The End-of-Season Gear Routine Every Ski Family Needs

The ski season may be winding down, but what you do now with your gear determines how next season starts. In this episode, Jessica — PSIA-certified ski instructor and mom of five — walks ski parents through a complete end-of-season gear care routine: from storage wax for your skis to washing and drying all your soft gear before it goes in a bin. Whether you're teaching kids to ski or just trying to protect a significant gear investment, this episode is your spring checklist.

What You'll Learn

• Why storage wax matters and how to apply it (or what to ask for at a shop)
• How to fully dry boots before storage — and why this is the most important thing you'll do all spring
• How to wash technical ski gear without damaging waterproofing or insulation
• When to replace a helmet — the answer might surprise you
• How to do an end-of-season kid gear inventory and why spring is the best time to buy for next season

Resources & Links

• First Tracks: A Parent's Guide to Teaching Kids to Ski — skiingkid.com
• Nikwax Tech Wash (for waterproof shells and bibs)
• Nikwax TX.Direct (DWR re-treatment)

Key Takeaway "The way you store your gear is the way it greets you at the start of next season. Put it away right, and next fall feels like Christmas morning."

Skiing with Kids is hosted by Jessica Averett, a ski instructor and mom of five who has spent more than 20 years helping kids learn to ski. This podcast helps parents create calmer, happier ski days by focusing on confidence, connection, and simple strategies that actually work with kids on the mountain.  She's the founder of First Tracks: A Parent's Guide to Teaching Kids to Ski, a course that walks parents through everything they need to know to skip overpriced ski school and confidently teach their own kids to ski.

