About Us...

Mountain Travelers Hike and Ski Shop is an outdoor specialty store, located in central Vermont. It was opened in 1976 by Peter and JoAnn Kavouksorian as a cross country ski, and backpacking shop. A beautiful new store was built in 1995 to showcase the best quality equipment and clothing available, for outdoor adventures.

We are easy to find in Rutland, Vermont, centrally located on US Rte 4 East, just 15 minutes from the Pico and Killington Ski Resort, and the Long and Appalachian Trails. Our specialties include: Telemark skiing, backcountry skiing, snow shoeing, hiking, camping, and paddling.

Our favorite winter sport is Telemark skiing. We were some of the first "Tele" skiers in the East. We began as cross country skiers using partial edged wooden skis, over twenty years ago and have continued to promote the sport ever since. In the eighties we formed the Tasmanian Telemark Team and raced in the Killington Ski Bum Series and Eastern Telemark Races. Many of us still meet weekly, to ski with our buddies.

In March, we make the annual trek to Dick Hall's NATO Telemark Festival, at Mad River Glen. Each year the Festival gets bigger and the talent is more impressive. In late spring, the group travels to the Presidential Range to score the biggest runs of the year. The last few days on the Big Mountain are the climax of the season.

Paddling is our favorite summer sport. We started canoeing on the local lakes and ponds, and camping in the Adirondacks. Now, we have turned our interest toward kayak touring. It's a good work out and a wonderful way to enjoy nature. We paddle locally and take a few trips to the seacoast each year.

We also love to camp. Over the years we have found several favorite places to spend our leisure time camping.

We hope you will come to Mountain Travelers to visit us. We are happy to help our customers select gear and clothing appropriate for their trips, near and far. One of the best things about selling great equipment and clothing is to hear about the exotic places it is going to. We have customers traveling to Alaska, Montana,Africa, New Zealand, Fiji, and Nepal. It has become our mission to give each customer the best service, equipment and clothing, so that their vacations are the experience of a lifetime. We love to hear how great it was!