Elephant’s Perch, individual rental is available for skate/classic skis, skate/classic boots, and packages are available for all the essentials for skate/classic skiing.

Sturtevant’s offers adult Nordic skate ski equipment rentals and adult and junior Nordic touring rentals. In the future, these will be added to their online reservation program.

Galena Lodge, located 23 miles north of Ketchum offers classic and skate ski rentals for adults and children (3-12) at full-day and half-day rates. Gear is available in package form or individual rentals are available for skis, boots, poles, chariots, yurt sleds, and sleeping bags.

Sun Valley Nordic Center offers cross country setups at half-day, 1-day, 2-day, and 3-day rental prices for adults, seniors, youth 12+ and children.

Snowshoe Rental

Snowshoe rentals are available at Backwoods in half-day, full-day, and weekly prices including snowshoe poles for $3 per day. Check out The Elephant’s Perch for half-day, full-day, and weekly prices for snowshoes, snowshoe boots, and kid’s snowshoes. Galena Lodge offers snowshoe rentals for adults and children (3-12) at half-day and full-day prices. Sun Valley Nordic Center offers half- and full-day rentals for adults, seniors, children, and youth 12+.

Delivery Services

For those looking for more convenience, get equipment rentals delivered right to your door and enjoy the luxury of having personal one-on-one service in the comfort of your own home. Door to Door Ski (D2D) is the oldest rental delivery service in the Valley going on 12 years. With locations in Colorado, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming, D2D offers both ski and snowboard rental delivery for adults and children and helmet rental as well.

Ski Butlers provides rental delivery in 19 locations at 47 ski resorts, and most recently added Sun Valley to that list. Easily reserve ski and snowboard rental packages online whether you’re a first-timer or a performance athlete.

Black Tie ski rental delivery offers free delivery, in-room fitting, and slope-side service. Make a reservation online, call, or email.

Boot Fitting

PK’s Ski and Sports offers boot fitting and ski sizing at their shop on Leadville and Sun Valley Road.

Sturtevant’s offers boot fitting with prices based on per punch; per hot spot grind; for canting and/or balancing assessment; for alignment, planning, or lifter installation; and lifter installation. They offer hillside boot-fitting at their Warm Springs location or regular fitting services at their Main Street location.

Ski Tek is an America’s Best Boot Fitters certified shop with three Board-Certified Pedorthists on staff to help build custom orthotics to a mold of your foot, correcting any problems you may have. They do boot fitting year-round.

Tuning Shops

Ketchum is certainly not lacking in tuning shops: there are both shops dedicated to the art and many of the other spots renting gear in town are happy to help with a tune. Backwoods prides their tuners on their 40+ years experience to make sure your skis are mounted correctly and waxed to go fast. At The Elephant’s Perch they will mount and prep skate or classic, telemark or randonee and give you a wax as well. PK’s is a full-service ski shop sure to help you with all your tuning needs. Internationally renown The Waxroom offers Sun Valley's only world class ski & snowboard tunes to the beginner as well as expert. Located across from the Magic Lantern movie theater, The Waxroom is owned by Olympic wax technician Curtis Bacca. Formula Sports offers full tunes, deburr and wax, hot wax, base welds, mount/test, system mount/test, and binding adjust/test. Sturtevant’s tuning shop offers standard ski services of full tunes (edges and bases), premium sharpen and wax, deburr and hot wax, ski repair, basic sharpen and wax, new ski tune, binding mount and test, binding adjust and test, and binding shim install or change. They also offer platinum ski services of new technical ski prep, new speed ski prep, platinum maintenance, grind only, and platinum passes. They also offer snowboard and Nordic tuning services. Pete Lane’s at both its locations offers race tunes, major tunes, and minor tunes. Ski Tek is a full-service ski shop with their tuning shop overseen by a former World Cup technician. State-of-the-art tuning equipment and the combined knowledge of their tuning staff allows them to produce World Cup-quality tunes for their customers.