THSCC Forums

We're going to take Meghan skiing in February and I'm curious about yalls opinions on rental skis for Sally and me.

We both own downhill skis from our Michigan days, and they are about 15 years old. Since Meghan will be along, it's unlikely that we will venture much past the green/bunny hills. Do we really need rentals for that?

Will a ski place even let us on the hill with 15 year old bindings (I know in MI they didn't allow folks to ski with *really* old equipment).

So, would you trust your 15 year old equipment, or just rent for the weekend?

Scott

I'd rent, both because of the age of your equipment *and* because when taking a small one with you, that's a *lot* less crap to carry back and forth from the car to the lodge. Your boots should be fine, I'd guess, and the nice part about that is that at the rental counters it's getting the boots that takes the most time. I'd guess for the kind of skiing you're going to be doing that you should both just put down "fairly experienced" on the rental form and then just ask for 150's or 160's. If you haven't done any skiing in 15 years you'll find that the newer shaped skis get the same level of performance in a slightly shorter ski than you're used to, plus you want to go pretty slow anyway from the sound of things.

I'm not a very experienced skier myself, though, so I'll yield to opinions of those who do it several times a year. I did ski last year at Sugar and plan to do it again this year. I own my own boots because it's very hard to get decent rental boots for size 14 feet, but I always just rent everything else because I'm not much of a performance skier anyway. I would consider myself a performance crasher, though.


--Donnie

Rent. When I went to Snowshoe the stuff I rented was loads better than my 15 year old stuff. Rent the boots too, unless you have odd feet and can guarantee that the bindings will match

Scott I don't think the ski area will stop you from using your old skis. It's not like you have leather boots and cable binding. I think the real question is do you trust the binding to release when they should. If you took them to a ski shop to be release checked they would probable not do it because they are to old.

The new short shaped skis are just so much easier to use. Even I can almost carve a turn instead of skidding.

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Mitch Moore

Depends on how much you like your old stuff and if you have had it maintained and checked by a good tech. I started tuning all my skis a few years ago because all the techs in the area are complete morons. The new shaped skis are nice. Don't go too short if you are a good skier and take your own boots if you like them/they fit. The tech can fit them to your rentals.

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