Advice

One job at a time, in the order the steps depend on each other

Each page walks one job from the first move to the final check, and marks the step that everything after it depends on. A product is named only where the job genuinely needs one — and more than one of these ends by telling you to buy nothing, because drying a liner properly changes more than most purchases could. Where the answer depends on your own weight, your own snow or a limit the maker sets, the page hands over to the documentation and to the workshop instead of paraphrasing them.

Getting started

What to sort out before buying anything, for a first week on snow where hiring is still the sensible answer for half the list.

A first week on snow, and what to sort out before it Most equipment advice assumes you already ski. This page assumes you are going for the first time and do not yet know what you like. It is a sequence of four small purchases and one large decision, and the large decision is to hire.

Choosing skis

Waist, length and shape in the order they matter, with the flex index left out of the decision until the boots are settled.

Choosing skis, in the order the decisions actually depend on each other A ski is chosen from four published numbers and one word, and they are not equally important. This page puts them in the order where each answer narrows the next, and it starts with the decision most listings put last.

Setting up bindings

What is measured before a binding is mounted, what a shop needs from you, and the checks that belong to you afterwards.

Bindings, from the box to the bench Mounting a binding is a workshop job that ends in a measurement, and the measurement is the part that matters. This page covers what you can settle at home, what to hand over, and what to look at when the skis come back.

A day on piste

The sequence from the car park to the last lift: what goes in which pocket, what gets adjusted at the top, what is dried at night.

A day on piste, from the car park to the drying rack Nothing here is technique. It is the sequence around the skiing: how the kit gets carried, what is in which pocket, what to change after the first run, and the evening routine that keeps a week from degrading.

Going touring

Skins on, skins off, transitions, and the point where equipment stops being the question and the day’s decisions start.

Going touring, and the order the kit has to be assembled in Touring equipment has to agree with itself in a way piste equipment does not, and the agreement runs in one direction. This page follows that direction, and then covers the two practical routines: skins on, skins off.

Waxing & tuning

Clean, wax, scrape, brush, then edges: the order, the temperatures, and the two steps most people skip.

A full wax and edge, in the order the steps depend on each other A full service is about forty minutes, most of it waiting for wax to cool. The order matters more than the products: every step here undoes the one before it if they are taken the wrong way round.

End of season

The hour in April that decides what condition everything is in next December, for skis, boots, skins and batteries.

End of season, and the hour that decides what December looks like Almost everything that goes wrong over a summer is water, heat or a battery left in something. This is a walk through the kit with those three in mind, and it takes about an hour for a full setup.