We leave for our Spring Break vacation tomorrow. My husband was out of town all of last week and we decided to change our plan from a sight-seeing trip to San Francisco and Yosemite National Park to multiple days of skiing at Badger Pass (the ski resort at Yosemite) last Thursday before he was due to fly home. I spent the major part of the weekend researching and shopping for everything us and the boys would need since we have NEVER skied before. Anything I found online had to be delivered by today. Most of the gear we got was on deep discount at retailers
like REI, Dick's Sporting Goods, and while I did shop at a couple of ski
boutiques like St. Bernards and The Warming Hut, the bulk was borrowed
from friends, bought from local online sales like Facebook and
Craigslist and from eBay. I am still waiting for 5 packages that include my ski pants and thermals for both my husband and our oldest.
I started with Base Layers for everyone and can I just ask once again, how I survived the Icepocalypse of 2013 without knowing about thermals!?!? I used to think thermals referred only to long underwear and that did not sound at all appealing. Then I received a pair of Patagonia thermal leggings (the photo above has them in maroon, mine are purple) and knew I would never be cold again! The top is the Brooks Utopia Thermal with thumb holes and is currently on sale. I bought my husbands and our oldest's thermals from an eBay retailer and I really hope they arrive today. We decided against ski socks because they are quite expensive ($15-30/pair) for being socks and we don't know if we will like it enough to go again, but if we love it, I am definitely going to try to spring for these by Smartwool. Also everyone pulled out their KU and other assorted beanie hats and gloves (mine are by The North Face like the ones above, but white) and base layers we're ready to go!
For our top layers, I bought the youngest's ski pants from someone on Facebook and they were nearly brand new Spyder ski pants. I paid $25 for them and then found a matching jacket at The Warming Hut on their 50% clearance. It turns out that because they change the colors every season, you can often find items that are just as awesome in other colors on the clearance racks. Once I found his jacket, I headed over to the back wall that had everything on 70% clearance and found my jacket, too. It is the one pictured in the header photo and is called Angelica by Nils, the color is sapphire and it was just over $100. I splurged on mine, because I don't have a quilted jacket and also because I believe that even if I never ski again, I will be able to wear the jacket at home when it is cold. Plus, it has a detachable faux fur trim and even a detachable hood in case I don't need it. I was very stressed about finding clothes for my husband because he is so tall (6'5") and I always struggle to get him covered. I did an eBay search for Large Tall Ski and found a vendor (The SkiCloset) that carries Large Long sizing for ski pants and their size chart said that the inseam was 35inches, so I ordered those. Then I made a mistake in my quick shopping and accidentally ordered an Extra-Large Tall jacket and discovered that the zipper was broken when it arrived and the seller had disclosed it in the description that I failed to read. :( Mr. Fantastic is a trooper though and said he would make it work since his main concern had been the pants and those fit really well. Our oldest's pants didn't fit and we are going to look to rent a pair when we get there. I also found mine on eBay and they are pictured above, Stella McCartney for Adidas, but they haven't arrived. We are also renting skis, boots, poles and helmets when we arrive at the resort and hopefully it will all work out. :)
Finally for hanging around in the snowy mountain and our hotel, I bought another thermal top and I am bringing my leggings, sweaters, and multiple scarves. All the men in my home are Scouts so they all already had waterproof hiking boots and instead of buying some for me, I borrowed my neighbors snowboots to try them out. Again if this becomes something we all just fall in love with, I would love to splurge on the Sorel boots above. I didn't buy these leggings although I wanted to, because we really weren't expecting to ski and I didn't want my husband to regret his offer. In fact, I really tried to procure everything for the least amount of money possible and my heart hurt as I realized that the most expensive item we paid for other than our jackets was our youngest's gloves. Because his hands are so small, we had to shell out full price and spent $45. That is his most expensive item and I am only sad because I know we will make our way home with only one of those gloves. Unless I staple it to him, that poor boy is unable to hold on to anything.
SEE YOU ON THE SLOPES!
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