Wet ski gear, boot smell, and the car that carries both.

Where the smell comes from

A rental company's boot guide puts it simply: bacteria love the warm, moist environment inside the inner boot, and they feed on the amino acids in sweat. An insole maker calls liners world-class sponges for sweat and moisture. So a boot that comes off at three in the afternoon is a damp sponge full of bacteria, and if it goes into a bag, and the bag goes into a warm car, it stays that way until morning.

Mildew is the second smell. A detailing source describes the inside of a car as a warm, damp environment mold and mildew thrive in, and another describes carpet's thick, absorbent fibers soaking up moisture fast and drying painfully slow, with mold setting up deep in the padding. The EPA's household rule is to dry water-damaged items within 24 to 48 hours to prevent mold growth; nobody publishes a car-specific number, so take the household one as the outer limit and beat it.

Drying the boots

Pull the liners out of the shells after every use and let them dry somewhere with air moving; the rental guide says a well-ventilated place, and that a hot-air boot dryer dries liners overnight. Two cautions from the people who make the liners: one maker says a heated dryer is not recommended for its heat-sensitive liners, and the insole brand warns that high heat from radiators or dryers ruins foam and custom molding. Room-temperature air or a low-heat dryer, liners out of the shells, insoles out of the liners. Not the heater vent in the car.

The car's part

The car is where the whole day's moisture ends up: melt off the skis, snow in the cuffs of the pants, the boots, the gloves, and a wet dog if you brought one. Detailing sources describe the results in order: floor mats and carpets catch the slush and soggy shoes first, trapped humidity fogs the windows, and once the musty smell takes root the heater blows it through the whole cabin. Their advice matches ours. Get the wet gear out of the car the same evening rather than leaving it overnight, and put a bowl of baking soda under a seat overnight to pull moisture if the carpet got wet.

Our additions: a rubber cargo liner or a plastic bin for the boots so the melt has somewhere to go that isn't carpet; the skis in a bag or on the rack, not on the seats; and the windows cracked for the drive down the canyon so the humidity leaves with the air. When the carpet already smells, a vacuum won't fix it. The padding is wet. That takes a hot water extraction and a full dry, which is a detail, not a car wash.