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Transcript

0:01

Welcome to Skiing with Kids. I'm your host Jessica, a ski instructor, mom of five, and someone who's seen just about every ski day meltdown that you can imagine. After 20 years of teaching kids on the mountain, I've learned that great ski days aren't about perfect technique. They're about confidence, connection, and knowing what actually works. And this podcast is where we break it all down. Hey guys. Welcome back to skiing with Kids as both a mom and a ski instructor. I am someone who has dragged a truly embarrassing amount of ski gear. Through a truly embarrassing number of mudroom situations over the years. Now, today we're gonna talk about the end of the ski season, and I know some of you are not ready to hear this. You're still in denial. I get it. I am too. You are checking that snow report every morning, hoping for just one more powder day. I feel you. I feel you so much. But here's the thing, what you do with your gear in the next few weeks. Is going to have a direct impact on how your ski season starts next year. And if you're skiing with kids, that matters even more because your kids' gear takes a beating and a little end of season care goes a long way, not only towards protecting your gear, but also protecting your sanity in the fall. So today I'm gonna walk you through exactly what to do before you put everything away. We're talking skis, boots, helmets, gloves, base layers, the whole shebang. This episode is your end of ski season checklist. So let's get into it. Now, I wanna start with why this matters because I think that most families skip end of season gear care entirely. You come home from the last ski day, you dump everything in the garage or the basement or wherever it is, and you don't think about it again until like Halloween is over, right? And then you pull it out and you wonder why the boots smell like your kids' science experiment gone wrong and the skis look like they went through a gravel pit. Now here's what I've learned after 20 years of teaching and five kids worth of gear, and that's the way that you store your gear, is the way that it is going to greet you. In the fall next year, and we only want to start our next ski season with happy vibes. So if you put your gear away, clean, dry, and ready to go next fall is going to be so much easier, right? You pull everything out, it's in great shape, and you're excited to get back on the mountain and you're good to go. But if you kind of just forget about the stuff and you move on to spring, right, or summer, you're stuffing your wet gear in the bag, you forget about it. You're starting next season with mildewed base layers, cracked boot liners, uh, rusty ski edges, and a whole list of gear that you need to replace before you can even get to the mountain. Now, for a family with multiple kids like mine, that replacement cost adds up so fast, so end of season care is genuinely one of the best investments you can make in protecting that gear. Now let's start with how to take care of your skis in the off season, because this is one that I think most recreational ski parents either skip entirely or hand off to a shop and don't really think about it. And I want you to actually understand what's happening and why that matters. Now, first of all, you need to get at Tune before you store your skis. Take them in for an end of season tune, or if you're comfortable doing basic maintenance yourself, do a storage wax at home. I'm gonna get into that in a second. Now, your end of season tune should include edge sharpening and a base grind if you need it. Because over the course of a season, your edges on your skis are getting dinged up. Um, they're getting like little burrs and flat spots from rocks and ice and just your general use, right? And those edges are what give you grip on the snow. So if you put your skis away with beat up edges and pull them out next fall for your first ski day, you're starting from behind. Now, step two is storage wax, and that's the one I really want you to hear because it's so simple and so worth it. You see your ski bases are made from a porous material, and it's called PTex, and when it's exposed to the air, it dries out. So if you store your skis without wax on the base, the PTex is going to oxidize and dry out over the summer and dry out bases are slower, less responses, less responsive, but even worse, they're more prone to damage. So storage wax, seals the base and protects it over the off season. Now here's how it works. You're going to apply a thick coat of wax to the base. Um, a soft all temp wax is great for storage, right? And then you don't scrape it off like you normally would. Okay? You're gonna leave it on. Now that wax is gonna sit on the base all summer. It's gonna keep your skis hydrated and protected. And then when you pull the skis out in the fall, you're gonna scrape and brush 'em before your first ski day. And your bases are gonna be in great shape and good to go. So if we get like an early season storm, you are gonna be the one who's ready to go. Now if you take your skis to a shop, just ask for an end of season tune and a storage wax. They're gonna know exactly what you mean and if you're doing it yourself, there are tons of great tutorials on YouTube. It's a pretty accessible skill once you have some of the basic equipment. Now for kids skis, this matters just as much. Kids skis are smaller, they're cheaper, but sometimes we treat them like they're disposable. However, if you're getting two or three seasons out of a pair of kids skis or many more, if you have multiple kids like me, storage wax is worth the 10 minutes it takes, right? Okay. Step three is dry storage. Once your skis are tuned and wax, you need to store them somewhere cool and dry, not in the hot garage where temperatures are going to be sweltering all summer, not leaning against some like damp wall in your sketchy basement, um, ideally horizontally or on a wall rack. Out of direct sunlight in somewhere that's climate controlled. If you have an option to that. Bindings don't love heat. Um, so extreme temperature swings can cause warping over time. So a cool dry space is your best friend for storing your skis. Now let's talk about your boots, because this is one of the places where it makes the biggest difference between families who have a great start to the season and families who don't dry them completely. Like completely, completely, completely. Um, your kid, your boot liners either for your kids or for yourself are gonna hold moisture. Um, that's like sweat condensation, whatever got in from a wet day of spring skiing. The moisture doesn't totally evaporate on its own when the boots are in a bag or in a box in the basement, right? But what it does do there is it's gonna grow mold, mildew, bacteria. Um, this is where boots get that like nasty smell. And once your boots start to get that smell, it is really, really hard to undo. So here's what you're gonna do. You're gonna pull the liners out complete completely, set them somewhere that has good airflow, not, not like in front of a space heater or a fireplace, but just a warm dry room. And let them dry for a full 48 hours before you pack them up for for the season. Okay? Now