Following up on @Mendieta's post
https://www.pugski.com/threads/so-you’ve-never-skied-before.3287/
I've decided to write a followup guide.
You've gone to the slopes perhaps 1 to 10 times; perhaps even taking a few lessons and and realize you really like this sliding thing. Where do you go from here?
What should you buy and how should you spend your money?
How do you balance your time and maximize?
How do you get from those green slopes to hucking the cliffs like those experts? Well, this one is beyond the scope of this article/
Here is a list of tips on what to do after you're hooked on skiing and ready for your first full season of skiing.
Hopefully this write up helps answer some of the common questions people have about this wonderful sport.
In essence, once you've determined this is a hobby you'd like to pursue the next steps are about you maximizing your FUN.
Taking away the hassles and getting things into a routine are the key to spending more time on the slopes and less time with the logistics.
Enjoy!
I am sure more tips and comments below
https://www.pugski.com/threads/so-you’ve-never-skied-before.3287/
I've decided to write a followup guide.
You've gone to the slopes perhaps 1 to 10 times; perhaps even taking a few lessons and and realize you really like this sliding thing. Where do you go from here?
What should you buy and how should you spend your money?
How do you balance your time and maximize?
How do you get from those green slopes to hucking the cliffs like those experts? Well, this one is beyond the scope of this article/
Here is a list of tips on what to do after you're hooked on skiing and ready for your first full season of skiing.
- Equipment-Boots
- The most important piece of equipment you need to buy are Ski Boots. These are custom fit to you and covered in the prev article. If you've made the mistake of buying an off-the-shelf pair of boots that do not fit well, it is time to fix that mistake and buy again to get that sorted out.
- The most important piece of equipment you need to buy are Ski Boots. These are custom fit to you and covered in the prev article. If you've made the mistake of buying an off-the-shelf pair of boots that do not fit well, it is time to fix that mistake and buy again to get that sorted out.
- Equipment-Buying your first pair of Skis
One of the biggest questions that come up is what skis do I buy? If you are planning to ski more than a few days a season and progress in this hobby, it's time to purchase your own skis.- It is not vital exactly which ski you get, but the most important thing is having the same equipment to remove that variable from your progression so you are skiing the same equipment every day. Having your own equipment also reduces the trips to the rental shop and increases your ski time.
- The typical intermediate progression ski is going to be around 80mm all mountain ski from within the last few years, about chin to nose height, and with at least tip rocker and labelled for intermediates. You don't need to buy a new pair of skis, it can be a seasonal rental, a loan or hand from someone else, or a used demo ski bought from somebody or online.
- Treat these just as progression skis that you can use up and pass on to someone else or donate when you are done with them. If they have demo bindings you will be able to offload them again.
- Only after you have progressed and figured out more technique do you need to think about about buying an Advanced set of skis. Buying an advanced big mountain ski now will be hard to use as you won't have the techniques yet to make them come alive [more below]
- Season Pass
- The kingmakers at play have determined that ski access is now dominated by getting a Season Pass, (e.g. Epic, Ikon, or Independents). If you fail to buy a pass, you may be paying dearly at the window or financially locked out. Ensure you have access to your home mountain by buying a season Pass before pass sales are halted. In the grand scope of things, your pass costs will be overwhelmed by your other skiing expenditures, so don't get too caught up on the fine details of Pass Costs even though it stares at you in the face on the screen.
- The kingmakers at play have determined that ski access is now dominated by getting a Season Pass, (e.g. Epic, Ikon, or Independents). If you fail to buy a pass, you may be paying dearly at the window or financially locked out. Ensure you have access to your home mountain by buying a season Pass before pass sales are halted. In the grand scope of things, your pass costs will be overwhelmed by your other skiing expenditures, so don't get too caught up on the fine details of Pass Costs even though it stares at you in the face on the screen.
- Lodging
Lodging is tricky as everyone's home mountain and lodging requirements differ. However, finding a consistent place to stay reduces your travel logistics and makes things easier.- Ski Lease or a seasonal rental is but also a huge step, but also a bigger expenditure.
- Staying even at the same motel or hotel helps consistency as you know where you'll be pulling in for the night.
- Be sure to check through your resort's website for passholder or other lodging deals they have set aside specifically for the Resort's Vacation department. These may not have been released to the general online hotel booking pools.
- There are often passholder discounts if you book early and lock your lodging in.
- Lessons/Instruction and Technique
You maybe a natural, but if you have plateaued, you need to take time to work on your technique to improve. You don't need a lesson every day, but whenever you have plateaued it's time to think about how to improve- If you work best with live lesson. Look out for lesson deals especially early season and take advantage of them.
