Rob Svensson's Clothes for Winter Trips

Ok, this section has been developed for all you new cross country skiers out there who always wanted to know what to wear and bring on ski trips, but were afraid to ask about it.

The extreme basics:

1. Skis
2. Boots
3. Poles

Clothes: You should dress in layers. This is extremely important when skiing. At a bare minimum, you should have with you (not necessarily wearing):

• Nylon wind pants
• Thermal underwear bottoms
• T-Shirt
• Medium Weight Long Sleeved Shirt
• Wind-breaker
• Hat
• Gloves
• Two Pairs of Socks
• Scarf

I have found that some clothes work better than others. Here is what I usually wear when skiing:

• Nylon Wind Pants
• Polypropelene Thermal Underwear Bottoms
• Cotton Turtleneck (See note at bottom about this!!!)
• Fleece Socks
• Glove Shells (or liners, depending on conditions)
• A hat which covers the ears (head socks work very well for this!)
• Either (depending on temperature):
  • Light Weight Windbreaker
  • Heavy Weight Polartec Windbloc Anorak

Various other things which are very good to have along:

• A backpack (any old thing will do)
• At least one bottle of water
• Extra gloves (either for that one person who forgets, or you may want them as a second layer for your hands.)
• Extra hat (for that one person who forgets theirs)
• Some sort of map of the general area
• An extra shirt/polyester sweater
• Some sort of snack food (depending on how long you're skiing)

A little note about my cotton turtleneck. I wear it for several reasons. First of all...I think it may be 25% polyester, but it is still 75% cotton. Cotton is generally bad to wear in winter activities. Eric Breon described why pretty well: Cotton loses all of its insulating properties when wet. It's worse than wearing nothing. So why do I wear it? I find that it keeps me warm to the point of comfort, but not too hot. The neck is especially nice when it is snowing. It offers protection from dry snow going down your back. I do not recommend this item for conditions less than 25 to 30 degrees farenheit, or you are skiing in wet conditions (i.e. it's raining), simply because you can get into lots of trouble with it. When I wear this, I always have a very warm polyester sweater with me as backup if it does get wet, and I start getting cold. Do not bring this item along if you do not have something similiar to wear if you start to get cold. If the temperature is less than 20 degrees I usually wear a polypropelene thermal underwear top as my bottom layer, and no turtleneck.

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