Shameless promotion I know, but y’all might have noticed the gear profile we set up on the ski lift at the start of this season. Maybe it’s because of that, maybe it’s because I went to this First Drop garage sale in Boulder at the start of the season, or maybe it’s because I can finally pay my bills without credit cards… Regardless I have been on an outerwear kick this year.
Before you decide I’m a spoiled little bastard, keep in mind that my last pair of snowpants came from my brother complete with duct-tape venting. I patched them up and wore them for three seasons before they developed unpatchable butt-vents. Luckily it never snowed last year, so I made it through well enough.

Anyhow, my first purchase this year was a flossy white coat from FD Wear. Even though I really needed the pants because of the whole butt-vent issue, the coat was too nice to pass up, and I got a screaming deal because it had been worn once and had some tiny stains. What I should have thought about though, and almost did, was that I am an eating disaster. I could get mud dirty. Luckily, everything comes out of the coat really easily. All you need is a bar of soap and some techwash every now and then. You don’t want to use detergent because it messes up the water proofing, and your pants will develop holes in them.
I got the pants too. They were the next sweet deal. If you live in Colorado, check out Colorado Ski and Golf, inconveniently located as far from where you live as possible. Despite the inevitable drive, they usually have 20% off coupons circulating on the internet, on top of the 10% off deal they gave me on these insulated Oakley pants. So warm, so comfy, and no long johns cramping my, um, style.

Next thing was a necessity. If you know me, you know I lose stuff. Like my goggles on the bus. So I needed new goggles. It turns out that was fine, because I had these cheap Anons, and I wanted to get that crazy peripheral vision that Magic Johnson was raving about. Back to Ski and Golf (I think they should be paying us for this sort of shout-out) with another 20% off coupon, and I got the Dragon APX S. The big ones will only work if you have a five-head or don’t wear a helmet.

That leads me to the hopefully last purchase of the year, a new helmet. I bonked my head pretty good superman-ing off a rock shark, and now the outer plastic shell of the helmet wiggles around the foam layer underneath. This seems dangerous, and my mom agrees, so I have convinced her to invest in the Giro Montane for Christmas. It has air-vents and does not weigh much, so I’m hoping that cuts down on the whiplash and keeps my noggin from turning into soup. As far as buying this one, I found a deal on the internet. Normally, I’d say it’s a bad idea to buy a helmet on the internet, but I tried this one on first. It so happens that the shop I was so keen on only lets you buy one thing at a time with your coupon. Take that Ski and Golf. Who golfs anyway?