UKH

Hi folks
I am off to St Anton at Xmas and need some advice.
Does anyone know of reasonable ski hire in the resort or website to go through for good deals. Cheapest I could find was £84 for a weeks ski hire.

Also I am looking at buying a new ski jacket. However, I want one which I could use for skiing and then potentially for some winter mountaineering in the future. Is there such a versatile jacket or am I having a pie in the ski moment!
If not which ski jackets would people recommend?

Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks

In reply to Legs:
£84 seems a reasonable price for a weeks hire less than £15 a day!

A normal mountaineering shell jacket would be fine for skiing, you can just use fleece or primaloft underneath for layering. I used my sherpa Lithang jacket for a ski trip in February and that worked fine.

Hope that helps!

In reply to Petarghh:

I really like your "pie in the ski" pun.

Might I suggest a really nice primaloft jacket? Great for ski-ing and if chosen large enough will double as a belay jacket in UK Winter. I don't have one but I've a feeling the Mtn Eqpt Fitzroy or similar would be ideal. I have the Haglofs Barrier Zone Hood - it too is thus versatile - and cheaper.

In reply to Martin Bennett:
might not be as versatile as a gore-tex shell. That's what I tend to use for both climbing and skiing. Throw a cheap fleece underneath and you should be sorted for a day of lift-serviced skiing in all sorts of weather...primaloft would get wet eventually and take longer to dry (and would be less wind proof).

In reply to Martin Bennett:

Cheers for the advice. The pun was totally unintentional!

In reply to Legs:

Jacket wise, you will definately not go wrong with either a Patagonia Winter Sun or North Face Makalu.
Both waterproof and primaloft lined. Used both for skiing and scottish winter mountaineering/climbing and general use and they are both excellent.

In reply to Denni:

I have a Makalu (used for Scottish winter belay only) and I've always feared it would be too warm to ski in. How do you find it on warmer days?

In reply to Legs:

Ebay is great for Ski wear, as it sometimes only gets used once or twice, you should get some bargains around this time of year too.

In reply to Legs:
Try Skimium for cheap deals on gear - I've used them a couple of times and they've been fine. Chose resort and what you want and book it in advance online.

Try places like TK Maxx or outlet shops for cheap ski jackets. I'm on my second Trespass one (I ripped the first one by snagging an unzipped pocket) and it only cost something like £50 in a sale.

Dedicated ski jacket is handy, as it will have a snow skirt and lift pass pocket on the wrist, which makes it handy to swipe the gate - double handy if you snowboard and the sensor is behind you.

I'd generally say a ski jacket is too baggy/bulky/hot and the wrong cut in the shoulders to wear mountaineering. On my first ski trip, I used my Sprayway mountaineering GoreTex with a fleece underneath - you'd be better buying a mountaineering jacket and using it skiing. I've also skied in a mountaineering soft shell - see my profile pic to prove it.