What if someone else came out of the designated house, a young couple carrying ski equipment toward the car in the driveway?

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In the cozy apartments of the Upper East Side, residents were polishing off boots, waxing in ski equipment, and dusting off winter gear.

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The result is a super competitive market where added extras like sports cars and ski equipment are as common as evening turndown treats in hotels.

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There is no piece of ski equipment more important than boots.

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The quadrennial TV spectacle boosts awareness of the sport, which eventually translates into dollars for the firms that sell ski equipment and lift tickets and slope-side condominiums.

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The company has also streamlined its business back down to clothing and athletic footwear, withdrawing from the ski and golf equipment markets.

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But with improved protection from equipment such as ski body armor, is there a danger of being lulled into a false sense of security and to attempt something above your ability level?

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"You have to think of it as like Japan or South Korea, " says Paul Bojarski, a French entrepreneur who runs an equipment-importing business in Beijing and is getting ready to invest in a ski area near there.

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Powder is a pure ski mountain, with just four rickety chairlifts, a handful of bare-bones lodges and no snowmaking equipment.

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