The Essentials

When travelling to cold places its always good to plan your wardrobe before you go. I have so many first time working holiday visa kids heading to places like Canada, USA, Europe and Japan coming in to the shop saying that “they will just buy every thing over in place X when they get there”. To me this is dumb. What do you do when you get off the plane in say Calgary and its -30 outside and you brought your “Australian winter hoodie” yep thats right you freeze your arse off until you get to a shop to buy one and that may not be right away as soon as you land.

Us veterans do know how to do the luggage pack and know that when we are on holidays that wasting time searching for that jacket that is just right takes away form precious time on the hill. So its always good to be prepared before you go and have every thing you need.

A good start is the basics. Here are a few essential items to start with.

Walking around wear – not ski gear although the cool kids do both

  • Soft shell Jacket
  • down parker/jacket for the cold days
  • hoodies/jumpers/sweaters
  • some nice clothes to wear out to dinner. (party shirt for the boys)
  • apres/ waterproof walking boots Japan this is a must as the town gets meters of snow in town.
  • gloves
  • thermals/ skins
  • glove liners
  • travel socks/ thick socks – don’t use these in your ski boots dumb dumb
  • beanie
  • day backpack
  • camera

Mountain wear ie. Skiing/snowboarding gear

  • base layer- thermals top and bottom
  • Mid Layer- fleece, hoodie, tall tee
  • Jacket and pants 10k recommended
  • gloves, glove liners and mitts
  • goggles, helmet, beanie
  • thin merino ski socks
  • neck-warmers/ balaclava
  • and of course, your ski/snowboard boots and skis/snowboard.
  • go-pro/ action cam

All this stuff is pretty basic, but we humans get caught up in all the excitement of travel and forget things from time to time. So its good practice to have a list and pack off of that!.