About Us

I grew up skiing. My grandfather was a ski instructor, bartender and photographer for our local ski hill, Sierra Summit. I was introduced to the industry early. My brother, my Dad and I spent every weekend in a camper at Sierra Summit, where I started my first job in the ski industry, as a chairlift operator in 2002.

Bill Benelli, Chris Benelli (at 7 years old) and Grandpa Jim getting ready to ski on a sunny spring day, and Bill's truck camper in the background.

After skiing most of my early years, I learned to snowboard and became highly skilled in freestyle, rails and powder. After a torn ACL injury in 2006, I became intensely focused on backcountry snowboarding and skiing and have achieved several highly sought after ski-mountaineering descents.

Chris, about to start snowboarding from the summit of Denali at 20,310'.

I have industry experience dating back to 2002, where I started out my first job as a chairlift operator at Sierra Summit (now named China Peak) and quickly moved on to managing ski rental and repair shops. I have managed ski shops in Mammoth Lakes, CA, Lake Tahoe, CA and Portland, Oregon.

I started Benells’ Ski LLC (portlandskirentals.com) in February 2021, and I am proud to carry on my family tradition of skiing and snowboarding, and to serve the Portland Oregon ski and snowboarding community.

-Chris Benelli, Owner of portlandskirentals.com

We operate portlandskirentals.com out of ReadySpaces, a shared warehouse workspace. Customers are encouraged to stop by, but an appointment is required!

Our warehouse space before build out to a complete ski shop