the shells can go back together once the liners are dry. Um, and you wanna make sure that you're storing your boots, um, actually always, not just in the off season, but they should be loosely buckled. You don't wanna cinch 'em down tight. Um, but if you store your boots loosely, loosely buckled, that helps preserve the integrity of the plastic. And again, um, just kind of like we talked about with the skis, you want a dry location away from extreme heat. Um, now if you're drying your boots out, boot dryers are a great investment if you don't already have one. We actually have a hedgehog dryer and we use it year round for everything from ski boots to wet sneakers. But it is especially useful at the end for that final deep dry before storage. Um, we're using it for like, boots, gloves, all the things. Okay. Now for kids boots, I always take a minute to really assess my, the fit before storing. Um. If I know if my kid's borderline on the size right now, or if their toes are already hitting the end, they're gonna be too small in the fall. And that's, that's where my kids, your kids might be a little bit different. Um, but you wanna mark the size on a piece of tape inside the boot. And I also read on there where my kids' foot was at the end of the season, um, so that I can start thinking in the off season about whether I need to buy new boots over the summer or, um, season rentals or whatever I, whatever I need for next year, right? Um, getting that information out is just gonna give me a leg up in the fall because if it's so much easier to make that decision in April rather than scrambling, uh, a week before we're going skiing in November. Now helmets. Thankfully helmets are a little simpler, but there are a couple things I want you to do before you store them. First of all, check the fit padding. Um, helmets have foam padding on the inside that compresses over time and with use. And if the padding seems really worn down and the helmet isn't fitting the way it should or it used to, and your kids are growing. You wanna make sure that that fit is still snug at the start of the next season. So assess where it's at now. Okay. Second, give the inside a good wipe down, just like a mild soap, damp cloth. Nothing harsh, but kind of just getting like that. Sweat those oils off so that you're not left with a smelly helmet. Um, and like we talked about with other gear, just make sure it completely air dries before you put the helmet away. And third, and this is really important and most people don't know about this. But I want you to check the certification date and the condition of the phone. Um, so ski helmets are typically rated for about five years from the manufacturer date, or they need to be replaced after a significant impact. Now, if your helmet has taken a hard hit this season, like a fall where the helmet really did its job, you hit your head. That helmet needs to be replaced. It needs to be thrown away, even if it looks fine on the outside. The foam inside of your ski helmet is a one-time protection system, and it doesn't bounce back and keep working after like multiple impacts. Now I know helmets are expensive and it is tempting to keep using one as long as it looks okay, but this is not the place to cut corners. Um, check the date, check the condition, and if there's any question, replace it. Um, I know you probably have a helmet that you really love. Um, I was in a ski accident last winter and I hit my head, um, got a concussion. My helmet totally did its job, and I loved my helmet so, so, so much, and it wasn't made anymore and I was so sad to have to replace it. But as a real safety thing, if you want your helmet to do its job, you need to make sure that it is in the best condition possible. Now let's talk about like your soft gear, you know, your gloves, base layers, jackets, all the things, because this is the part that most people handle the worst, honestly, and I get it at the end of a ski day, at the end of a ski trip or the end of a season, the last thing you wanna do is all that extra laundry. But this is where so much gear gets ruined and this stuff adds up. Right? So wash everything before you start all of it. The gloves, the base layers, the ski socks, jackets, bibs, neck gators, all the things right now, here's why. The things that degrade technical fabric, um, like you know, your ski jackets, your waterproof bibs, uh, your puffy, it's not just dirt. It's the salt from the sweat, the oils on your skin that sunscreen re residue, like snack junk. Um, that stuff, if left on your fabric over the summer, it's gonna break down the fiber fibers and it's gonna degrade the waterproofing and the insulation. So you're gonna end up in the fall with gear that doesn't perform the way it should. Now, here are a few things you need to know about washing technical gear, um, your waterproof shells and bibs like your outerwear. These need to be washed with a technical cleaner, not a regular detergent. Because your regular, regular detergent will leave a residue that will co clog that DWR coating, and that's the durable water repellency finish. And that's what makes the water beat off like the top of your coat. Right? Um, I really like to use Nick Wax, tech wash or sport wash. Um, sport wash is a little bit cheaper alternative. Um, and those are the ones that I use. They're great options. They clean it really, really well, and they're not gonna leave residue on your gear. Now after washing, you can also retreat that DWR finish with a spray on or wash in treatment if it's been a while and the water is no longer beating. Personally, and I don't know if there's like any truth to this. I refresh all of our outerwear with TX direct from Nick Wax each fall. I don't know if it matters if you do it in the spring or fall, but in my mind, fall makes more sense to me personally. So that's when I do it. Um, as long as you have a system, I don't think it probably matters as long as you're making sure that that. Water repellency is being refreshed when it needs to and for a lot of gear. Once it's clean, you might even notice that it's starting to repel water a whole lot better because the dirt is actually going to hang onto, um, like it's gonna attract the water rather than repel it. Now after you've washed your outerwear, just tumble it dry on low heat. Um, and that actually helps to reactivate the DWR two. But always just check your care labels because not all outerwear is the same. Right. Now if you have down or synthetic insulating layers, wash those on a gentle cycle. Um, Nick Wax does have a really great down wash that's really fantastic for washing that down. Um, so I do recommend that wash 'em on a gentle cycle, low heat, dry, um, down especially needs to be tumble dried, um, either with like some of those wool dryer balls or some tennis balls to break up the clumping and kind of redistribute all the feathers. Um, so be patient with it because sometimes that does take a little bit of time and it does take a few cycles to fully dry and reprep puff. Right now, if you store your down with damp insulation, it will totally be destroyed in the fall. So just don't risk it. Make sure it's dry, make it sure it's well taken care of. Uh, now base layers and socks, those are really the simplest