Autumn 2021 - Getting Ready for Ski Season!

By Tom Arnold trustmetom@ comcast.net

Hey out there. Can you believe it? Summer is almost over, autumn is fast approaching, and the smell of fresh snow will soon replace the smoky odor of wildfires. Warren Miller and TGR films are beginning to be advertised. Ski shops are opening and with any luck preseason venues like ski swaps will soon be selling good used gear and raising funds for the Ski Patrol.

Are you ready? It’s anybody’s guess how the resorts are going to respond to the challenges posed by COVID 19 (remember parking reservations at Mt. Bachelor and day limits at the resorts around Mt. Hood?) Regardless of the potential hassles, there will be a ski season. So, here are a few ideas to get you prepped for your first day (ok, the whole season) on the slopes.

Getting in shape: You’ve been exercising since the end of last season, right? RIGHT? If not, you still have time to get into a regimen of strength training and stretching, but don’t put it off any longer! Lift tickets are not getting any cheaper, and even if you have a season pass, or an Icon or Epic pass, you still want to get your money’s worth out of them. If you need direction or motivation, there are physical fitness trainers who specialize in prepping athletes (yup, that’s you) for specific sports, so check with your gym or Google for referrals. Get moving!

Get your gear in shape: If you followed my recommendations at the end of last season, you shouldn’t have much to do. Your clothes are clean, zippers and buttons are in good working order, old stuff has been repaired or discarded. (Sticky zippers can be lubricated with non-greasy water-proof zipper wax, available at any SCUBA shop.) You’ve waterproofed your outer wear with Tech wash or Tech wax or other fabric appropriate products.

I neglected to mention in my article last spring – my bad – that you should rinse out your helmet, especially if you wear it without a balaclava. (Don’t forget to take the ear buds out first.) There is still time for it to dry completely before your first day on the snow. Here’s a handy tip: I sewed large buttons to the outsides of the fabric ear flaps of my helmet to facilitate masking and demasking. (On most of the helmets I’ve seen, the shell does not extend down over the ears.)

If the boot fits: Remember at the end of last season when you took the insoles and liners out of your boots and washed everything? They’ve been drying all summer, so now’s the time to reassemble this most important part of your ski gear. Pay attention to the liners; sometimes they look almost identical, but they are left and right so be sure to install them correctly. New liners and even some of the newer shells can be remolded several times over, but hold off going to your boot fitter for the time being. Read below…

Now, the most important part. Put your boots on and keep them on for fifteen or twenty minutes. Do this once or twice a day from now on, increasing the time until you are comfortable walking around for an hour or two with the buckles buckled. Why bother? Well, you’ve been playing all summer in flip flops, aqua socks, tennis shoes, and so on. Your feet have ‘relaxed.’ Unless you’ve been skiing in Chile or Australia, you haven’t had your boots on since April or May so expect some discomfort at first. Remember if you ski a full seven hour day, you don’t want your feet to hurt after the first few runs, right? So, if after a week or two your boots still don’t feel right, by all means talk to your boot fitter. But at least give your footsies a chance to readjust to their plastic prisons before you do.

Before we leave the feet: Have your ski shop check your bindings. Screws can loosen. DIN settings can change. You can change! (Are you still the double black diamond mogul monster you once were? Get real here!) A ski tech can inspect your bindings and perform a function/torque check to ensure they release at the correct pre-determined pressure. For a binding torque check, you’ll need to take your skis AND your boots to the shop.

While you’re there with your equipment, ask the ski tech to remove the over-the-summer storage wax and apply ski wax to your skis. Do your edges need sharpening or do your skis need tuning? Now’s the time.

Get there in one piece: Have your car checked out and winterized. Be sure your mechanic knows you play in the snow so s/he will pay attention to details that might otherwise go overlooked. That should include a bumper-to-bumper safety check, the normal filters and fluids checks and changes, new wiper blades (don’t forget the rear window wiper blade!) brake pads, and of course tire inspections.

If you run studded tires, look and see if any of the studs have fallen out and if the tires will still be effective on snow and ice. If you use chains, I suggest you take an hour to install them in the comfort of your dry, sunny, warm driveway so you are familiar with the procedure when you get to the slushy chain-up pull-out. Chaining up is no fun and it’s even worse when you’re cold and wet and can’t remember exactly how to do it. You’ll be anxious to get to the mountain and start skiing or riding, so make the trip up as safe and hassle-free as you can.

Don’t forget to check your cabin filter. What’s that? Most vehicles these days are equipped with a filter so you breathe fresher air than whatever you are driving through. It’s been a long smoky, dusty summer and chances are your cabin filter is dirty and/or clogged up. Changing it is a relatively easy task (check your owner’s manual or Google it) or ask your mechanic to do it when you get the aforementioned winterization.

One more thing: Get a Sno-Park permit. Even if you ski at an area that plows its own parking lot and no permit is required, I encourage you to get one. Who knows? You may venture to a different area where permits are required and you won’t want to burn daylight buying one at the last minute. An annual Sno-Park permit is only twenty-five bucks (maybe the cheapest ski goodie you’ll buy all season) and the funds go toward keeping the roads cleared so we can play. A Sno-Park permit can be transferred from one vehicle to another and is valid in Oregon, Idaho and California (Shasta anyone?)

Finally, remember to thank a Patroller, just for being there, at the end of the day. Every day.

That’s it! Let’s have a blast this winter. Stay safe, play hard, be grateful.