Advanced level skis - Buy or Rent?

A snowHead

Having owned several of my own sets of skis for most of the last 30 years, I'm beginning to doubt the benefits. I've successfully rented perfectly good skis in the last two seasons, at reasonable prices, in places such as Courchevel 1850 and Val D'Isere. The cost of purchase, servicing and carriage for owned skis now seems expensive. Also the inconvenience of lugging them from the UK each trip seems less attractive as the years go by. Any views on the benefits/disadvantages/costs of buy vs rent please?

A snowHead

As with all things it depends. If you don't have huge preferences for skis outside of the standard rental fodder and don't really change skis for conditions I can see rental can be easier. Personally having had the ballache of trying to rent skis roughly equivalent to my own ( when they missed a flight) I wouldn't want to deal with that every trip.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

I used to buy powder boards, but these days I just rent them and so I get to ride all the stuff I want each season, and I don't have to insure/ maintain/ lug / finance it all. On the other hand I ride race gear on piste and you can't rent it for love nor money in North America, so that's one depreciating asset I have to buy and carry around. Of course I can't rent race bindings or boots, so those I have to do the hard way too.

So as per Mr Marmot: it depends.

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I take my own but, I think renting is probably better. The great thing about rental skis is that is you can take them back after a day, explain what's not quite right about them for you, then they'll change them for something that suits you better.
Owning skis is a bit like buying new car. Great when you buy it, but then scratches start to appear, and then someone else pulls up in a newer model etc etc.

You can also choose your skis depending on what the weather is looking like for your week. Many people now lug a pair of piste and powder skis with them on their holiday.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

I never used to mind renting skis, but recently it's felt like a bit of a crapshoot. I've booked the same 'level' of skis (black/gold/whatever) for a number of years, and the result has been quite variable. I've had practically brand new, well serviced kit that I've really enjoyed, especially when I've only paid €65/week, and then I've suffered stuff that appears to have been ravaged by a pack of angry wolves. Price can vary by €100 or more as well. Yes, swapping skis can be handy if snow falls midweek, but it doesn't help if they still don't have suitable kit available. We've swapped skis a few times, but generally the result has been that they didn't really have anything fatter, or less flimsy, or in the right length (one shop had long skis and short skis, but very little in between, which I was surprised by for a quiet January week).

So I'm buying.

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Depends where you go, which shop and what you want. Around Chamonix I'd think renting was a good option as you can get very high level kit in many places.we promote two locations to our clients for this reason.

Around Mürren you can access lots of race kit (e.g. downhill & superG ) because of the Inferno.

But I have visited places where the range, quality and condition left me rather cold.

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I always hire and usually get quite good skis. I find it helps having an idea of what kind of skis I want before I get to the hire shop.

After all it is free

Thanks all for your views and information. I don't do racing or deep off piste powder, so I'm usually on good quality 'all mountain' skis. Once I know which area I'm heading to, I've found snowHeads views on local rental options and recommendations useful. My worst rental experiences have been when booking through a tour operator, though some have been OK. Certainly, internet booking a few days ahead saves money and time in resort. I found one that allowed swap between different skis and also snowboard during the week, for a reasonable extra fee. I'm tempted to carry on renting....until I find that 'must have' set of skis that suit me perfectly, which I'd then try to buy in end of season sales.

so, how much to rent a decent pair for a week ?

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Reserve on line before you go, use the discount codes either here or from elsewhere. I think it cost me about £60 or £70 (can't remember exact price) for the Dynastar Powertrack 84 Fluid that I had this year. Current model skis and I had an option to be able to swap them for something else. As I usually only go once a year it seems good value to me.

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Yeah you can get magnums or similar for about 60-70 notes.

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I found that if you go skiing three times a year then having your own skis does pay, but ive had good rentals in the past as well, but you do get used to skiing on your own skis, i go to the chillfactore once a month and am getting used to my new skis, which are a lot different from my old ones, bearing in mind bith my sons borrowed my old ski a few times when skiing with Uni... Saved a few quid as well... The wife will not ski on rentals at any cost !!!!
As with most things though it is down to personel preference,

You know it makes sense.

@johnE, In your analysis you haven't factored in the cost of transporting them from UK to Resort (a dissmissive "can be a bit of a bother" rather glosses over the cost of transport for most holiday skiers). Granted there are some services that carry skis for free and if you drive you take them with you but for the many travellers who use the "no-frills" services either by choice or because there's no other option, EJ, Ryanair, Jet2, etc.. then you have to factor in the approx £40 each way carriage. For a one week a year skier hiring is clearly the way to go. I would hazard that even a 3 week a year skier we're at the tipping point.