follow the care labels, but generally, um, wash them on cool water Gentle cycle. Um, you could do low heat or hang dry truthfully. I just wash ours with our normal laundry and they work great. Um, I know that Marino wool base layers, uh, it says to, they have extra care and I always just wash ours like normal and we have had no problems with it. Um, we haven't had any shrinking issues or anything, so yeah, I'm just washing that as normal, but you can do whatever makes sense to you. Um, now gloves, most gloves can be hand washed or just gently machine washed. Um, be careful if you have leather gloves. Obviously, if you have liners in your gloves that are removable, wash them separately. Um, that is such a great feature and it helps keep your gloves so much fresher and lasting longer. Um, so just wash those, let them air dry completely. But also remember that when you are helping your gloves or mittens to dry, don't put them near a heat source, um, because it's gonna warp the materials and dry the insulation. Um. If you have a dryer like we do the hedgehog dryer, I'll, it has places for mittens and gloves to dry, which is a game changer. Highly recommend it. But, um, like with all your other gear, just don't store anything until it is 100% dry, because even slightly damp gear stored in a bin or a bag over the summer is going to come out in the fall smelling terrible, potentially moldy, and a lot of the technical features are gonna be ruined. So just give everything a full dry before it goes away and just double check your kid's gear. 'cause if they're anything like mine, maybe they're gonna just go try and put their mittens on and go play in the backyard and get all sweaty. Now, next, let's talk about goggles, because these can be a pretty expensive piece of gear in your kit, but they're also pretty fragile. Now. First of all, never wipe down the inside of your lens with a cloth or a paper paper towel because it's going to scratch off and rub off that anti-fog coating. And you want that. Um, if the inside's fogged or dusty, just let it air dry. Gently dab it. Don't rub. Now you wanna store your goggles in the soft bag that they came with, or in a goggle case, keep 'em out of direct sunlight. Um, you know that UV exposure is going to yellow your lens. It's gonna degrade the foam. It's gonna start falling apart on the edges. And also before you store your goggles, check the foam gasket around the goggle frame. If it's pulling away or deteriorating, that is going to affect the seal and the comfort. Um, some goggles actually have replacement foam for their goggles. Um, but if the goggles aging out, that might just be a good time to put that in your discard pile to start thinking about getting new goggles for next season. Now, I wanna spend a minute here to talking specifically to families. Um, with kids, with multiple kids or kids who are growing fast, because end of season is also the best time to do a full gear inventory. I want you to go through everything, see what fits, what doesn't, what's worn out, what can be handed down, and what needs to be replaced. Now I've got five kids. I do this every spring, and it saves me so much stress in the fall because you don't wanna be figuring out that your 8-year-old outgrew their boots the weekend before your first ski day of the season. If you do now, if you do it now, you have all summer to shop the sales, to buy used gear, and to come up with an actual plan. Also, end of season is the best time to buy. Um, I actually just found the most amazing sale, um, Kova, which used to make Shred Dog is clearing out all of their like, shred dog stuff guys. It's like almost identical. We own essentially everything they have ever made because we love it. So much they're clearing their stuff out. Um, I will include my disc. I'll include the link to that in the show notes, but like if you're looking for gear right now, highly, highly recommend their stuff. I just totally stocked up for some of my older kids, even though we have so much of their gear. I just stocked up on so much stuff. For when they're getting into that older teen phase and they're all starting to wear kind of the same size. Um, now obviously Kova Shred dog is clearing out tons of stuff right now, but so many other retailers are discounting last season's equipment and gear. And so if you know right now that your kid's gonna need new skis or a new coat, um, April and May are such amazing months to buy with so many sales, and you're gonna get much better deals than if you buy in October. Now I wanna come back to something before I wrap up about why this matters. Because the families that I've seen do this season after season, the ones who come back to the mountain in November, excited and ready, um, they're not just organized, right? They have removed a whole layer of friction of that mental load from the start of ski season because getting a family ready to go to the mountain was the amount of gear is astronomical. But when your gear is clean, dry, ready to go, getting out the door is easy. You're not hunting for that missing glove or dealing with gear that smells like last March's ski trip. You're just going skiing, right? And for kids, especially, the start of ski season is a moment. It is exciting. Gosh, it feels like Christmas morning. It should not feel like a logistical nightmare. So think about the vibes you wanna project next fall. Now predict pro. Protecting that, start giving yourself a clean launch. That's what end of season care actually is. It's not just maintenance, it's investing in a better beginning for next season. Now let's just do a quick recap here for your end of season checklist skis. You want that? End of season tune storage. Wax on cool and dry storage boots. Liners fully dry before storing. Keep 'em loosely buckled. Check your kids fit for next season. Helmets, clean the inside, check the padding. Um, think about your impact history, and check the manufacturer's date under the padding. Um, all of your soft gear, your clothing, wash, everything before storing. You want a technical cleaner for all of your outerwear. Fully dry it before it goes away, especially making sure those gloves and mittens are totally dry goggles. Put 'em in that soft storage bag. Don't wipe the lenses. Keep 'em away from sunlight. Now with your kids' gear. Also, remember to do a full inventory now so that you can shop the spring sales and summer sales for what you'll need next fall. Now, if you put your gear away right this spring and next fall, you're gonna be thanking yourself. Now if you are assessing right now how you can find other ways to make your ski season better next year. Check out my course First Tracks. It is a parent's guide to teaching kids to ski, and it is everything that I have learned and gained from 20 years of teaching kids to ski. Now, the reason I'm pushing this right now, even though you probably aren't skiing very much right now, is the price structure is totally changing in the fall. And if you buy before next fall, you are going to be saving so much money and getting such an incredible resource now. I'm so grateful for you listening today. So happy you're here. I hope that you have a wonderful spring season, and I will see you out there on the mountain next year.