24 Brilliant Christmas presents to give skiers this festive season
What will you find underneath the tree this year? Here are 24 great gift ideas to surprise the skier in your life
It’s that time of year again! We all love the festive season (especially when it snows), but there’s no getting around the fact that buying presents for friends and family can be an absolute minefield. Would they prefer the a set of socks for every day of the week, or the nifty aftershave/shower gel gift set? Do they already have that book? Maybe a gift voucher would be safer?
To make this year’s Christmas shopping a little easier we’ve put together a list of 24 exciting presents for skiers, starting with affordable stocking filler-type gifts all the way up to a weekend away to build a totally custom pair of skis. Happy shopping!
1. Black Diamond binding tool – £9
Black Diamond’s ‘binding buddy’ makes a great stocking filler – and will enable the lucky recipient to make all sorts of repairs and adjustments to their bindings in the field.
2. Zardoz not wax pocket puck – £10
Save the environment and keep your skis fast at the same time! This nifty puck from Zardoz fits perfectly in both a stocking and ski jacket pocket, and holds enough ‘not wax’ for 15 pairs of skis (it can also be refilled for future use).
3. Piz Buin Glacier Cream – £11
It’s not just sun burn that you have to worry about up in the shiny white reflective mountains, but also cold and wind burn. Piz Buin’s legendary glacier cream is formulated to protect against all three, utilising the alpine flower edelweiss for maximum goodness for your loved ones’ skin.
4. Skiing With Demons book – £11.99
This is the story of a real life mid life crisis, and turing a divorce, depressing job in marketing and a rusty Land Rover into the ‘Chalet Project,’ one man’s plan to live his dream in the Alps and become a ski instructor (if the Apres Aliens don’t get him first!).
5. Dakine Ski lock – £14.95
Give the gift of peace of mind this Christmas. Most of us can’t help but worry every time we leave our precious skis outside on the rack when eating in a mountain hut, and while this lock from Dakine won’t withstand a determined attack it’s enough of a deterrent to stump the more opportunistic thief.
6. Tracking the Wild Coomba book – £14.95
Doug Coombs is one of those skiers who changed the game and ushered in a whole new paradigm of skiing. He pioneered heliskiing in Alasaka, won extreme skiing competitions, and graced magazine covers – then fell to his death helping a friend in La Grave. This biography by Robert Cocuzzo tells his incredible story, and is a must read for any adventurous skier.
7. Fall Line Christmas subscription offer – £15
We may be slightly biased, but we think getting the bible of British skiing (in gorgeous high quality paper) delivered through your letterbox is a great gift this Christmas! Even better, we’re running a special offer: get three issues + a pair of Wigwam ski socks for just £15!
Click for more info about Fall-Line subscriptions
8. Aukey 3x telephoto phone camera lens – £19.99
You know what they say: the best camera is the one you have with you. This rings especially true when skiing, and everyone can find space in a pocket for their phone. This clip on telephoto lens provides 3x magnification, so you can take better photos of far away objects (for example your mate skiing that powder bowl) without the blurriness of zooming in manually.
9. Hanskie mitten – ~£24
We’ve all been there before: standing outside enjoying a well-earned apres ski beer, while the cold drink absolutely freezes your hands. The Hanskie is an awesome icelandic invention, with a drink holder built into a glove to keep your hands warm but your drink cold. Prost!
10. NorDesign pendant – 280 SEK
We can’t all always be in our favourite ski resorts, but now we can carry them with us as a reminder of the good times. The clever folks at NorDesign let you choose from a number of different maps of your favourite snowy playground, then set it in a high quality metal pendant.
11. Marmotta maps – €25
Got a map geek in the family, or struggling to pick a resort for next year? Kill two birds with one stone with Marmotta’s fabulous maps! Choose between one version with 275 ski resorts (features every resort over 25km pistes) or the bumper model with 633 resorts (every resort with more than 5km pistes).
12. Snowshepherd gloves – £27.50
Chamonix bin men (and instructors, and guides) know you don’t need to spend a fortune to keep your hands warm and dry in winter. These tough and durable work gloves have been upgraded with a waterproof membrane, and look gnarlier than an aged mountain goat to boot.
13. Henry’s Avalanche Talk UK transceiver training – £57.50
There’s no point carrying a transceiver if you don’t know how to use it. Rather than waste precious slope time training on holiday, why not do it in the UK with the good folks at Henry’s Avalanche Talk? They run courses at a number of venues around the country over the year.
14. HH Warm Freeze Base layer top – £65
The creme de la creme of ski base layers. Helly Hansen really pulled it out of the bag with these: merino keeps you warm and fresh-smelling, while the incredible Lifa fibres wick sweat away from the skin at record speed. Perfect for the stinkier skiers in your life.
15. Bosu ball balance trainer – £89.99
Lots of us go to the gym these days, especially in the run up to the season, building up quads of iron with endless squats. One thing lots of people forget is that balance needs training too, and can make a huge difference to your ability to ski and recover from mistakes!
16. Gift voucher for custom Sungod goggles – £99.95
What could be better than a gift you choose and design yourself? Not only do Sungod use super high quality polarised lenses in their goggles and sunglasses, but with a gift card you can choose different colours and designs for each element to build a truly unique and customised pair of goggles.
17. The Piste Office DIY ski tuning course – £105
Jon at The Piste Office is one of the UK’s best ski techs, and is becoming well known for his DIY ski tuning courses. This is one of those gifts that’s a real win-win: the lucky recipient will learn how to wax your own skis next time they’re running a little slow!
18. Contour Hybrid Free split skins – £116.95
Contour’s split skin is a perfect gift for the ski tourer with too many pairs of skis. The split (and adjustable length) means that you can easily swap the one pair of skins over many skis of differing sizes. Bonus: Contour use a special glue that doesn’t stick to itself, so no more wrestling skins apart on a windy day on the hill!
19. Powunity NeverLose Freeride device – €129
Ever tried one of those bluetooth alarm things for when you lose your car keys? Well the NeverLose works a lot like that, but for skis, and is designed to still transmit through deep snow. ‘Cos there’s nothing worse than losing an hour searching for a lost ski on a powder day!
20. Black Crows Ventus Polartec jacket – £155
Tired of your significant other looking like a slob in the gnarly old thermals and fleeces? With the Ventus jacket Black Crows have married a highly technical insulation layer with the best of retro ski style and a hint of Paris fashion. You’ll never be ashamed going to the apres bar with him/her again!
21. Therm-ic SmartPack boot warmers – £160
Much as we all love skiing, nothing is much fun when you’re feet feel (or rather don’t feel) like frozen slabs of useless flesh. Give the gift of better and longer ski days with these boot warmers – the batteries are capable of providing 22 hours of heat on one charge!
22. Down Throwdown 105 skis – €459
One of this year’s hottest all mountain twin tips and certainly one of the best looking skis on the market, we’re not sure if we’d rather mount Down Skis’ Throwdown 105s with bindings or on the wall! With a versatile rocker profile and playful poppy flex, this is one all mountain twintip that’ll take your beloved from park to powder (via the pistes) with aplomb.
23. All Scotland season pass – £535
Know someone who can’t escape to the Alps as often as they like? Why not treat them to a Scottish season pass so they can still head to the hills every weekend? The All Scotland Pass covers all of Scotland’s 5 ski resorts, and new for this year any Scottish skiing pass entities the holder to free skiing at any resort in Iceland!
24. Build your own skis with Spurart – €850
The ultimate skier’s dream present: a ski building course in Innsbruck, the capital of the Alps! Design and build your perfect skis from scratch with the help of the experts at Spurart, then test them in the Tirol’s best ski terrain.
