It’s that time of year when we look in our garage, dust off the skis and evaluate if any significant gear purchases are needed or if some things need to be sold off.  It’s the season of ski swaps as well, an excellent venue for making a little extra cash, get a good deal on some touring gear, or to do some trolling for vintage gear.  Ski Swaps can be like ‘Antique Road Show’ for mountain folk.  Or you can get some great collectors items like when Pat O’Neill was selling his skins at last year’s Nordic swap (who knows how many races have been won with those skins!).  I’ve worked a number of swaps and I used to deal with a lot of gear, so I thought I’d start this winter season with a look at my own gear closet. 

I think for living in a ski town and working at a gear store, I’ve kept it pretty minimal with 3 pairs of skis (exluding my skate and nordic gear).  Let’s start with the Movement skis.  Movement is a little known Swiss company that is just starting to gain some ground here in the US.  The Freeheel is their assymetrical tele ski and I gotta say–I love them.  They’re great on the resort, but also nice to tour with.  Their line seems pretty ‘new school’, but across the board, their skis have gotten incredible reviews.  They don’t get that much press (I don’t think they were even included in Skiing Magazine’s Gear Review), but if you get a chance to demo them, you should.  Although then you’ll want to buy them, which could be bad. If you have a recession proof job–go for it!  But if you don’t, don’t even ski them–it’s better off just not knowing.  I put a Voile Switchback on them which I think is the most trouble free of the tele touring bindings.  I’ve tried the 01 and the Ascent, but I really like the Switchback for it’s even flex and it’s reliability.  It’s streamlined–not a lot of parts to break or have issues with and it flexes the most like my old hardwire Chili’s, which were my favorite tele bindings. (more…)