14213245:MaimHelp said:
We either drive a Toyota RAV4, subie outback, or subie Impreza. I wear long Johns, a set of light padding for my hips and my tailbone cause I broke my tailbone in football a few years ago and it still hurts from time to time. Sweatpants, bibs, sweatshirt and coat or just a light windbreaker depending on weather, helmet boots etc. my friends snowboard and west similar shit. Our cars are always jammed packed and you can’t sit in any of them with ski boots on unless you’re in the front seats by yourself. We all carry 1 duffle bag with all our outerwear and wear everything else to the resort. 2-3 hours to our resorts on our passes
Cool, first things first make sure you have synthetic long johns and swap out the cotton sweatpants for fleece pants. In fact, ditch anything cotton- its the bane of skiing. The problem with cotton is it soaks with sweat on the way down then freezes when you cool off on the chairlift. A synthetic base layer will wick sweat and you will be 100% more comfortable all day.
For the car ride up, definitely use the window trick I mentioned earlier where you crack one back window. Make sure the heater is set to pull in fresh air and not recirculate air too. Trust me, with 5 dudes in the car it will make a massive difference. The Outback and RAV4 have decent room but maybe skip on the Impreza on really cold days. I have an Impreza Sedan and its laughable how little room the poor souls in the back have.
Get a boot bag for your boots if you dont have one and it sounds like you all have small duffle bag each for your gear. I typically bring a boot bag with a side pocket for my gloves and goggles then just buckle my helmet to the top handle so its all together.
Now, when you get to the lot this is what you should do. The front passenger side of the car is going to have the most room so that is your changing 'spot'. Whoever is sitting there goes first. Have someone in the back hand up their boot and duffel bags to the front. Maybe all get different colored bags to make it obvious. The dude in the front changes his clothes and gets his gear on. Get everything else on then open the door, put your boots on the ground and rotate in the seat to get your boots on. Your feet will only be in the cold for about 10 seconds when you get fast. Once the first guy is set then a guy from the back moves to the front and repeats the process. If you have enough room in the drivers seat you can do the same thing and it goes twice as fast. I was half joking about the Pit Crew, once you get the system down you will be ready to hit the slopes in like 5 min tops.
I would forget about any kind of tent, it will be a PITA to get set up and you will all hate each other by the time you try to get it set up and taken down when you are stoked to ski.
Anyway, that is what I recommend. Also, trail mix is great for stuffing into your pockets for a snack while on the slopes. I have actually gotten to the point where I stopped going in for lunch altogether if you just snack on the lift. Not being able to kick it at the end of the day kind of sucks with a long drive back but that is something we just have to deal with now. I skied in Colorado for years and the lodges are not worth going into anyway but it sucks to lose a local hangout.