Pre-Season Tips: How To Save Money on Gear and Stay Sustainable
Can you smell the crisp mountain air and picture pristine powder? The time to dust off your winter gear and boards or skis is nearing and what better way than to be sustainable about it.
To save you from forking out on brand new gear and help you stay sustainable, we've put together pre-season tips on how you can re-use, resell, and repair your existing winter kit, including 2 tutorial videos from pro snowboarder and FATMAP Pro Ambassador, Xavier De Le Rue, and info on Everide, a platform that sells second-hand sports gear.
Explore members get special benefits, too... Read on to find out more!
Learn from a Pro Snowboarder
Xavier De Le Rue knows his winter stuff. Check out his two short and snappy video tutorials on how to tune your snowboard and how to easily repair your waterproof layers so you can keep your adventures going – at minimal cost and environmental impact.
Take a Second Chance
We’re stoked to have partnered up with Everide - the first mobile app available in Europe for buying and selling second-hand clothing and gear.
Supported by outdoor legends such as Kilian Jornet, Xavier De Le Rue, and Liv Sansoz, the platform allows you to sell the gear you don’t use anymore and buy what you need for your adventures at a great price, while avoiding the carbon emissions of new equipment. So you can wear and sell great gear, and feel good about it.
Plus, FATMAP Explore members get an exclusive 20€ discount on their first purchase above 59€!
*Everide is currently available in France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, Spain, and Italy.
Photos by Justin Galant
Change How Your Travel
Now that you have your second-hand gear, it’s time to focus on how you get yourself to the mountains sustainably - and what awesome deals you’ll get in return!
Travel by train:
There exist whole companies in Europe dedicated to helping you find ski resorts accessible by train - making your trip easier to organise.
For instance, Snowcarbon focuses on the Alps and helps you find multiple train journey details, travel booking options, and independent guides for each resort all in one place.
Snowcarbon was created to try to enable more skiers to travel to ski resorts by train, because rail travel to a ski resort creates only a fraction of the carbon emissions of the equivalent journey by plane or car, and can be a way to make the journey become an enjoyable part of the holiday.
Research carried out in 2020 demonstrated how the journey by plane from London to Geneva and a shared taxi from Geneva to Tignes created 103.43 kg of CO2 per person; but the journey by Eurostar Ski Train from London to Bourg St Maurice, and then a taxi from Bourg St Maurice to Tignes, created 18.47 kg of CO2 per person.
If you do hop on a train to a European ski resort, you may be rewarded with deals for your lift pass. Since December 2022, Morzine resort offers 10% off lift passes for rail arrivals, for example. Companies like Save Our Snow scan the internet and collate all the best deals available and share important information about sustainability in the snow sports sector.
*This article was edited in January 2023, adding the information about travel by train.