Coats should be made with a belt, which can be buckled tight before the descent. A sitting fall in soft snow is apt to provide the runner with a good dose of snow inside the coat. For the same reason breeches and trousers should be cut somewhat high above the waist.
Women need just as many pockets as men, and I strongly advise two large side pockets and two smaller breast pockets outside the coat, as well as two inside breast pockets—all with flaps to button over.
A felt hat is now usually worn by women Ski runners, who find the brim a comfort on sunny days, while it also protects the eyes when Ski-ing through a blizzard. Incidentally it helps to prevent snow from going down the neck in a head-first fall. A chin-strap may be required for fast running.
Boots are, perhaps, the most important part of a Ski runner's outfit. They must be water-proof and large enough to hold two pairs of socks in addition to stockings. The soles must be so stout that they will not buckle or bend under the instep when the Ski binding is tight. Heels must be low and should be slightly grooved at the back to hold the binding. I have no hesitation in saying that most of the Ski-ing boots sold in England prove to be unsatisfactory. Such firms as Lillywhite and Fortnum & Mason, which make a study of suitable equipment, may be trusted, and almost every Swiss bootmaker now sells trustworthy boots for Ski-ing. I always buy my own boots from Och, who has shops at Geneva, Montreux, Zürich and St. Moritz. They can be relied on for at least two or three long seasons, if one is careful to oil the uppers with boot oil occasionally, and never to oil the soles except with linseed oil, which is said to harden them. On the whole, however, the soles are safest left untouched. Boots should never be dried on a radiator or by a fire. Personally I like hooks, rather than eyelets, and I find that leather boot-laces last longer than others.
There is much discussion as to whether Ski boots should have nails in the soles or not. They tend to wear away the aluminium or linoleum plates fixed to the Skis under the foot, but on the other hand they are almost indispensable when Skis are carried across a hard, steep slope, or down an icy path. It seems to me that it is positively dangerous to go any real Ski tour with unnailed boots unless crampons or spikes to fit on to the heels be carried. New plates can easily be fitted to the Skis when nails have worn through them, but nothing can help the Ski-er down a steep, icy path or across a hard frozen slope on smooth soles, unless he carries special contrivances to fix to his boots.
People are now trying crepe rubber soles, but they are not solid enough to bear the strain of tight bindings unless fixed to the usual thick leather sole, when the whole becomes too thick for comfort. My experience for several winters with beginners is that the soles of most English boots buckle as soon as they are subjected to the tight pull of a leather binding.
Few things are more irritating to a beginner than to find that his binding will not hold on his boot. Over and over again in a run down his Ski comes off and he delays his party by having to stop and put it on again. Still it will not hold even though he ties it on with string. Then he realizes that his boot is buckling. The sole arches up under the instep and the binding, becoming loose, slips off the heel.
There is no cure for this, and the only solution is to use a toe binding, such as the new B.B., or a solid binding such as the Ellessen or Lilienfeld, instead of a heel binding. As most hired Skis have the Huitfeldt heel binding it is essential to ensure that boots are of the very best.
Gloves are another very important item of clothing. They should be waterproof. This is easy to say but very difficult to obtain. The rub of the stick on the palm of the hand tends to sodden almost any material. Snow also gets inside during a fall and then, of course, even the waterproof glove comes home wet. The best gloves are paws made of thick horse-hide and lined with wool. They should have long gauntlets wide enough to pull up over the sleeves and they should be joined by a string going round behind the neck, under the coat collar, long enough to allow of free use of the hands, and this string should have another string joining it across the chest. It is often necessary to slip off a glove and if they are not safely hung round the neck they fall in the snow, which promptly runs inside, or they may be dropped and lost.
Socks are a matter for individual choice. Some people like goat's-hair socks, which have many of the qualities or disqualities of a hair shirt. They are prickly and, therefore, perfect as a counter-irritant under very cold conditions, but far too irritating for ordinary wear. I was much amused in a London shop last winter when I heard a Ski-ing expert advising a lady not to buy "those repulsive goat's-hair socks." When she had bought what he advised I said I had come especially to buy "a repulsive pair of socks." He immediately explained that he had advised the lady not to get them because they only had two pairs left, and he did not want to sell them. He let me have a pair, and the only time I wore them I thought with amusement of his advice and explanation. The lady was undoubtedly well out of them, and I hope never to use them again. Some people swear by them, so all tastes must be allowed for.