It's the height of the skiing season and around the country people are packing their bags to head off to Europe or further afield for this years skiing or snowboarding fix. And at least now there's at least some snow in resorts across Europe (and even some at home), it should be a holiday to look forward to, but before you go, don't forget to pack some essential gadgets to improve your skiing or snowboarding experience!

Many of the cleverest ideas are the simplest ones, and the edgy-wedgy is a classic example of this. A learning to ski aid, intended for children, but just as good for nervous adult beginners, the edgy-wedgy attaches to the front of your skis and ensures that they cannot cross over, so reducing the likelihood of falls. It also doubles up as an anchor for parents to guide their kids down the slope using a ski pole to direct the child's skis, and is a great way to build confidence when teaching adults or children the basics of the snow-plough skiing position. Not likely to be required beyond the second or third day, the edgy-wedgy is nonetheless a cost-effective aid to beginner skiiers.

You've had a few lessons, mastered turning and stopping, and while your friends head off to ski down the Green slopes, you're looking for a challenge and head straight for the Black. This Action Camera from Oregon Scientific is just what you need to convince your friends that you didn't chicken out, it's small enough to strap on to your arm or your head, yet robust enough to survive all those falls you're setting yourself up for! With an SD card slot you can add up to 2GB of storage (enough for 2 hours of 640x480 30fps video), there's enough to capture plenty of the week's skiing and a USB cable allows you transfer the footage to your PC when you return home.

A legend in the world of ski boots, Full Tilt boots have returned to the market after 5 years and are the lightest 3-piece ski boots in the world, and considered by many to be the best. They are also regarded as very comfortable with a low height and a small ramp angle while a cable buckle system allows for comfortable fitting and one-handed adjustments. A comprehensive range of accessories and "parts" will elongate the lifetime of your boots so while the initial outlay is high, these boots should last for the duration of your skiing career.

Everyone knows the higher you go, the better the snow, so find out just how far up the mountain you are with this ski watch, complete with a built in altimeter, compass and ski log. Not only will it tell your altitude up to a height of 30,000 foot (i.e. the peak of Mount Everest!), it will graph your progress so you can see a visual representation of each of your ski runs during the day, it will tell the temperature... oh, and of course tells the time.

For the serious skier who wants full tracking of their day on the slopes, SportsDo is a GPS tracking system which includes software for your Bluetooth mobile phone. Bundled with a bluetooth GPS receiver, SportsDo enables you to record your days skiing or snowboarding while broadcasting live tracking stats to the SportsDo web portal. It goes beyond skiing though as any pictures taken by your camera can be linked to a specific location and all the data can be mapped on Google Earth, offering a new way to relive your week's sporting and apres-ski activities.