EXPERT PICK “I’m of the belief that gear comes and gear goes. I love my old wool stocking cap from the 70s, and I also still wear a 14-year-old pair of Patagonia ski pants that have been sliced by ski edges, taped up, and sliced some more. Best of all are my “custom made” ski boots that I’ve totally re-manufactured from three different pairs of boots and a lot of duct tape. I made my own shims from balsa wood, combined those with some customized-by-me liners into a pair of trash boots, then augmented those boots with parts from other boots. The result is a boot that looks like hell and no one would steal, but they ski like a dream.”
—Andy Nichols, the Virginia-based program director for Shenandoah Mountain Guides who bagged multiple first descents on backcountry lines in Virginia, some of which dropped more than 2,000 vertical feet.
