Buying guides
Which one, for the skiing you actually do
A hub compares one family against itself. A guide takes one question instead — a budget, a first kit for somebody who has only ever hired, what has to be bought before a touring binding is any use at all — and answers it with a short ordered list and the reasoning that produced that order.
- Getting started
A first alpine setup, in the order each one earns
Five purchases make a skier self-sufficient, and the order is not the order of price — the boot decides more than the ski, and the goggle decides the day.
- For children
Getting a child onto snow, without buying it twice
A child outgrows everything except the things that adjust, so this list is built around the adjustable boot, the growing pole and the helmet sized in centimetres.
- Off-piste safety
The avalanche three, and what a set actually contains
A transceiver locates, a probe pinpoints and a shovel digs. This page is about what the listings publish, what the sets contain, and what an airbag adds.
- Getting started
A first snowboard setup, and the three things that must agree
Board, boots and bindings are one system, and a beginner buying them separately can end up with three parts that do not fit each other.
- Reading the listing
Skis sold flat, and what the page is not telling you
A ski sold without a binding looks cheaper than one sold with it. This page compares four listings and shows where the missing cost actually sits.
- Getting started
Cross-country from nothing, and what a set leaves out
A classic set can contain two pieces or five, and the difference decides whether you can ski on the day the box arrives.
- How to choose
Choosing a ski boot on the numbers that are published
Last width, flex and Mondopoint are the three figures that decide a ski boot, and most listings publish one of them.
- How to choose
Snowshoes, and the one figure that predicts float
Surface area decides whether a snowshoe floats under you, and exactly one listing on this site publishes it. The rest are compared on what they do give.
- Getting started
The first day on ice, and the blade nobody mentions
A new skate may arrive with an unground blade, and almost no listing says which. This page sorts the shelf by that question and by who the skate is for.
- How to choose
A sledge that lasts, and the load rating that decides it
Plastic or beech, steering or not, one kilo or six and a half — the sledge shelf divides on weight and on a load figure most listings do publish.
- Maintenance
Edges and dry boots, the two jobs between ski days
A guide sets the bevel and a dryer saves the second day. Both shelves are cheap, both are skipped, and both publish more than the ski shelves do.
- How to choose
A helmet and a goggle that agree with each other
A goggle that does not sit against the helmet leaves a gap of forehead, and almost no listing on either shelf names its partner.