Inside the Austrian Factory That’s Been Perfecting Skis for 70 Years

If you want to understand what makes Atomic such a unique and innovative force in the ski world, you have to go to where it all started. So, this past winter, that’s what we did.

As part of its 70th anniversary celebration, Atomic invited ski-industry friends and partners to Altenmarkt—the small Austrian town where the brand was born. There were factory tours and late-night parties and, by day, endless turns at Flachau and Zauchensee, just above town. After a few days, the celebration moved up the valley to Saalbach for the World Cup races. But before the festivities were through, media and ski shop dealers had come to see Atomic’s story in sharper relief: a company rooted in place, passion, and precision. To understand how it all began, we have to go back to 1955.

That was the year Alois Rohrmoser began handcrafting wooden skis in a small workshop in his Austrian village—the start of what would become Atomic. He had a simple goal: make better skis. He and his family were passionate skiers, and Rohrmoser’s training as a wheelwright gave him essential woodworking expertise for the challenge. It was a humble beginning that first year. He produced 40 pairs of skis, but word quickly spread that these skis were different. Better.

As the legend grew, demand for Rohrmoser’s skis increased, but he kept production local to ensure he could make more and more skis without sacrificing craftsmanship. Seventy years later, Atomic is now the world’s largest ski manufacturer, making 400,000 pairs of skis annually. Remarkably, it still does so in the Austrian Alps, just five kilometers from that original workshop.

Today, Atomic’s global headquarters in Altenmarkt does way more than just make skis. It’s the center of the entire company’s operations. Design, engineering, R&D, and manufacturing all occur in the same building, enabling ideas to transition from the CAD screen to the factory floor for testing within days. The headquarters sits in the Pongau region of Salzburg, and those resorts just above town are home to iconic World Cup venues that have shaped Austrian skiing for decades. For Atomic’s engineers, testing conditions aren’t a flight away—they’re right outside the door. “If we make a prototype in the morning, we can be testing it on snow that afternoon,” one Atomic engineer in Altenmarkt told us during a visit to Austria this past winter.

Atomic’s commitment to innovation at the highest level is legendary. Countless Atomic skiers have podiumed at the World Cup, the X Games, the Freeride World Tour, and more. It’s why legendary pros like Mikaela Shiffrin have partnered with the brand for virtually their entire careers. Of course, all those performance-driven designs are then deployed across Atomic’s line, which is a point of pride for the brand: It cares just as much about making high-performing all-mountain skis as it does GS boards.

This kind of sustained innovation is rare, because so many brands get distracted as they grow. Not Atomic. Its singular focus is skiing. Alpine, touring, cross-country. Skis, boots, accessories. That’s it. The company employs 1,000 people, the vast majority of whom live in the Pongau region, and they’re all obsessed with skiing.

Sustainability 

As a skier, you understand that the sport is inextricably connected to the environment: the mountains, the weather, the snowpack. You can’t care about the sport and not care about protecting the planet. That’s why Atomic has reassessed every aspect of the manufacturing process to reduce its environmental impact. Using a science-based approach, the brand scrutinizes materials, design, building process, and life cycle. At Atomic’s annual Climate Summit, the company brings competitors together to tackle shared challenges. The result is a pragmatic environmentalism that elevates best practices across the industry, reshaping the way ski companies do business.

As we learned during one of our tours, the Altenmarkt headquarters runs entirely on renewable energy. Excess heat from ski production is recycled to warm the facility itself—a closed-loop system that reflects Atomic’s science-driven approach to sustainability.

This commitment shows up in their products in other measurable ways, too. Take the new Maverick and Maven skis, for example. To make these freeride skis, Atomic blends more wood and metal with less fiberglass and resin, reducing materials-based CO2-equivalent emissions by up to 24 percent.

Next Gen

A brand does not remain an industry leader for 70 years by sticking with the status quo. Atomic has always looked to the future, and that includes collaborating with the most exciting young athletes. Exhibit A: Atomic’s Pipeline Project. The program supports junior athletes through monthly calls with pro skiers, gear support, and mentorship—creating a direct line between the next generation and today’s leaders.

The Pipeline Project also collects product feedback from these junior athletes, which helps Atomic refine and improve its youth ski designs. That means young skiers are using gear that truly meets their needs, and Atomic’s designers always have a finger on the pulse of the sport and a more authentic connection to skiing’s evolving needs. If you’re wondering what the future of the sport actually looks like—and what their favorite snacks are—all you have to do is spend a few minutes scrolling through the Pipeline Project’s team bios.

