About Us

I grew up skiing at a local ski hill, where my grandfather worked as a ski instructor, bartender and photographer. We spent every weekend in my dad's truck camper at the resort parking lot. Eventually my dad bought a small cabin just down the road from the ski area, where we would ski and snowboard late in to the night with the help of flood lights on our back yard hill.

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 skilled in freestyle, rails, and big mountain riding.  A torn ACL injury in 2006 changed my skiing goals, and I became intensely focused on backcountry skiing and snowboarding. Since then I have completed many sought after descents on both skis and on a splitboard, such as Mount Rainier's Ingraham Direct (ski), Denali's West Buttress (splitboard), and "The Wizard" in the Tordrillo Mountains of Alaska (splitboard).

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

Rappelling a steep section while descending Mount Dan Beard, Ruth Gorge Alaska

Snowboarding in the Tordrillo Mountains, Alaska

Ice climbing on the Mooses Tooth, Ruth Gorge, Alaska

I have  ski and snowboard industry experience dating back to 2002, where I started out my first job as a chairlift operator at the local ski hill, Sierra Summit (now named China Peak), and then moved on to managing ski retail, rental and repair shop operations. I have managed ski shops in Mammoth Lakes, CA, Lake Tahoe, CA and Portland, Oregon and have nearly 20 years experience as a certified ski technician. Through my extensive experience out in the field, as well as managing ski shops, I have a deep respect for the value of high quality, comfortable and correctly fitted gear.

Summertime skiing on Mount Hood

Kahiltna Basecamp, Denali

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. My #1 goal is to make skiing and snowboarding easy and affordable for families, and those just getting into the sport, so we can all make great memories in the mountains.

-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