Use old skis and boots or hire?

A snowHead

Ok, so following some excellent advice on here a few months ago, we've booked our family ski holiday to Baqueira at the beginning of Easter.
Haven't been skiing for 15 years, so rather out of touch with it all to be honest.

I'm trying to find out if my skis and boots are going to be up to standard after all this time...

The ski boots were professionally fitted to me, but they're about 17+ years old now.
They are Tecnica TC3 AVS - an advanced intermediate level boot.
Different colour, but they look similar to this:

They just about still fit me, although my calves seems to have grown since last time and I'm on the limit of the boot clips.

The skis are Head SuperCross Ti 180cm all mountain ski, (I'm about 6ft), about 15 years old.
Picture of them here:

I was probably an advanced intermediate level skier, most comfortable on reds and the odd easy black.
15 years on and in my mid-40's I'll be pleased to make it down a red run alive, so I have realistic expectations. Very Happy

I know it's not the latest and greatest stuff and I'm not interested in keeping up with the latest fashions. But is my kit hopelessly out of date now?
I remember struggling with hire boots before partly due to my high instep, but I can probably take the custom moulded footbed out of the old boots which may help.
Is hire kit any better than it used to be?

Appreciate some advice!

A snowHead

Personally, if your boot liners are still in good condition. Not perished or compressed too much, take them. Far better to have your own well fitting boots than potentially poor hire ones.
Ski's hire when you get there. The technology has moved on so much in the last 15 years. I'm sure you will notice the difference.

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

I am someone who skis on old kit...up to this year, that is. My skis are from 2003 and my Salomon Integral Equipe boots were a lot older than that.

I had been avoiding changing my boots because they were just so comfortable. This year I was in Tignes during "blizzard week" (-20 and 30 mile an hour winds). When I took off my skis on the first day, I noticed that on one ski, the plate that pushes up the ski brake, had a third of it missing.
When I then looked at the bottom of my boots, the rubber heel pad on the right boot was missing and 4 bolts were now sticking out, like vulgar stalactites...which is what I am assuming damaged the brake plate.

My kit was far too old to find spare parts, which ended up with me buying new boots, though I soldiered on with the skis..if the rest of the brake had broken up the mountain, I could have been stranded (but we didn't do that much skiing as the lifts up the mountain were shut a lot of the time).

So my advice is this...be aware that old boots can, even if they look in good shape, have brittle plastic/rubber which is ready to crack or even "explode" apart....awkward if you are up a mountain and even potentially dangerous.
If possible, I would get properly fitted with new boots...either at home or in resort. I was very pleasantly surprised how comfortable my Atomic Hawx turned out to be. If you don't want to go down this route, you could try hiring, but have your own boots as back up.

On the ski front, I have found that saving on the cost of ski carriage, combined with the cost of servicing, goes a long way to offset the cost of hiring. It is probably worth hiring skis for a year to see what the latest designs will give you....you can hire the skis suitable for the conditions and you should find that the extra sidecut and the introduction of "a rocker", make life much easier.

Sorry for the rather convoluted reply, but it is an example of how old kit can land you in trouble.

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@Old Man Of Lech, disagree about the boots: the plastic is going to be old and fatigued. It's not unknown for old ski boots to essentially blow up...

Hire everything IMO.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Good points @Old Fartbag (great username by the way)... ski carriage is going to be expensive and it goes without saying that the wax and edge on the skis will need sorting.
And I agree that there's a risk my old boots while seemingly working well will have degraded due to age...which is a pity given the lengths I went to to buy something decent and have them properly fitted.

Both skis and boots were bought at a time when I was skiing every year and it made it worthwhile. Then came the kids which put a stop to all that rolling eyes

But times move on and I'm happy to hire... just have some very bad memories of hire boot boots being uncomfortable, unsupportive, used and abused.

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The boots may be OK if stored in somewhere cool and dar, but frankly I'd just hire when you get there.