Innovation 

Inside Altenmarkt HQ, one thing that immediately struck us: The atmosphere feels more workshop than corporate. Technicians debate flex profiles over espresso before heading down the road to take a few ski runs. From designers to machinists, everyone spends time on snow, keeping product ideas grounded in real skiing. That connection extends across continents. Three product managers from North America now call Austria home, bringing valuable market insight directly into HQ. They cover women’s all-mountain, alpine, and touring ski boots, as well as the overall boot business unit, helping ensure products resonate with skiers on both sides of the Atlantic. As one product manager told us, “When we create something new, there are things we want to improve. But we also have to keep what’s working and not [mess] it up.”

Many of Atomic’s World Cup athletes stop by Altenmarkt between race weekends for fittings and feedback sessions. With design, race service, and production under one roof, adjustments can be made overnight—a direct link between the racecourse and the skis heading to consumers. “Even with all the machines, every ski still passes through human hands,” a technician on the production line proudly told us.

The results speak for themselves. From designing the world’s first powder ski to the first automatically adjusting ski binding, Atomic has a proven track record of innovation. Most recently, that legacy has produced the aforementioned Maverick and Maven line of freeride skis, which embody all of Atomic’s core values: sustainability, authenticity, and innovation.

For its women-specific Maven line, Atomic relied on testing and feedback from women across North America. The groups were managed by Val Kechian, now the global product manager for women’s alpine ski in Altenmarkt. In the process, she helped identify a need for a slightly narrower all-mountain waist-width than the previous industry standard. Thus, the Maven 94 CTI was born. The unisex Maverick 96 CTI is slightly wider, but it shares the same basic construction and attributes.

In both models, a poplar and ash wood core makes it responsive and intuitive. Layers of titanal dampen vibration and give it that stuck-to-the-snow feeling, and carbon adds strength without excess weight. The result is a ski that is balanced and stable, with enough backbone for the experts yet enough forgiveness for intermediates. All of this comes in a waist-width that can suck up bumps, carve on groomers, and thanks to a unique tip that increases surface area for improved float, surf through a bit of boot-top fluff.

For women who live in places where soft snow is the norm (lucky you), Atomic created the 94 CTI’s bigger sister, the Maven 103 CTI, which brings the same balance to a wider platform. This ski is an ideal one-ski quiver for western resorts that boast big annual snowfalls, and yet when high pressure prevails, it happily trenches the corduroy. It’s a hard-charger for those who really know how to drive ’em, but its freeride spirit makes it happy to cruise around and take in the views, too. It’s as dynamic as it is energetic, making it incredibly versatile for a wide range of abilities.

And then there’s the widest ski in either line, the unisex Maverick 115 CTI, which brings Freeride World Tour–proven performance to those ready to push their boundaries. The latest iteration earned a Best in Test award from SKI magazine, and freeride phenom Craig Murray used the Maverick 115 while winning last season’s Natural Selection. Again, metal and carbon work together here to create a ski with a rounder, more consistent flex pattern, while a wood core makes it stable, responsive, and balanced. Yep, the 115 is the go-to when the faucet’s turned on and the trees are begging for tracks.

The Next 70 Years

As Atomic celebrates 70 years, it remains laser-focused on the next chapter. From its Austrian headquarters to its North American base in Ogden, Utah, the company continues to evolve while staying true to its values: craftsmanship, innovation, and a deep love of skiing.

Walking through the Altenmarkt factory, it’s easy to see how those values endure. Engineers talk about flex patterns the way artists talk about light; machinists know the lineage of every mold and ski by heart. Even after seven decades, Atomic’s work still feels like a conversation with the mountains just outside its doors.

In an industry driven by trends, Atomic has carved a different path—innovation informed by heritage, sustainability driven by science, and products built to last. Seventy years later, just down the road from where it all began, the company still holds fast to a simple idea: Atomic is skiing.

Headquartered in Altenmarkt, Austria, Atomic is the largest ski manufacturer in the world. In the heart of the Alps, the company has been developing and producing technologies for alpine, racing, ski touring, and cross-country skiing for more than 70 years. ATOMIC Austria GmbH is part of the Amer Group and employs around 750 people. As a market leader in quality and technological innovation, the company sells its products worldwide in 49 countries. With its passion for skiing, the brand aims to create a better experience for skiers of all skill levels. For more information visit Atomic.com.