Close to giving up?
Maybe it hurt. Maybe you never found your balance, curled your toes to hang on, and spent the day afraid of falling.
If you're new and close to giving up, you're far from alone. The US ski areas association says only about 1 in 5 beginners in the US become regular skiers.
Or maybe you got past all that, then stopped getting better. You're stuck on the same runs, and steeper slopes, hard icy snow and deeper snow still scare you.
You probably have your reasons: cost, time, nobody to go with. Or a quiet feeling that you just weren't made for it. The fear is real and normal, and it may not be you.
Where to look first
Start with the part that often gets missed: the boot. Get your flex number and bring it to a bootfitter.
“When you're new, you have nothing to compare your boot with, so a boot that doesn't support you can simply feel like what skiing is.”
Then a good instructor. A US ski industry study found the instructor was the biggest single influence on beginners who stayed.
What your boot should do
A boot has two jobs: keep you in balance, front to back, and press the front of the ski so it turns.
The right flex index for your body (the number on the boot) does both. When you bend your ankles forward, it turns that into pressure on the tip of the ski. The ski bends; the boot supports you while it does.
When your boot flex is too low for you, it doesn't support you as you lean forward, your weight drifts back onto your heels, and the ski lives its own life. When it's flex explains how to tell. Too high is no better: you can't bend your ankles forward, so you end up leaning back.
From fitting experience, a boot that doesn't hold you makes the pain, the fear and the stuck feeling worse. With nothing holding you forward, you can't find your balance, you tense up, and the fear grows instead of fading. On steeper, icier or deeper snow, the ski won't do what you ask.
From fitting experience, the boot is one reason people give up, not the only one; teaching, confidence and conditions matter too. But it's a part you can check.
Sore feet or burning thighs?
Pain in your feet (toes, arches, pressure points, cold or numbness) is usually fit: how the boot's length, width and shape match your foot.
Burning thighs, cramping calves and sore shins after leaning back all day often point to a flex index too low for you. A low number isn't comfortable: your thighs and calves end up doing the boot's work.
Before you stop
- Calculate your flex index with FlexFinder.
- Ask your bootfitter to check the fit, especially if your feet hurt.
- Find someone to ski with.
- Take lessons from a good instructor.
FlexFinder is an iPhone app. Enter your height, weight, ski sidecut (the radius printed on the ski) and the flex index of your ski boots, then ski two to three runs with your phone in your pocket; it spots each run on its own. Runs count only from 15 km/h, so if you're still slower than that, start with the other three steps.
You get your flex number, a verdict on your current boot (too low, too high or right), and matches from 328 boots across 11 brands. Treat the matches as a shortlist to try on with your bootfitter.
FlexFinder calculates your flex index; it doesn't check fit, and it isn't a diagnosis. We sell no boots.
Nobody can promise you'll stay with skiing. But from fitting experience, when someone close to giving up gets a good teacher and a boot that fits and holds them, skiing starts to feel different.
Feet that don't hurt. Standing steady over the skis. A turn that goes where they meant it to. A run they're proud of. Then the next slope.
That's skiglede, the joy of skiing. Before you hang up your skis, give yourself one more try at finding it.
