Midwest Ski Journal likes to highlight a few pieces of skiing internet worth your time in Linking Turns. Find the best, most important, least important and otherwise links here each week. 

Link 1: How to Prevent Blowing a Knee this Winter (Powder Magazine)

From Clare Menzel at Powder comes this piece about making sure you get a full season in this winter. The unsurprising premise of this story is that you can’t avoid an injury with a few toe touches the morning before your day in the alpine. 

Menzel calls on her own experiences with bad knees and then calls on the experts who recommend a healthy amount of pre-hab for those knees, but also for the rest of your body as well.  

Most ACL injury prevention programs strengthen neuromuscular response to dynamic loads, aiming to decrease the likelihood that we’ll put our ligaments under high-stakes stress. Spoiler alert, this will take some work. Gym time. Like, three sessions a week, ideally. Sorry, not sorry. Just remember: tearing your ACL sidelines you for six to nine months. It’s worth it to spend time preventing that. What else were you going to do with your day, shave your mustache?

Take a few minutes to read this one and realize, like I did, that you didn’t spend the fall like you should have. Never too late to get going, though. 

Link 2: Minneapolis to Bozeman flight deal (Thrifty Traveler)

Thrifty Traveler is a phenomenal resource for flight deals, especially if you are in the Minnesota area. The company is based in Minneapolis and is constantly prowling for cheap flights all over the world.

There has to be someone in that office who loves getting in the alpine, though, because they do feature ski town airfare deals pretty regularly. The most recent one is this Bozeman deal. 

For $206 roundtrip you can fly nonstop from Minneapolis to Bozeman on Delta. The deal runs select days January through March, which I don’t have to tell you is a nice time to get to Montana. Whether it’s Big Sky, Bridger or your jumping off point for a road trip to Jackson, Sun Valley or up to Whitefish, skiers can find some utility in this Bozeman deal. 

Link 3: Insider Tips for Flying with Skis and Snowboards (OnTheSnow)

It’s the holiday season and you’re probably looking to books trips in the next month or so. Before you do, I recommend this piece which was updated in Nov. 2018. 

It breaks down all the major airlines and details their ski and snowboard policies. A low airfare can be masked by expensive bag fees and vice versa. This is a great reference to let you know how each airline will help you get to the mountain. 

For instance, if you take advantage of the Delta deal in Link 2, here’s what you should expect:

Delta

A ski bag or one snowboard bag and one boot bag is accepted per person and counts as one checked bag.

The combined weight of the ski/snowboard bag and the boot bag may not exceed 50 lbs. or excess weight charges will apply, however, no excess size charges are applicable. All standard baggage charges apply.