Words By Hamish Acland
What equipment and clothing we choose can have a great deal of impact on the enjoyment of our days skiing. This past summer I headed off to Europe. It was primarily a work trip, attending a trade show and networking for business opportunities. Skiing would have to fit in wherever possible. Out of 30 odd days in Europe, I skied just five. My brother Ben – who was traveling with me – skied only two days out of fifteen! When this is your situation you cannot really choose what day you ski; the date is forced upon you and it is a complete lottery of what the snow conditions and weather will be. Since it is truly hopeless to try and predict, you need to be prepared. Don’t do this and you risk missing an extremely important opportunity to ski. My brother and I left Innsbruck for St Anton really early. I knew how good it could be up there as I had spent a couple months skiing in St Anton in 2002. I wasn’t leaving anything up to chance we arrived at a truck stop just outside of the town at 7am, where we grabbed some breakfast. The town of St Anton is a swanky euro-style place. With one main street for pedestrians on which you can find everything you need. We walked the street looking for a ski shop to get a new pair of skis mounted and to check my brother’s boots fitted my old skis for our first days skiing. This has to be up there as one of the most important checks; having your bindings set correctly to your ability and body weight is critical. Injuries are the scourge of any skier, no one wants time off their skis. It is invaluable to get your gear checked regularly. Once our skis were sorted we jumped back in the rental car and headed over the pass to the neighbouring resort of Stuben, which is part of the St Anton lift network. It was snowing hard as we headed up the incline, our 2WD Renault was ill prepared and we cursed AVIS for not trying harder to get us an that 4WD Audi! We rode the chair giddy with excitement, below untouched powder lines were visible, but we couldn’t tell how deep it was. The visibility wasn’t going to be good and my brother had only dark lenses that were pretty scratched up. Seeing gives one confidence, low light lenses enhance what you can see thus allowing more time shredding and less time getting vertigo. Investing in a good pair of goggles and having two lenses will change your outlook on bad weather days. What you wear is also vital to your enjoyment of the day. Having the expensive outerwear is pointless if the body is wrapped in cotton. Once damp, cotton will chill you to the bone for the rest of the day. Look for specific products that will keep you warm and have good wicking qualities. Merino wool is a good example and a favorite of many kiwis, especially because it doesn’t stink. We descended into the whiteout, dropping off the cat track to dabble in the powder but we were far from satisfied when we reached the
bottom. We were close to nirvana but we just couldn’t see it. Even though I had skied here years earlier, it was difficult to distinguish the entry points to the powder fields in my memories. We retreated to the slope-side café for a coffee, Ben tearing his boots off, close to agony and groomer runs weren’t going to make it go away. While my brother swore to buy new boots, I asked our neighboring table of three skiers who had just arrived bearing obvious signs of ski-bumness, where might be good out there in the blizzard. Funnily enough, the ski world can be an extremely small place not only had I met one of the girls in New Zealand years earlier the guy was not only a local skier but we shared many a friend from my season there years earlier and he soon took to showing us around. Nirvana! Our newly acquainted guide dropped in. With plenty of days on the hill already he was totally in tune, ripping up the short Stuben pitch. “After you” I said, and watched as my brother dropped in. A guy so busy with his business and family life, he nearly didn’t bring his ski gear. Now he was skiing some of the best runs of his life, face shot after face shot. Ben for the first time was skiing on a pair of rocker skis. The difference to him became obvious instantly, with only five days skiing the previous winter he was shredding like a pro. Although a naturally talented skier he would still have been out of energy and finished by noon had he not had these surfboards under his feet. It wasn’t just the ease of turning in powder either, it was the ability to ski faster and the skis versatility that had him so pumped. To and from our fields of nirvana we had to ski a piste run, dodging our way through the euro-carvers. Now there isn’t truly one ski that can do it all, but there have been real advancements in making fatter skis perform better on piste. Rocker technology is part of that. The rocker enables the ski to pivot more easily, making for much improved on-trail turning as well as its obvious benefits off piste. For the entire day we had seen only one other group skiing in our land of nirvana, but we had started to exhaust all of the fresh lines and our bodies were starting to lag, so as the weather started to come back in we knew it was time to call it a day. Injuries so often happen as the body and brain fatigue. By the time we reached the car our bodies were ragged. While my brother had suffered painful boots all day, I realized that my toes were suffering from the cold thanks to frostbite years earlier. As the blood started to pump back through them, so did the pain. I to swore to sort out my boots. So this autumn as you look ahead to the winter season, check your gear and make sure that it works right, as each day on the hill is precious. Those few extra dollars you spend or the extra time you put into getting your gear sorted might just pay off and you won’t miss any opportunities to have an epic day.
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