Morning routine

We've all arrived at the ski hill only to discover that we've forgotten a needed piece of ski gear.  This is where having a pre and post routine really becomes important.  Even more so when you are working with little people and all their necessary items.

Chris and I have had a little routine going for a long time now, mainly related to how we roll after a day on the hill.  My brother has watched this in action, and while he made fun of us during the first round, he saw the benefit the next morning, when we were prepping for a new ski day.

We are lucky enough to have a spacious laundry room/ back hall.  When we roll in from a day on the hill we take 5 minutes to run through our routine, and it really does pay off.  Chris deals with skis and we both unload the car. All our clothes, helmets, goggle, etc. are brought to the back hall.  We use our helmet bags to corral all our bits and bobs, so we basically just have to unpack the bag.

Helmets are pulled out and placed on the bag.  Goggles are pulled out to allow for drying.  These are placed on the goggle bags, remember how I said earlier that Chris has a thing for proper goggle care...  Gloves are pulled out and placed on the clothes rack to dry.  Since I'm a bit of a princess about being warm, I wear a liner toque under my helmet and a face mask.  These too are pulled out to dry.  All is placed within about a 2 foot area.  

Chris always pulls the liners out of our boots.  Ever smelled the boots of someone that doesn't pull the liners?  Well, I'm happy to report that neither of our boots smell, and pulling them apart is a big factor in this.  Pulling the liners from the boots allows for proper air flow around the liner and ensures that it dries completely.  This is really important if you are skiing back to back days.  The benefit of pulling boots apart is that it also gives the shells a chance to dry.  I'm sure many of you have seen small bit of snow get into your boots.  And skiing hard can make feet sweat.  So always, always, always take the minute to pull your boots apart.

Finally , pants and jackets are hung so that they too can dry.

And this is our post ski routine.  Not much, but it makes sure that when we go skiing the next time, everything is within a confined space.

So when we are prepping to ski, we just grab the gloves, bag the goggles, toss both into the helmet and toss the helmet into the helmet bag.  The boots are right there, so we quickly put them back together.  Grab our pants and coats and off we go.  The only thing not stored within this realm are our ski socks - these too get tossed into the respective helmet bags.  Maybe I'll make a basket for these too...  I have to say that with this system, neither of us has forgotten a needed item on ski gear in ages (touch wood).

I can see that this system will become even more important as the Kraken gets older and joins us in our skiing endeavours.  It will help ensure that in the craziness of getting a young one out the door, nothing will be forgotten that could ruin a day of skiing.  With this systems even the Kraken will be able to help with the unpacking and prep from a very young age.

I know this seems like such a silly thing for me to go on about, but I really can't say enough for how easy it makes skiing and there is no searching for needed items.  Find even a small space, set it up for your ski gear and give it a go a few times.  Hopefully your pleasantly surprised by how easy it makes getting ready and will help ensure that you forget


nothing.