Family Skiing: It’s Expensive

Let’s face it: there’s no easy way to make skiing truly cheap. Gear, lift tickets, lodging, food, it all costs money. If you want to pass the sport on to the next generation, multiply every expense by the number of children in your family.

snowboards

Thankfully, there are ways to limit the damage. Before you throw up your hands, take advantage of Mount Peter’s offer of a free lesson and rental to first time skiers. If you don’t live downstate, look into the mountains near you. There are ways for kids to try the sport without spending a dime.

Assuming they like it, there’s no reason to buy brand new skis for a third grader. Look into used gear at a ski swap or tent sale. It will take a little research and planning, but it will pay off in the end. For the last several years our family has attended the swap and sale at Mount Peter. The savings can be dramatic.

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Telemark: Diggin the NTN

My interest in telemark began decades ago, as a young boy caught up in the wonder of skiing. I was always curious about those weird, bearded, old guys in the corner of the lodge with their cool, funky bindings.

telemark skiing on ntn

Before February of 2015, my telemark experience was limited to a few days floundering on my brother’s old setup: 1st generation Atomic shaped skis, 7tm releasable bindings and a soft 3 buckle boot. I started with two days at Alta’s clinic designed for advanced alpine skiers learning to tele.

Last January, I met a strong telemark skier, new to Plattekill, who I started referring to as “tele quiver guy” in my head. Each of his skis, ranging from short slalom race skis to long, stiff, FIS GS skis to DPS Wailers and everything in between, were outfitted with 22 Designs’ Hammerhead bindings.

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Rich Hill: The NY Ski Boot Fitter

Rich Hill knows ski gear. He’s a former college ski racer who started working in the ski business nearly twenty years ago. After having some ski boot fit issues himself, Rich took an interest in custom foot beds and other ways to make a ski boot fit and perform better.

Dick Hill the boot fitter

He trained under Jeff Jacobs of Foot Dynamics on foot evaluation and custom foot bed construction. He’s done extensive training with MasterFit, an organization that provides bootfitting education to ski professionals.

I visited with him recently to learn more about what skiers should know about boot fitting.

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