It’s my understanding that a great many of my fellow citizens do their gift shopping well in advance of the due date. While I appreciate this preparedness in principle, I find it very difficult to put into personal practice. Like Santa himself, who doesn’t even begin to distribute gifts until the last possible moment, I find procrastination built into the fabric of the holidays.
My point being, it’s not too late to surprise a skier or two on your holiday hit list with an impressively thoughtful gift. I’m not suggesting anything of stratospheric expense, but I am encouraging you to pick something that your recipients wouldn’t ordinarily think to get for themselves. Many are small enough to fit into a stocking, and none require assembly. I know you’re busy – procrastination, by definition, takes a lot of time – so I’ll get right to the nitty-gritty.
LÉ BENT ¾ Bottom Base Layer
Lé Bent’s blend of Merino and bamboo makes a divine base layer that feels so good you’ll want to wear it all the time. The ¾ length is a better match with ski socks, but if you’re bent on a full-length base layer, Lé Bent makes those, too.
Leki Trigger-Grip Poles
Leki’s terrific Trigger-grip poles are the perfect gift for the ski addicts in your life who say they don’t need new poles. Of course, they don’t need them, that’s what makes the upgrade to a Leki the epitome of the surprise “gift-they-wouldn’t-get-themselves.”
Heated Boot Bag
The Heated Boot Bag might be the greatest ski-related accessory ever made. Why there’s scant science (yet) to support the assertion, I believe whomever is gifted a heated boot bag will be insanely grateful, most likely forever. I realize I’ve just directed you to Snow Eagle’s url, but I’d rather you frequent your preferred specialty ski shop for this item, where you’ll find other options in the same design plus you’ll be supporting specialty retailing, which matters. Other brands of note in the heated-boot-bag sector are Kulkea, perhaps the best-made bag line for skiing, and Transpak for value, reliability and durability.
Ski Socks
Real skiers know that wearing a real ski sock is a difference maker. Every avid skier can use another pair, making them a surefire winner in the gift-giving game. It’s hard to recommend one brand above all others, as the ski market is swarming with socks, but I do recommend only one thickness, which is thin. Since I know you want me to name names, there’s Smartwool, Point6, Darn Tough, Eurosock, Farm to Feet, and Lé Bent, particularly when you want something a bit thicker. Dissent Compression socks fit like a second skin and there are even heated socks from Hotronic, which are pricey but effective.
Balaclava/Neck Gaiter
While helmets are essential equipment, they’re a sizeable investment and they need to be fit, making them an awkward gift item. But there’s nothing tricky about a neck gaiter, or balaclava. One of the under-reported benefits of the pandemic is almost everyone discovered how useful it is to have this extra layer for the face. The best ones, like Lé Bent, feel scrumptious on the skin. I’m also a fan of Phunkshun, who offers a crazy array of colors and styles. A great accessory, relatively cheap, fits any stocking!
Gummi stone
A nicked edge or worse yet, one that is overly aggressive, begs for attention, the sooner the better. While a gummi stone isn’t a substitute for a more thorough repair, it’s a godsend when it’s needed and it fits into anything worthy of the term, “pocket.” They don’t cost much and they last a long time.
Ski-Gee
The greatest cost/value relationship in skiing. It’s a goggle-wiper you wear on your finger. A lifesaver on weather days, it does the one thing your zillion-dollar goggles can’t.
Sun Screen & Lip Balm
Every stocking needs stuffers like sun screen and lip balm. The high-altitude Alpine sun is brutal on lips and skin, so going without isn’t an option. What brands you use are far less important than a high SPF.
Ski Strap
An accessory so pervasive and mundane that it almost doesn’t merit a link, the humble ski strap is nonetheless one item skiers can’t get enough of. Falls in the “stocking-friendly” category.
Lightweight Vest
I don’t want to wander too deep into a skier’s clothing closet, but in the spirit of accessorizing, a thin layer with some sort of windbreaking ability – I prefer a vest, for it adds the least bulk – is de rigeur if you ski in foul weather. Let me give you a bit of parting advice: life is short, too short not to ski whenever you can, which includes storm days, which often include wind that could cut through rare beef. A thin extra layer takes no room to transport – it will fit in your heated boot bag! – and saves the day when the powder is loading up between every run.
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It’s About Nothing
In the last week of January,2009 I was able to spend a few days skiing in Little Cottonwood Canyon, which is always cathartic for my ravaged soul. The conditions were all over the map, the mountains having experienced a long, hot spell followed by rain, grapple, wet snow and finally dry snow driven by winds that could flense an adult walrus in a few minutes. Couldn’t have been better.
I had been preparing for the trip for weeks, psychologically. Two back surgeries the previous winter had reduced my training regimen from semi-annual to non-existent. Scheduling conflicts such as work kept me from visiting the areas that abound at home near Lake Tahoe, so I had zero ski days on a body with more fat on it than a French duck. I had as much chance of surviving Snowbird and Alta as a rib roast in a piranha tank.
Fortunately, the Lord is merciful, anti-inflammatory drugs are powerful and there are techniques that allow one to block out pain. There are also many wonderful people in this world with which to ski, kind people who stand quietly by, pretending to be in awe of Nature, while my chest heaves so violently in its futile quest for oxygen that tiny lung particles break lose and make for the exits. One such person is Guru Dave Powers, a man whose passion for the sport hasn’t diminished after thousands of days of riding gravity down the infinitely variable slopes and crannies of Snowbird. The Goo knows this hill, and in knowing it well knows so much more.
The Making of a Skier, Chapter XII: Putting Words into the Mouth of God & Other Mid-Life Adventures
When I was cut adrift by Head on June 13, 2001, my once glowing prospects dimmed considerably. The date is etched in memory because I hosted a small soirée that evening in honor of my darling wife’s 50th birthday. One of the attendees was Paul Hochman, who would play several roles in my life as I wandered in the wilderness of unemployment during what were supposed to be my peak earning years.
During the gaping hole in my career that spanned 2001-2011, I would eventually spend every cent of my inheritance, plus most of what I’d saved from earlier bouts with gainful employment, just keeping the household afloat. Despite a river of red ink, my resume would suggest that I was not only commercially active during this epoch, but had my hand in all sorts of ventures.
Fit the Whole Skier
We bootfitters are naturally obsessed with feet, but the best bootfitters don’t just fit feet; they fit the whole skier. The “whole skier” includes more than just a quick survey of the lower leg and how it’s connected to the foot. It’s even more than all of the skier’s physical attributes, which include not only height and weight, but seated posture, stance, kinesthetic wiring, arch health and stiffness throughout the kinetic chain; the whole skier also includes his or her history with the sport and, most importantly, what sort of skier he or she wants to be.
One of the most obvious traits about almost all boot customers is his or her gender. (Please forgive me if I don’t overcomplicate what should be a simple point about body type.) The first step in a sales process that consists of winnowing all possible boots down to one is picking from the pile of unisex boots or the alternative world of women’s boots.
No-brainer, right? Not so fast. What if a particular woman were tall, with a long tibia and a tapered calf? Let’s add to her profile that she’s a good athlete with a background in dance. Up to now, she’s only been an occasional skier who rented her gear, but a new beau has persuaded her to take a deeper dive. She already has her season pass.
