I ski too, and like others here I learned with my eyes.
One VERY helpful application for my FM was during my riding lessons. You are outside, in a windy area, with a person yelling at you from 30+ feet away. It isn't a good listening environment at all. Although my speech discrimination isn't always good, the FM at least let me hear "JENNY!" and I knew to look at the coach. For the longer instructions I would then go to the center, stop, and read her lips, and for shorter things we came up with our own gestural communication system.