Dressing:
You should get a few basic things:
-Base layer: long underwear, especially thermals, keep you warm, wick moisture from the skin, keep your legs from getting irritated by your ski pants
-Middle layer: A fleece jacket; or anything aside from wool, which is very itchy. This will keep you warm in cold weather. If your outer jacket or parka (see below) is insulated, you can skip this, unless it's very cold outside.
For the legs, you can wear fleece pants or sweatpants; but once again, if it's not cold out or your pants are insulated, you can skip this.
-Outer layer: For your body, you will want a waterproof jacket or parka; I would recommend that it's insulated to keep down on the number of things you have to wear and possibly keep track of.
For the pants, you can get two types: pants or bibs. Pants just go to your waist, but bibs have suspenders and usually cover up to the top of the chest, helping to keep out snow. Try especially hard to get waterproof pants or bibs.
-Gloves: Once again, waterproof. Try to go with something that fits well, meaning that it's just the right fit (unlike the cheap $4 ones I got a few days before, which were quite oversized, even on my large hands).
-Hat/Helmet: If it's not cold outside you don't need a hat, but you should wear a helmet anytime (don't wear a hat and a helmet at the same time, or you will be sweating like crazy - it will be hot). Get a helmet that fits properly - if you rent one at the mountain, they'll fit you with one for you. Usually helmets have a liner that acts as insulation. I would perfer the closed-back style, but as far as I'm concerned, that's your choice.
-Sunglasses/Goggles: If you don't wear UVA/B filtering eyewear, you'll be seeing green when you get home, and your eyes may be damaged. The sunlight at the top of mountains is very intense, and then magnified by reflecting off the snow. Sunglasses are good for warm days, but I perfer googles since they block out wind (and because I wear perscription glasses, and my googles fit over them).
-Sunblock/Chapstick: I can't really say much about this either, but you might want to put sunblock on any exposed part of the body (hands, face), and put on chapstick (make sure it's got UV protection in it).
-Socks: I can't really say much about this, but you should get good ski or snowboard socks, that have light to medium cushioning. Trust me, your feet will sweat a ton in ski boots, so make sure you have at least 2 pairs of socks (one normal pair for the drive up, and the pair of ski socks).
You can find affordable clothing online (my favorite place is Sierra Trading Post, they have lots of cheap stuff, meaning that it will always be cheaper than the list prices, but their stuff is all closeouts or overstocks, but nevertheless it's all high-quality stuff).
Equipment:
-Skis: You will rent these from the ski area's shop. When you get into the rental shop, you will fill out a form that asks you for your weight and height; fill these in correctly. The skis have a thing in the middle called a binding, which attaches the boot to the ski. The front of the binding is designed to let the boot come off in case of a fall, and the bindings have to be adjusted to your body, so that's why they ask you to fill in your real weight and height on the rental form.
-Boots: The boots may feel a bit strange at first. They will feel firm, and your feet should not move around in them, but they shouldn't feel tight and constricting. If the first pair you try on doesn't feel right, go back and switch for a diiferent size pair.
-Poles: They will give you different size poles dependeing on your height. Just do what they tell you to do for this. At Camelback, they colorcode the poles by size.
Skiing:
I sure hope you will be taking lessons because it is hard for me to explain everything I know here (it could take me a few years to type it out, but I will get a heck of a lot of credits if I do).
To get into the binding: Clean off any snow from the bottom of the boot, and from the binding. Make sure that the little clip is down, step onto the binding making sure the front of the boot is in the front of the binding, and push down on the heel of tje boot. ou will hear a click, the little stick things that were previously pointing down will be parallel to the ski, and the clip in the back will go up, securing the boot.
The first thing I learned was how to walk up a hill. You stand parallel to the hill (as in not straight up the hill), and take little baby-stps up the hill, moving one ski at a time. It will feel weird because you are not used to standing in skis, and skis and boots are quite heavy.
Next, you learn the V-way, or pizza, or snowplow (the names are interchangeable). This is the basic braking method. To accomplish the plow, you point the tips of your skis toward each other (but don't cross them!). This will cause you to slow down. If you increase the angle of the plow, you will stop faster.
Turning is based on the plow. Essentially, you make the plow and pres on the foot that is on the outside of the turn (press on the left foot for right turns, and the right foot for left turns). There are other techniques to turning, but this is enough for now.
On to getting on a lift: At the front of the line there will be a little line down in the snow; wait by that until the chair that will take the people in front of you up to pass. Then ski up to the next line, where you will get on the chair. As the chair gets close to you, be prepared to sit down on it. It will drag you from there, then your legs will be dangling from mid-air as you travel up the mountain. At the top, stand up on your skis as you get up to the unloaing platform, and follow yourself down the ramp.
At that point decide which trail you want to go on, if the lift goes to more than one trail. To begin a trail, just come up to it, and use whatever you learned to get yourself down the trail. Happy skiing!
This is my first tutorial that actually made it to the pint where I hit the Post New Topic button. Congrats to me!
