What to Wear Skiing?

It was almost 25 years ago when I got a present from my brother. It was a neon-colored overall for skiing. I used to wear it every time I went skiing in our local hill. I was proud of it. Anyhow, there was one problem. It was not much water resisting and therefore it quickly became wet. I remember that I used to feel cold and wet all the time. It was just fine back then, but I wouldn’t like to experience it again. I learned to wear right for skiing, I learned the skiing dress code.

It is important to wear good clothes when you go skiing. Good clothing helps you to stay warm and dry, and gives you space to move your hands and legs. Today there are very many different brands and choices for skiing wear, and naturally there are many levels of prices as well. Before selecting the brand, such as North Face, Marmott, Mammut (in the picture above), Spyder and such, consider the following few advices.

Important Elements of Good Skiing Clothes

Please, notice that this article is about grown-up ski wears and does not provide information on children ski wearing.

Zip goes high enough so that the jacket protects your throat from cold air and snow
Sleeves can be tightened with a strap around gloves in order to protect wrists from cold and snow
Jacket can be tightened around your hip to protect from cold air
Small zips are placed under sleeves so that you can ventilate your jacket if there is too hot
Zip openers are big enough so that you can easily open your pockets in slopes (zips also move easily)
There is a small pocket in a sleeve to store your ski pass
Pockets for small things, such as a cellphone, goggles and a hat
There is a hood you can hide into the jacket if needed (the hood helps you to protect from strong winds)
Pants have wide enough hems so that you can pull it over your boots
Hems are strengthened so that they will not get broken if you crash
Pants have a good belt (without a belt skiing can be horrible)

Now, question is “overall or pants and a jacket? Although some people are still into overalls, I strongly recommend purchasing pants and a jacket. Overalls are difficult to use, but naturally they protect your back from snow. If you go monoskiing, the trend might be more to overalls.

Even crashing is fun when wearing proper ski clothing

When you go shopping your skiing clothes, keep those things above in your mind. Ask store staff to help you and ask as many questions as you feel like. Skiing clothes are usually worth of 300-600 euros in Europe, so you might want to be sure what you are going to purchase. Spend time in order to find the right clothes for you. You can estimate that you will use those clothes during the next 3-5 years.

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About the Author

Marko Pyhajarvi

I am an old-school alpine skier, snowboarder and telemarker, and I love writing. Therefore I founded Homeboy. I (too) enjoy powder, mountaineering and backcountry skiing as well as photographing. Nowadays, as an old fart, I mostly ski with my kids and focus on financing their hobbies.

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