- For half day group lessons, the Afternoon lesson often gives you better Inst-Student ratio. Everybody thinks to take the morning lesson and practice in the afternoon; so you need to zig when they zag. Of course, midweek will be better than weekends
- For the self-learners, certainly there is a lot of content on youtube or the internet for drills that will expose and improve techniques . Don't try to execute more than 3 tips to practice on a day. Too many tips or drills will just get mixed up.
- You don't need to practice the whole day, just a short stint here and there can help improve a skill.
- When practicing, move back to easier terrain to perform your drills and alternating between a more difficult and an easier run. Having confidence is an important thing, and blown confidence will regress you back to defensive skiing.
- Offseason or midweek is where the fitness hardwork is done. If you are huffing or utterly exhausted at the end of a day of skiing, you may need to come up with a summer fitness routine to better prepare you for Ski Season.
- Ski Gear Preparation for Weekend Warriors
As you become more and more comfortable with skiing, the key to increasing your time on the slopes is to consistently prepare your ski gear so you are ready to get to the slopes.- Buying a ski bag boot bag or gear bag to organize and keep all your stuff in the expected places helps reduce packing time and forgotten items. If in doubt, a large tote or reusable shopping bag can also serve this purpose
- Dedicate and buy duplicates for items you use at home and on the road. E.g. have your toothbrushes/phone chargers in your travel bags separate from your home one. Have a duplicate laptop charger in your bag separate from your home laptop charger attached to the wall. This way you can unpack and repacking just clothes, and reduce forgotten items.
- You may find at this point you will start doubling up on ski gear, like extra gloves, extra socks, extra goggles that work as backups.
- FlyAway trips
It's time to spread your wings and explore the world. If you've bought a networked season pass, this was their whole business plan to get you to flyaway and ski other resorts and spend your money.- Check bestsnow or other resources for the best time to go, and book your trip early. December is technicall pre-winter and typically not a good time for a flyaway trip despite what commercialism pushes on you.
- For your first trip, pick an easy location that is close to a major airport, with shuttle service in, and just stay slopeside, on the mountain without driving.
- Travel with your boots as carryon, depending on the length of your trip, you can rent skis/poles or bring them in a ski bag
- Credit cards solve most travel ooopsies. Don't panic
- If possible, avoid major holidays or other peak weeks, such as spring break.
- Buying your first pair of Advanced skis at season's end
Congratulations, you've made it through the season and are a solid or high intermediate who's outgrown your progression pair of skis. How do you go about buying your first pair of advanced skis?- In general the waist width determines the type of ski. The skinnier a ski is, the more like a race car and a frontside carver for a prepared piste. The fatter the ski the more like an big SUV or offroad car more for off-piste. There is no right or wrong here, it is more what type of skiing you want to ski.
- You may want to demo skis from a local shop of the on-mountain store. They typically will have a demo program that allow you to apply 2 or 3 days of demo fees towards purchase. If you really have no frame of reference, you should demo skis to get a feel for the ski that matches your style the best. If you don't want to lose your demo fees, you might as well purchase from the store. If this is slopeside or on mtn you can swap midday and get to demo 2 skis/day versus only one if you have to drive to the shop.
- Shops are not stupid, they know people shop on the internet and their prices will be competitive to the internet. Don't just assume buying online will be guaranteed to be significantly cheaper.
- Skis usually go on sale end of the season, midmarch through april; then there will be lull over the summer as everything is put into storage. They come back in the fall as they bring the gear back in and try to move some out to make space for new gear,
- Very popular models may sell out in particular sizes and just be unavailable for discount
- Look in this forum in the buy/sell/trade; as well as Forum sponsors shops who may have deals over PM.
- All skis these days are pretty good, there aren't really bad skis, just bad matches to what you might want to do on them.
- Post in the Hardgoods subforum for help answering some of the questions on what specific skis to check out.
- In general the waist width determines the type of ski. The skinnier a ski is, the more like a race car and a frontside carver for a prepared piste. The fatter the ski the more like an big SUV or offroad car more for off-piste. There is no right or wrong here, it is more what type of skiing you want to ski.
Hopefully this write up helps answer some of the common questions people have about this wonderful sport.
In essence, once you've determined this is a hobby you'd like to pursue the next steps are about you maximizing your FUN.
Taking away the hassles and getting things into a routine are the key to spending more time on the slopes and less time with the logistics.
Enjoy!
I am sure more tips and comments below
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