Slippery stuff

Gifts for skiers and snowboarders

by Theresa Regli

THE ALPINE-SPORTS enthusiast on your Christmas list should be one of the easiest people to shop for. After all, this friend or relative is strange enough to look forward to the colder times of year, so much so that it makes you wonder why he or she didn't move to a mountain resort years ago. Instead, the ritual is to hop in a car almost every Friday night and head north, while you wonder why anyone would willingly drive into a snow storm.

Or perhaps this guy or gal is your ski or snowboard buddy, and you want to purchase a super-cool gift to say thanks for all the good times you've shared together on and off the slopes. Look no further. Here's a head-to-toe guide to the best gifts for your favorite alpine devotee.

What to wear
Thanks to unintentional endorsements from Michael Kennedy and Sonny Bono last season, helmets are selling like crazy this year. Unlike the bulky and heavy motorcycle-style helmets of a decade ago, today's helmets are far more streamlined and comfortably light. They're also about the warmest hats you can buy. Massachusetts-made Leedom and Italian-imported Boeri are the better makes, and cost about $89 to $120 wherever ski equipment is sold (see "Where to Get It," next page). Black is the most common color, but helmets also come in all sorts of crazy shades and designs.

The perfect match for a helmet is a new pair of goggles, and Oakley has the hot new model this year. The A-Frames, which sell for a somewhat hefty $120, feature a new, more rounded lens design that allows skiers and riders to see slope contours more clearly. These goggles are black and iridescent purple -- sure to draw some attention. The fleece-lined Smith V-3 goggles, which sell for about $70, include vents that you can open up for better airflow on warmer days.

Clothing is probably the least expensive thing you can buy a snow-sports enthusiast, and a good set of thermal underwear is a great choice. Look for Base Layer or Hot Chillys ($40 to $50 per piece), both of which are made with polypropylene -- better than cotton, which will make you sweat more if it's right against your skin. The same goes for socks. Look for polypropylene Thorlo socks ($12 to $15.95), which feature padding in the shin area for skiers and in the calf area for snowboarders, to ease boot pressure when leaning into turns.

A good turtleneck is also a superb yet inexpensive gift that will no doubt get some use on colder days. The Eddie Bauer classic turtleneck is only $16 and comes in six colors. J. Crew sells turtlenecks in eight colors at $18 each, or two for $24.

The Eddie Bauer and J. Crew holiday catalogues also offer an excellent selection of wool sweaters. J. Crew's original wool roll-neck sweater sells for $48; the Irish-style Fair Isle sweaters (which come in regular or V-neck) are $88 and stylish enough to wear to the après-ski party or out to dinner. Eddie Bauer's holiday-motif wool sweaters, featuring a reindeer, snowflake, or evergreen tree, are $68.

Once you start considering jackets, alpine gift-giving starts to get expensive. Prices run the gamut from about $150 to $400, and you get what you pay for. More-expensive jackets have more layers, a waterproof laminate, or more pockets. Look for jackets with Gore-Tex, a warming layer that's also waterproof -- it's common in Bonfire, Salomon, FILA, Patagonia, and North Face coats. Eddie Bauer also sells Gore-Tex ski parkas for $278 to $378.

A good feature to look for when jacket-shopping for a snowboarder is a powder skirt, a waterproof, drawstringed inside layer that hangs down to midthigh and prevents snow from getting up inside the jacket when you're carving a particularly low turn. Patagonia is big on this feature.

Another popular item in jackets is an interior zipper for a fleece-layer attachment. Fleece is more lightweight than wool and perfect for days when the temperature is in the upper 20s to mid-30s. Proving that it's about more than thong panties and $5 million diamond-and-ruby bras, the Victoria's Secret holiday catalogue features vividly colored fleece hooded jackets, pullovers, V-neck sweaters, and tunics for a very affordable $39 each.

A good pair of pants is also a must. Look for Bonfire, which makes Gore-Tex pants with removable padding in the knees and behind -- great for snowboarders or skiers who fall a lot.

Snowboarders and skiers alike will love Da Kine cuffed mittens or gloves ($70), whose extra-long cuffs wrap around jacket sleeves to prevent snow from getting in.

Accessories
This year Da Kine, a snowboard-accessories company, has made it easier than ever to find stocking-stuffer accessories for your favorite snowboarder. Stomp pads ($11.95) are board attachments that give a non-binding-attached foot a spot to rest when you're getting on or off a chair lift. A binding tool ($9.95) is a pocket-sized gadget that enables riders to adjust their bindings in a snap. Ideal for skiers or boarders, the edge tool ($21.95) is a must for efficient edge-sharpening, while the board scraper ($9.95) is ideal for scraping off extra wax after a tune-up.

For the frequently mobile snowboarder in your life, a board bag makes a great gift. Simple sacks run $35 to $50, while padded ones suited for airplane travel cost about $69. For the deluxe bags, with wheels and padding for multiple boards, you'll be shelling out at least $100 to $130.

Equipment
With all this talk about clothing and accessories, what about the stuff that really makes skiing and riding possible? Well, in terms of gift-giving, you'd better have a heck of a budget if you're planning on buying equipment for your favorite alpine enthusiast. Plus, you can't really buy someone new skis, bindings, and boots without his or her input, so the gift can hardly be a surprise.

We'll start cheap and work our way up. Scott poles are among the best, and they'll set you back just $20 to $99. But that's about the only inexpensive piece of ski equipment you can buy.

A decent snowboard costs at least $250, and the best sell for up to $600. Look for Burton, K2, and Salomon. Generally, higher-priced boards have a harder base and are for more aggressive riders. A big issue this year, says Jack Stevens, a snowboard salesman at Bob Smith Wilderness House, is foot size relative to board width. Once you've picked out comfortable boots (about $200) and bindings (about $150), it's important to consider how long your foot is and make sure either end won't hang off either side of the board. This could cause the dreaded "foot-drag" effect, where your feet interfere with the carve of your turn.

Skis are just as expensive, but they're always cheaper if you buy a ski-and-binding package (the skis won't do you much good without bindings anyway). Hot skis this year include the Rossignol Bandit, the all-terrain Salomon X-Scream, the K2 Moseley (a mogul ski named after gold medalist Jonny), the Völkl Carver series, the Head Cyber series, and the Atomic Megacarv. Most ski-and-binding packages run $400 to $800.

Boots are probably the most important piece of equipment for any skier, because if they don't fit right, you'll be uncomfortable and unable to control your skis properly. A new trend in boots is the custom foot bed ($119 at Bob Smith, Allston), which is an individually molded interior foot liner for whichever boot you buy. This is on top of the $250 to $500 you'll be spending for a good pair of Salomon, Technica, Head, Rossignol, or Dolomite boots.

And never forget what may be the best gift of all: a ticket voucher for a day on the slopes. That's the point of buying all this stuff, after all. Where to get it

Eddie Bauer Catalogue, (800) 426-8020. J. Crew Catalogue, (800) 562-0258. Ski Market, 500 Greenwich Ave, Warwick, 401-732-6390. Ski Shop Plus, Route 146, North Smithfield, 401-766-2003. VictoriaÕs Secret Catalogue, (800) 888-8200.