What has ski-ing got to do with renting equipment?

December 28, 2013

A few days ago I was enjoying one of my greatest pleasures: skiing. I consider myself an experienced skier, after 30 years sliding down snowy slopes. I am aware that the high mountains are not our natural environment and therefore we must take all necessary precautions to have the right equipment for the conditions in order to maintain personal safety and gain maximum pleasure from the experience.

I’ve always been a “classic” and I remain faithful to the “old style ski “, that is to have skis 20 cm longer than my height with almost parallel edges. None of those “carving” skis used here. This requires me to follow a routine maintenance of my skis: edges polished, waxing soles and always keeping my boots aired, cleaned and aligned to the snow conditions I expect to find.

van-walt-skiing_2

But this last time I had a bit of a setback – one boot broke while I was pulling it on so I had two choices: give up or rent a pair of ski boots. Obviously, I was not willing to give up a day of ski-ing, so I went to the ski hire shop. The feeling I had when I put those boots on was fantastic and so far removed from my hard, 10 year old boots! This turned out to be the best ski-ing I had experienced and enjoyed in a long time.

Obviously, my first thought was that I should replace my broken boots with new ones… but to invest in new boots could make me give up several days of skiing and I was not willing to do this. So, the next day I decided to rent not only boots, but also skis. These were brand new, with sharp edges and perfectly waxed soles… a blast!

Upon returning home, apart from throwing my old boots away, I decided to keep the skis in storage. This year I will only ski with rental equipment, they are in perfect condition without having to polish edges and wax soles at home. I will ski with new skis all season without having to pay the costly investment of renewing my own kit.

When back to Analab, I saw the rental equipment we have ready for you , and could not avoid drawing a smile when thinking about many of you, who are going to enjoy samplers and analyzers , calibrated and tuned just before shipment…

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