Skiing - specialist ski clothing or technical outdoor clothing?

Pipe Cleaner

Trail Blazer
I was just wondering what people thought about clothing for a ski trip. Downhill skiing and in our case.

Buying specialist ski kit or will technical outdoor kit for walking / mountaineering do?

I need kit for winter walking including waterproof trousers (I'm tall so hard to find = expensive to get something that fits). Also I'm looking at buffalo special 6 shirt or something equally technical in use. But adding in ski specific kit too the bill rockets.

So my idea is to switch out ski kit for outdoor kit that can be used for other activities where it's sensible. So what really needs to be ski specific and what doesn't?

Current thinking is jacket not but trousers or salopettes tali do need to be ski specific. Reason is normal trousers won't go over the ski boots.

PS as an aside, those inside fabric tubes with a loop of strap at the bottom of ski trousers, how do you use them? By that I mean do you put the loop under the arch of your foot and into your boot? Might be a daft question but our son's ski trousers has a thick strap that might be uncomfortable under your foot in the boot. Too thick for that use.
 

cathyjc

Thru Hiker
Top half clothing for skiing - you could easily use walking gear. IMHO.
Bottom half clothing not so much. Ski pants have quite specialist features - mostly to keep snow out of ankles and waist areas when you fall.
Don't wear waterprof troos skiing - snow brushes off (relatively 'dry') and they'd potentialy get shredded in a fall = expensive. "Soft shell" troos are better suited.

Cross country skiing is a bit different - I've used my Buffalo shirt and walking softshell troos (thermals under) for short blasts on track skis. Ski touring you might want more specialist kit ?? ….. others may be better informed on this.
 

Shewie

Chief Slackpacker
Staff member
I snowboard rather than ski but I still adopt a layering approach and use quite a lot of my hiking clothing. i.e merino base layers top and bottom, Primaloft jacket or 100 weight fleece under my shell, buff etc

Personally I can't imagine hiking very far in traditional ski salopettes and a heavy insulated jacket, whereas I'm quite happy the other way round using some my hiking clothing for snowboarding. Like Cathy said, I wouldn't want to take a high speed tumble in my Paclite trousers or top end eVent jacket but other layers can work well.

The nature of resort skiing isn't very energetic so it's good to have the thick heavy clothing, if you're having a lazy winter camp then ski clothing would be toasty, if you're doing distance then I'd avoid it.
 

Gneiss Boots

Trail Blazer
I have downhill skied in buffalo smocks, paramo and other mountaineering style goretex jackets over the years. These with layers of thermals, fleeces etc are well suited I think. Fortunately I have an old pair of paramo salopettes that fit over boots well and are a nice cover on my back too but I notice nowadays most skiers buy trousers it seems.
 

FOX160

Thru Hiker
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TinTin

Thru Hiker
I was going to wear my Berghaus Mera Peak jacket a couple of years ago but went into TK Max a few days before we were going to fly out and bought a Togg 24 ski jacket for £40. I went for that because I didn't like the idea of ruining over £200 worth of winter shell jacket if I wiped out on the slopes. I the distant past (40 years ago) I wore my mountain gear for skiing in the Cairngorms when Mountain Rescue visited out hostel and asked us not to go out on the hill. Wool Craghoppers breaches (when that brand meant something) and long wool socks over long johns were just the thing for skiing in. Together with a "duvet" jacket and cagoule for the top half.
 

ZenTrekker

Section Hiker
It also depends on what type of shell. I have a Norrona ski jacket but its basically just a shell layer. I prefer this to a 'normal' shell because its longer and has ski specific features such as a snow skirt, lift pass pocket, big hood to go over a helmet and a large pocket for ski-goggles. I wear a lightweight down or Primaloft top underneath and my normal merino base layers, sometimes even a thin fleece as well.

Bear in mind that for downhill resort skiing there can be a lot of hanging about (lifts etc.), so you need to be warm when not active. Softshell trousers can work but proper ski pants with insulation and snow skirts are better.
 

Pipe Cleaner

Trail Blazer
How does the ankle features on proper ski trousers work? There's a hefty loop on my son's pair that would be too thick for under the foot inside the boot.

The snow skirt on jackets are clearly meant to go over your trousers and form a tight seal there. With the trousers there's an inner seal with a loop that goes around the bottom of foot or boot. Latter option makes no sense but any snow getting inside the outer layer could just melt into the boot of it goes around your foot.

Doesn't make sense to me somehow.
 

ZenTrekker

Section Hiker
How does the ankle features on proper ski trousers work? There's a hefty loop on my son's pair that would be too thick for under the foot inside the boot.

The snow skirt on jackets are clearly meant to go over your trousers and form a tight seal there. With the trousers there's an inner seal with a loop that goes around the bottom of foot or boot. Latter option makes no sense but any snow getting inside the outer layer could just melt into the boot of it goes around your foot.

Doesn't make sense to me somehow.
On my ski-pants, there are elasticated snow skirts around the ankle area that go over the ski boot and seal the lower leg from snow. With a properly fitting snow-skirt on the jacket, you are very unlikely to get snow inside your ski-pants. The other issue I forgot to mention, was that generally walking trousers are not wide enough at the bottom to fit over ski boots, so there is more likelihood of getting snow inside your boots.
 

Pipe Cleaner

Trail Blazer
On these the elasticated skirt is inside the outer layer and has a loop from the middle of one side to the middle of the other. I can only think this is to go under something (foot or boot).

https://www.didriksons.com/en/kids/bottoms/idre-kid-s-pants-501852-156

The outer would go over the boots.

Also got this. He's already worn it (for 5 minutes then took it off too hot along with a coat - not the didriksons one - he doesn't feel the cold).

https://www.didriksons.com/en/kids/accessories/biggles-kid-s-cap-501940-156

We've got a few base layers and thin fleeces to go under this. It's not as padded as it looks. I doubt it'll be warm Enough for the - 12°C overnights forecast for the late night / early morning train journey to Oslo without plenty layers underneath it. Got the room for layering up.
 
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Pipe Cleaner

Trail Blazer
Minus 12 ! Best ignore what I had added, thought it would be around minus 2
That's when we leave, the extreme temperature if the long range forecast is right (unlikely). We have to catch a late train overnight and the temperature trends is dropping over the week we're there Night time temperatures after we have left go to - 15 degrees C. Daytime is 0 degrees dropping to 2 or 3 below at the end of the week.

This is actually warm for the averages at Geilo in December and the last week in December. Minus 4 in the day and minus 10 at night from what I've seen.

If the trip is at max zero in the day will the snow go a bit slushy or wet? I'm not sure if those temperatures are in geilo or for geilo ski resort which is a little out of town and up the hill a bit.

There's a temperature drop for every 150m height gain but I can't recall what it is it's it a degree every 150 m but varies according to conditions such as cloudy/clear or moisture in the air? More moisture it's every 200m less is 100m.

So geilo ski resort and the ski pistes could be further into the minus temperatures with better snow conditions.
 
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