When we got off the Jackson Hole tram in late January, the temperature was hovering around zero degrees and steady winds were blowing in our faces. I was skiing with a group that included two guides, three brand reps, and another ski journalist, so there was no dallying around. We immediately skirted by Corbet’s Couloir and ripped down Rendezvous Bowl. There were a few stops to regroup, but mostly we flew down 4,000 feet of vert at 20-30 miles per hour.
After about two hours of screaming down steeps and fresh corduroy groomers, the temp had only risen to five degrees. Waiting for the next tram, I stood in line trying to assess my overall comfort. My hands were starting to get cold, my nose was frozen, but my toes were fine. On a bitterly cold day my toes often went first, but this time they weren’t even on the edge of being uncomfortable.
Looking down, I remembered that I had a new piece of gear strapped to my boots. The day before, a brand rep had updated my Atomics with something called a Bootcap: a piece of custom-molded closed-cell foam that sits on the outside of the boot and wraps the entire front of the toe. When he first pulled them out, I thought the caps were a bunch of hooey, but had agreed to try them as a favor to the rep whom I’ve known for many years, and who has always steered me toward smart new gear. Turns out he was right again. Thanks to this seemingly insignificant toe cap, my feet were happy and I was ready to keep going.
The post How a $60 Piece of Foam Saved My Ski Day appeared first on Outside Online.
