[Many snips throughout]

On Mon, 03 Nov 2003 at 10:10 GMT, lal truckee penned:
Monique Y. Herman wrote:
On Sat, 01 Nov 2003 at 00:01 GMT, Christopher Mooney penned:

2. When you took your first ski trip, what did you wish you had
done/taken with you that you didn't?


Boot/glove dryer! You'll be amazed at how long it can take for wet
gloves to dry without proper ventilation. This is one of the many
reasons that I love my gloves, which have zip-out liners.

This is an easy one; I bet your wife won't leave home without a hair
dryer - just make sure it has a low temp or cool setting and you can
use it to dry gloves/boots. Your hotel room may have a dryer also, or
you may want to pack two. Or you can look in the magazines and waste
$100 on a special "boot/glove dryer."

Well, I'm female, and I don't use a hair dryer -- frequent use can
damage your hair. Split ends are a pain.

The key part to the above is the "cool" setting. Heat is bad when
drying your stuff -- at worst, you could actually melt plastic stuff,
but you could also bend your gear out of shape (unintentional
heat-molding). I know it's tempting, but don't lay your stuff out on a
heater -- I've seen a plastic piece on a glove completely melted down
this way. The smell was awful, too.

Anyway, back to boot dryers. Mine rules because it has long, flexible
pipes that allow me to actually get air flow into the toes of my boots
(find that on a hair dryer!). It was $50 at a resort, so I'm sure you
could find it much cheaper elsewhere. It has been a godsend for wet
boots and gloves (from sweat, even if you don't get snow into them).
I'll admit it's a bit noisy, though.

If someone in your group does have a hair dryer with a "cool" setting
and doesn't mind letting it contact stinky boots, that's an acceptably
effective and much more economical solution.

Extra ski socks.

Commercial ski socks are a crock: ski socks should be wicking
(polyprop or similar, relatively thin, high rising (so there's no edge
or wrinkles inside the boot cuff) and snug. Commercial ski socks are
too thick and often have wool in them. Wrong. Don't expect to pad out
a sloppy boot with thick or multiple socks - it won't work; insist on
a good fitting boot.

I have some extremely thin ski socks with no padding. They work great.
Thinner is definitely better.

Regardless of the type of sock you choose, bring extras. You'll want
more than you think. If you take off your boots during lunch, as I tend
to do, you'll find that your socks are cold, wet, and downright icky.
Having an extra pair available can be a nice pick-me-up =)

"Wicking" long johns rather than the old-style honeycomb kind. Silk
long johns are great; so are many of the synthetics out there.

The synthetics are better than silk; just not as expensive.

I have some of both, and now that I think about it, I do tend to prefer
the synthetics. They also are less likely to "run" than the silks,
which can be a real pain that way. And it's much less ... awkward ...
to change out of your snow pants in front of someone else when you're
wearing opaque synthetics rather than translucent silks. (Unless of
course you're changing in front of your spouse, in which case it can be
great fun.)

--
monique
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