Too cold to ski?

The first two days of the new year have been very cold.

It was -7 F on Tuesday morning then 10 F later in the day, and -5 F on Wednesday with a high of 19 F in the afternoon. Needless to say that I didn't ski on both days! In the past, I have had my struggle with cold.

I remember one December day of 1969, in Chamrousse, France, as I was undergoing a ski-instructor examination, wearing just a red sweater – no jacket and no hat – in order to look good, and got my fingers badly frostbitten.

Later, as was instructing further north, at Avoriaz, I bought myself a Moncler down jacket, because the cool looking but freezing Skimer outfits we had couldn't do the job of keeping us warm.

Another memorable event was in Sugarbush, Vermont, during a Look sales meeting when we had to ski by -40F, with a windshield factor of -70F. There was only one long, cold ride on the fixed grip chairlift that day!

In Park City, there were ski days in the -20F range, when I could barely extract myself from my ski boots once I got back to my car, and many other when I was skiing with others that didn't give me a chance to produce enough efforts to remain warm enough.

My adopting a helmet 9 seasons ago, was also a godsend, as it finally kept my balding head and growing ears much warmer...

Of course, skiing isn't a tropical sport and we need cold to practice it; we should therefore embrace it. What I've learned through it all is that it's always better to err on the side of overdressing, whatever the conditions could be!