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

The boots have been stored in their bag in the loft in the dark, but temperatures up there alternate between just above freezing in the winter to pretty hot in the summer.
Am definitely tempted to try hiring again... surely it can't be as bad as it used to be?

After all it is free

If it's been that long consider... lessons (!) and new boots.

Maybe even get new boots with zipfits at you know who @ Bicester... get the full cant/stance sorted too and maybe they could give you a few refresher lessons and pointers in a snow dome etc while you also break in the zipfits (or on a dry slope outdoors to get the zipfits warm and everything moving easily?) and sort any niggles before you go.

There's less of the 'bend ze knees' and get way over your tips; a more centred balance and let the sidecut on the modern (shorter) ski do its job compared to the old rear entry boots and ski lengths above your head days.

Hire skis out there from a shop that'll let you exchange whenever you want to try out different models etc.

@BigAde9, I think there was some discussion here that the plastic used in some Technicas of that generation was very prone to UV deterioration and had been known to literally fall completely apart.

Which could be inconvenient.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

I'd be tempted to tuck my old boots into my baggage, just in case hired boots proved uncomfortable but start by hiring boots and skis.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

Clarky999. If the boots have been stored well, they may be OK. When I had my boots made (Strolz in Lech), and I asked "how long would they last". The technician looked up at me and said "you're lifetime" I did wonder if he knew something I didn't? lol anyway, now in their 8th year and still perform extremely well after 7 full season's out in the alps and Canada and on my 5th ski trip this season coming up next week. No more working seasons for me.

snow reports

@Old Man Of Lech, I know Strolz are rather special but the most I've got out of a set of liners is about 150 days

@under a new name - thanks, hadn't realized that. They have been stored in the dark to be fair, but even so that's worrying to hear.

@pam w - nice idea, might consider that if I've got room in the suitcase.

@coops1967 - Laughing

15 years without skiing - not 35 !!! Laughing

rear entry boots and skis above your head were from the eighties when I was first learning to ski. My Head skis were from 2001 - the early 'carving skis' era... but before all this rocker shape stuff. (actually I was looking to buy 170cm at the time, but they didn't have them in stock and as I loved the ski, decided to go for the longer length). And yes, lessons are definitely happening! Don't know about buying new boots, will see how the kids take to it and whether we could make it a regular thing or not. I know what a huge difference well fitted boots makes... my old ones were cant adjusted and fitted well so I'll miss them.

You know it makes sense.

@Old Man Of Lech, may be ok, or may not - and personally I wouldn't fancy the only way to find out wink

Seriously, 7+ seasons in one pair of boots?! As per @under a new name, 2-3 is the most I've ever got, and the plastic on the tongues started splitting on my current boots after about 1.5 seasons. Good work Strolz, I guess!

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

Clarky999 Go to Strolz. Lifetime guarantee.

A snowHead

A snowHead

Strolz might give a lfetime guarantee but I don't believe they've discovered some tecno plastic that doesn't age or get stressed. Nice marketing, probably less chance of the annoying little things that go on boots like rivets failing but genuine lifetime longevity? Hmmm.

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

@Dave of the Marmottes, it's a bit like my guide one day in Jackson Hole when we were skinning some particularly toothsome powder and I asked, "How often does it snow like this?"

"Oh, every day," she nonchalantly said, before disappearing into spindrift.

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Thanks everyone for the advice - much appreciated.

So I think the consensus is to ditch the old stuff and go with the new.

Tempted though I am to take my old boots, the stories of them 'exploding' on the slopes has put me off.
I'd like to buy a new pair of boots (there's a place in West Sussex that does them), but it's quite a financial commitment unless I know for sure that we're going every year.
Might try and upgrade the standard rental boots to something a bit better fitting perhaps.

Question though about rocker skis, I can see the point off piste, but thinking about steep and icy pistes, don't you lose some edge grip?

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

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

After all it is free

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Use old skis and boots or hire?

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