What to bring and what to rent
Decide this first, because it sets the size of your luggage. Skis and poles are the easiest things to rent: they are awkward to carry, airlines charge to fly them, and the shop hands you something matched to the snow that week rather than to the conditions you had last season. Boots are the opposite. A pair that already fits your foot is worth carrying, because fit is the whole difference between a good day and watching the clock until lunch.
Helmets and goggles sit in the middle. Rental helmets exist in every resort and they are fine, but goggles are personal, they get scratched, and a lens that suits flat light is not the one you want in sun. If you own a pair, bring them and bring a spare lens. If you are buying, buy the goggles and rent the helmet.
Everything soft comes from home. Jackets, pants, gloves, thermals and socks are expensive in a resort shop and nobody rents them, which is why the clothing half of the list is the half worth packing carefully. A quick check on whether your accommodation has a drying room is worth doing too, because a drying room means one set of gloves and one jacket, and no drying room means a spare pair of gloves and a radiator.
The ten things you cannot ski without
Everything else can be bought in the resort, at resort prices, on your first morning.
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Ski boots -
Helmet - Ski goggles
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Ski jacket -
Ski pants -
Ski gloves or mittens -
Ski socks -
Thermal top -
Sunscreen -
Travel insurance papers
The layers that actually keep you warm
Three layers, each doing one job. Against the skin, a thin thermal top and leggings in merino or a synthetic fabric that moves sweat away. Over that, a fleece or a light down jacket that traps air. On top, the ski jacket and pants, whose job is wind and snow rather than warmth. Cotton has no place in any of the three, because once it is damp it stays damp and you feel it on the lift.
More is not warmer. Two pairs of socks inside a ski boot make your feet colder, not warmer, because the boot stops fitting and the pressure cuts the circulation that was keeping them warm. One pair of proper ski socks, pulled smooth, with nothing bunched under the arch. The same thinking applies to the leggings: thin, flat, and no seams folded over.
The parts that give you away are the small ones. A neck gaiter covers the gap between helmet and collar, a beanie is for the evening and the lift line rather than under the helmet, and the difference between gloves and mittens comes down to whether your hands run cold. Hand warmers and toe warmers live in the backpack for the days the wind turns, and they weigh nothing.
A week without a second suitcase
A ski week is two wardrobes, which is why the suitcase looks impossible until you split it. Slope clothes repeat: one jacket, one pair of pants, one fleece, two thermal tops, and ski socks for the days you ski. Those go on again every morning and come off at four. Evening clothes are normal clothes, and they repeat too, because an entire resort is wearing the same sweater it wore last night.
Pack the heavy things so they earn their place. Snow boots are bulky, so wear them on the journey and pack the lighter shoes. The down jacket squashes into a gap, the fleece does not, so the fleece goes in flat along the back of the case. Boots are their own bag, and the hollows inside the shells are free space: socks, gloves, a hat, the charger.
The things that are easy to forget are not the big ones. Sunscreen and SPF lip balm, because snow and altitude burn faces that have been indoors all winter. A swimsuit, because half the chalets and hotels have a pool. Your passport or ID, insurance papers, bank card and the lift pass, kept together in one pocket rather than spread across three bags. Blister adhesive bandages, because new boots and a week of skiing find every weak spot on a foot.
The first morning is where lists fail
Most trips go wrong in the same way. Everything is in the checked suitcase, the suitcase arrives a day late, and the first morning is spent in a rental shop buying thermals instead of skiing. Carry the parts that cannot be replaced quickly: boots, goggles, thermals, ski socks, your papers and anything you take daily. Jackets and pants can be rented or borrowed in an emergency, boots that fit cannot.
The second failure is time. Ski rental, lift pass and lessons all line at the same hour on the same morning, and that hour is the one everybody in the resort has free. Sort the rental the evening you arrive and buy the pass before the first run, and your first morning is a morning of skiing rather than standing in line.
Then leave the backpack packed. Water, snack bars, sunscreen, lip balm, adhesive bandages, hand warmers and the spare lens stay in it all week, and the only thing you add each morning is the layer you are not wearing yet. A week on the slopes is easier when the decisions were all made the night before you left.
