Required gear to be comfortable when skiing 100 days a season rather than just 20 days

[migdriver]

I have a lot of these days and always feel better on the ride home than my way up.
I’m not going up just to post my days or vertical on a ski forum. I’m going to up to enjoy every turn or run I’m able to make. There are days where a run or three at Alta has made the issues of the day a little easier to deal with.

AGREE! Like some others here i live at a major resort/ mtn .... Some days it’s 5 runs ; others 15.... don’t really care as long as I’m having fun and enjoying the total distraction from all the other “ stuff” that fills my life.
And as for “ ski days”.,. Who cares. On an average non holiday mid week day i can ski right into the chair most runs and knock out a days worth of skiing in a couple of hrs max. Seriously; how many total runs do you get on a typical weekend day?
Typically mid week at my CC home mtn ( except holidays/ powder days) 12 + runs in a short morning isn’t hard . And then it’s back to my home office, zoom calls, etc .
And that to me is a “ ski day” by any metric.
I clicked in, got some turns, was fully distracted from the BS, ( don’t know about you but when I’m skiing that’s all I’m thinking about..) which is an amazing luxury and freedom. It’s a ski day by any definition as far as I’m concerned.

 

[migdriver]

My ski buddy has the non XL Airbrake and I saw him snap his low light lens on the mountain during a lens change.
I saw a used Prizm Snow Rose for the Airbrake at a good price so I bought it. It ended up being for the Airbrake XL. I missed the Amazon return window and will send it to you as a backup or if someone else has the same goggle and needs a low light lens I’ll send it to them.

Personally, I don’t find the Oakley Prism lenses that great; perhaps because I’m slightly red color blind the red boost in their lenses doesn’t really do much for me. I do find that the Zeiss lenses that POC uses in their race googles ( Fovea comp etc) seem to wirk better. Funny but years ago PIC made a race google (Iris) with a very pale blue tint and vlt about 85% that , counterintuitively, worked well for my eyes on stormy low viz days.

 

[Choucas]

Oddly, I found the Prizm Jade lens worked well for me in low light this year in VT. I always used for the goggles with that lens in sunnier conditions, but put them on by mistake on a low light day and had no flat light issues. Didn’t know until I took them off that I had the “wrong” goggles on. Used them a lot after that. Liked them better than the Prizm Rose. Go figure.
Regarding the original post, I don’t think you need to do much special with your gear if you’re skiing 100 days vs. fewer days, other than keeping up the tune and base finish, particularly if skiing on hard snow/ice. Mid season boot & binding check for things loosening up makes sense. Dry boots every day.

 

[Tony Storaro]

Gear needed for 100 days season as opposed to 20 days?

More!

 

[François Pugh]

Regarding how you count your 100 days, having your feet in your ski boots from bell to bell for many stretches of consecutive days requires more than 2 hours a day for 100 days a season.

IMHO, it would require better boots, more and better ski socks, better clothing including mitts/gloves to match the weather, better nutrition and less over-indulging in alcohol. Not that you can't decide to get and do all that even if you aren't getting 100 bell-to-bell days. You can make do without the rest, but you will be very miserable without good boots.

 

[Wilhelmson]

Sounds like a fun season.

The cold wouldn't bother me too much at 2 hours a day. I would get a cool helmet headlight for night skiing. And a hot tub. But i guess i skied 25 days x 6 hours so that's 150 days so all i need is the hot tub!

 

[Henry]

-What do you do for goggles? Visibility on snowy and cloudy/foggy days is sort of a biggie for me. My unsatisfactory solution at this point is to head for lower terrain.

(a) in dense cloud nothing will help you see through water droplets. See (c) below.
(b) otherwise...on a gray day go into a ski shop on the hill and ask to take several goggles to a window so you can look outside and see which one enhances the contrast best for your eyes. Smith ChromaPop works great for me. Oakley Prizm not so much. Dragon Lumalens works well for me. My next goggles might be TGR Optics with Zeiss Sonar lenses.
(c) when it's really a white out find another skier going about your speed. Focus on their boots. If the boots go up be ready for a rise. If the boots go down be ready for a dip. If the boots disappear...don't go there.

 

[David]

If you're skiing an hour or two how much stuff are you carrying that you need a chest pack? I've been skiing for 50+ years and have used a hood maybe a total of 5 times in the rain. Just buy a warmer hat to wear under your helmet.

 

[Quandary]

1. Really cold weather can happen in any month. It just depends on the micro-climate weather pattern. Also, the aspect of the mountain, cloud cover, and wind speed makes a huge difference. It can be 20 degrees colder when you are skiing on the north facing side of the mountain after the wind has picked up and clouds have rolled in. This season, it was some of the days in Feb at Breck where I thought it was the coldest for me.

Ironically, for Breck, the season past wasn't a very cold......

We aren't referred to as Breckenfridge and/or Breckenwind by chance.

 

[Quandary]

I thought about getting one of those insulated helmet hoodies but then realized if it is that cold, it is probably not snowing and I am probably not going skiing anyway.

A wise old man once told me to always remember "a day you don't ski is a day you will never be able to ski again".