Few things are more irritating to a beginner than to find that his binding will not hold on his boot.  Over and over again in a run down his Ski comes off and he delays his party by having to stop and put it on again.  Still it will not hold even though he ties it on with string.  Then he realizes that his boot is buckling.  The sole arches up under the instep and the binding, becoming loose, slips off the heel.

There is no cure for this, and the only solution is to use a toe binding, such as the new B.B., or a solid binding such as the Ellessen or Lilienfeld, instead of a heel binding.  As most hired Skis have the Huitfeldt heel binding it is essential to ensure that boots are of the very best.

Gloves are another very important item of clothing.  They should be waterproof.  This is easy to say but very difficult to obtain.  The rub of the stick on the palm of the hand tends to sodden almost any material.  Snow also gets inside during a fall and then, of course, even the waterproof glove comes home wet.  The best gloves are paws made of thick horse-hide and lined with wool.  They should have long gauntlets wide enough to pull up over the sleeves and they should be joined by a string going round behind the neck, under the coat collar, long enough to allow of free use of the hands, and this string should have another string joining it across the chest.  It is often necessary to slip off a glove and if they are not safely hung round the neck they fall in the snow, which promptly runs inside, or they may be dropped and lost.

Socks are a matter for individual choice.  Some people like goat’s-hair socks, which have many of the qualities or disqualities of a hair shirt.  They are prickly and, therefore, perfect as a counter-irritant under very cold conditions, but far too irritating for ordinary wear.  I was much amused in a London shop last winter when I heard a Ski-ing expert advising a lady not to buy “those repulsive goat’s-hair socks.”  When she had bought what he advised I said I had come especially to buy “a repulsive pair of socks.”  He immediately explained that he had advised the lady not to get them because they only had two pairs left, and he did not want to sell them.  He let me have a pair, and the only time I wore them I thought with amusement of his advice and explanation.  The lady was undoubtedly well out of them, and I hope never to use them again.  Some people swear by them, so all tastes must be allowed for.

It seems to me better to wear two thin pairs of socks in addition to stockings, rather than one pair of thick socks.  If these seem to fill the toes of the boot too much, the toe part of one pair of socks can be cut off, the remainder being worn as an anklet.

Swanks, or Norwegian puttees, may be used to tie the socks above or over the boot so as to prevent the snow from getting inside.  Or shooting anklets may also be used, granted that they are large enough to go over the wide uppers of a Ski boot as well as the socks.