Through our years of skiing in Maine, we have tried many different types
of products to make our ski day more enjoyable. Many of these products deal with
the cold...as it can get COLD skiing in Maine! The saying goes...
There's No Such Thing As Bad Weather…Just Bad Gear
The following is our MaineSkiFamily gear guide. These products are used by us
regularly and 100% recommended by the Family Skiing in Maine crew.
Our site does not display ads, but we are part of the Amazon Associates
program. Purchasing items through our links help support the blog.
We are big fans of Hestra Gloves. There are cheaper gloves out there, but
these gloves are great and keeping your hands warm and dry in all conditions.
The models with wrist straps are super handy when on the lift as they keep the
gloves attached to your body preventing them from accidently falling off the
chair!
There are many different single use warmers out there, but we have had good
luck with the Hot Hands brand. These single use warmers are helpful on the
cold days to keep your hands and feet comfortable. If you only use a warmer
for a half a day, you can store opened warmers in an air-tight plastic bag for
use later on.
We highly recommend buying these in bulk as the
per-unit price is well under $1 which is much less than buying these
individually in the ski shop.
The MaineSkiFamily Dad is a recent convert to boot gloves. These neoprene
covers effectively keep out the wind, snow and cold making any additional
heating help (like single use warmers) much more effective. The one drawback
is that if you like to adjust your bottom boot buckles frequently during the
day, these covers will make that more difficult. But if you are a set the
buckles once type of skier, these covers are a worthy addition to your ski
gear.
In skiing, a thicker sock doesn't always mean warmer. A good fitting high
performance sock goes a long way towards making your ski day more comfortable.
These Merino compression socks by Dissent provide exceptional moisture
management and promote good circulation which is key to keeping your feet
comfortable throughout the ski day.
Endorsed by the MaineSkiFamily Mom, these battery powered foot warmers
combined with a BootGlove keeps her feet warm and toasty even in the harshest
of conditions. There is an upfront investment in money and time for
installation, but if you feet are constantly cold this is the answer.
We are fans of the Smith brand of Goggles, especially the models that offer easy
lens change capability. When skiing in Maine, the weather can change by the
minute. It might be sunny in the morning, but cloudy and flat lights conditions
in the afternoon. Have the ability to quickly change goggle lenses is super
handy and makes for a more enjoyable ski day.
Over the years, we have saved a lot of money tuning and waxing our skis at
home. While we leave the binding adjustments to the professionals, we sharpen
our edges and get our bases flat and waxed with ski tuning gear from
RaceWax.
We have found the Gravity Grabber to be a great rack system for our skis and poles. While we have them mounted on the front of our ski house, these could easily be used on any garage or interior wall.
During his 30-year career, artist James Niehues hand-painted over 200 ski resort trail maps, including Saddleback's. We explored every nook and cranny of his Saddleback map in creating our blog's popular
Saddleback trail guide. All of his work and details about his map-making process are bound in this beautiful 292-page hardcover coffee table book. We own two copies of this book and love to explore the ski mountains of the world illustrated in its pages. You can see more details and purchase
at this link.
Other Great Places to Get Gear
While these are not affiliate links, we like to visit these Maine based online
and retail stores to pick up other gear including:
Untracked.com - This Maine based online retailer offers a wide variety of alpine
skis, bindings and gear. The MaineSkiFamily Dad recently upgraded to the
2023 Blizzard Bonafide 97
through their website.
Akers Ski - We recently picked up a
starter cross country ski package
through this Maine based online retailer and they also have a retail store in
Andover.
L.L.Bean - Known
nationally and headquartered in Freeport, Maine, their retail and online
stores offer gear for all seasons. We recently purchased their
Winter Walker Snowshoes
and we are extremely happy using them on our snowshoe walks.
Saddleback Retail Shop
- And of course we like to pick up all our Saddleback logo gear at the retail
shop in the Saddleback base lodge. Season pass holders get 10% off all Saddleback logo gear.
Bookmark this page and stay tuned for additions to the MaineSkiFamily
recommended products list!
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