So my Dynastars have an RRP of around £480 (incl bindings) then at £70pw hire costs it takes around 7 weeks hiring to cancel the cost buying. In that 7 weeks, for even a one week a year skier using the airlines above then I've spent £580 just transporting them to my ski holiday each year without factoring in servicing, waxing and edging and minor repairs. And of course being a ski buyer I'll probably want to replace with the latest model after 3 or 4 years so the costs increase again.

But of course there's not much in it really wink

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Real test is not economic. Do you get emotional joy from your ownership and can you reverse engineer semi credible business case in order to justify ownership decision to interested stakeholders wink

A snowHead

@Dave of the Marmottes, Yeah I get that Laughing

Its a case of want not need Laughing

A snowHead

If you obtain a double ski bag and share it with your partner or friend, that effectively halves the transportation costs. Also, high-end hire in some of the big Austrian resorts is more like €160+.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

@halfhand, I haven't factored in the cost of transporting the skis to the resort because I rarely pay it. Most times I drive and my friends take the train so I hadn't realised that it was now £80 per trip Wow!

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@johnE, Wow indeed Toofy Grin

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@intermediate,

I think it is a very personal decisions and you've answered your own question - you should probably rent. It's hard to make a pure economic case for owning unless you ski a lot.

That said, I've owned my own skis for 20+ years and for much of that time I've been travelling by plane and skiing no more than 10-12 days a year. I've generally been on skis that would be difficult to find in rental shops though. I've also hardly ever paid ski carriage (used to fly a lot with BA before they started charging then Swiss who don't). I also don't service my skis every trip. May be I should but I never have. Another factor has been that I have always done at least one weekend trip and often also squeezed in a few hours on a transfer day on longer trips. Avoiding the hire shop allows you to get more hours in.

Anyway, horses for courses with no right answer. These days I ski more often and have a "cave" in the Alps. The who family has their own skis (buy second hand for kids) and I admit they do seem to be breeding (the skis I mean)!

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@intermediate, surprised you got reasonable price rentals in 1850. That was by far the most expensive place I rented skis when I used to rent. That said, it was ~20 years ago. As I drive and service my own ski's that helps with owning financially. I've bought second hand skis and that can swing things massively. For example I bought a pair of Rossignol B2's for around £110 and skied those for several weeks before I had a binding issue. More recently the likes of glisshop and ekosport (along with the Euro exchange rate I guess) have meant new prices are quite attractive. I got some Dynastar Cham 97s with bindings delivered for £385 in Feb. I reckon if I look after them I could resell them in 3/4 years for a couple of hundred - and then buy a newer model again. I do like the idea of skiing planks of my choice over a period of time rather than the hit or miss of rental. Airline shipping costs and having to pay for them to be serviced would severely test that resolve though.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

@Layne, In Courchevel 1850 this Easter I used Precision Ski. The headline price was 139 euros for a week but with various discounts the actual came down to a bargain 57 euros. This was for 'premium' grade skis. They were Rossignol, but can't recall exact model. They'd had plenty of use but edges/base were newly serviced and they were fine for mostly spring snow conditions encountered. That's about the cheapest deal for skis I've had. Surprising, given the general expense of Courchevel. The best I've hired were Atomics from Snowberry in Val D'Isere. That was 4 years ago and they cost over £100 for a week, when £ to euro exchange rate was poor and I didn't pre-book.

Thanks again all for useful analysis and views. Hopefully it may help others too. I've often been tempted to take a pair of my late 90s pre-carvers (190 cms), much too loved to throw away despite over 10 years in a shed, to try out again. I wonder if straight skis will catch on again?

After all it is free

@intermediate,

You can buy top level skis with bindings for >£300 at the right time of year (now) - who cares if the graphics change in the meanwhile? SHould easily get 100-200 days minimum out of a good pair.

Servicing... Really doesn't need to be done that often unless you're anal about it. Actually I don't think I serviced any of my skis since Christmas '13, and they all still work fine... Maybe a slight loss in glide, but not so much as you'd notice. And I hit a lot of rocks and quite happily ski on open core shots etc - there really isn't that much difference IME.

Couldn't care much less about newer models coming out either. My 'newest designed' skis were designed in 2011 I think, and my EHPs (designed in 2008 I believe) are still more up to date than most skis released last season... Another pair were designed in 2009, production stopped in 2012 when they brought out the new model, and then resumed last season when everyone said the OG was better!

So IMO buy the right pair of good quality skis at the right time of year, ski them for 5 odd seasons (VERY unlikely anything will change dramatically in the meantime technology-wise, and most changes affect style and trends rather than actually 'the skis really do ski better' - ESPECIALLY when it comes to standard piste and all mountain skis), and you're quids in. With better quality skis that you're more familiar with.

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Advanced level skis - Buy or Rent?

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