I'm looking at some winter hikes where I would be snow-shoeing in, then cross-country skiing. Any thoughts on the best way to pack a pair of skis in? These won't be overnight trips so I won't be carrying anything more than what I would carry for a day-hike; I've got a Hill People Gear Tarahumara that I use for that purpose.

One thought I had was to take the yoke harness from the HPG pack and rig it to an aluminum pack frame, then strap the skis to that. I'd prefer not to spend a ton of money on this project, as I'm not likely to do more than 5-10 of these trips this year.

I suppose you'd need to be able to strap the snow shoes to the pack while you're skiing ... or would you just cache them at some location and swap back when you're done?

Have you considered using a hunk of cord and dragging like skis along behind sort of like a mini ... what is it called ... pulk?

TheCamp X series has a ski carrying system that folds out. You can't see it in the pictures but I've seen it set up in person. Call the shop and they'll help you out. Seems like about what you might be after, and a pretty good light day pack for general use anyway.

Yes, one reason I've been thinking of an aluminum pack frame. I'd have the snow shoes strapped to the pack while skiing, and vice-versa.

For carrying skis, you will get the least amount of slop by attaching as close to the pack frame as possible. With an external, you know where this attachment will be, with an internal, it's hit and miss depending on design. Snow shoes it depends, I've carried snow shoes well on a ULA epic. I've also strapped them outside a HPG tara as well.

Why wouldn't you just ski the whole thing? There's a slight learning curve with kick wax but between it and kicker skins there isn't much terrain I wouldn't rather have skis than misery slippers. If there's lots of nasty bushwhacking where skis might be a pain then having em on your back is only a slight improvement.

Most ski packs carry them either a-framed with a ski on each side or strapped together as a pair vertically or slightly diagonal. Either way works and is mostly personal preference. Any day pack designed to carry skis will usually be big enough to strap a pair of stacked snowshoes on.

Have you tried strapping skis to the Tara yet? The horizontal compression should hold them pretty well. Just put the bindings in between the two straps and bias the skis to the side of the pack instead of the back. I haven't tried it myself, but I should. If that's too lightweight of a rig, any pack with horizontal compression straps will take a pair of skis. Just put one on each side. As PitkinCO said, kicker skins may be the answer though.

The Tara works well for carrying skis. I used it several times last spring.

The Tara should work for a short approach with light cross country skis, but I wouldnt want to if I had the choice. Anything more than that and I want a bigger pack with some sort of frame. For me the Tara does not have enough volume for winter trips. Mystery Ranch makes great packs for skiing and the ones for hunting are great for packing skis also. Carrying skis togather diagonal sucks, puts you off balence and hits every branch off to that side. A Frame for me is probably the best but I now leave the tips seperated on top.. If you fall they will hit you in the back of the head. Best to just leave them seperated so you have a window your head can pass through.

Laughing Wes -- leave it to Ed and Kevin to think a Tara is large enough for a winter load! I'm with you and typically carry more. Been happily rocking a Ute for the last month. Here was this morning:



Not often you'll see slickrock in a skiing picture, or be able to cut tele turns in the desert.

All that snow down low is ruining my trail running training !!!!
Just used a Tara with the snow shoes on the outside this morning. It's plenty big for 3 -6 mile winter hikes not going in anything crazy.

Don't make this hard. I've been using day packs for backcountry and ski mountaineering for over 3 decades. PitkinCO knows what he is talking about. I like my skis attached best one on each side of the pack with a velcro strap or something like it holding them together at the top. They don't hit the back of my calves that way, even when climbing in the rugged vertical of the continental divide here in CO.
FWIW, I canned the snow shoes about 3 decades ago and use climbing skins.

evanhill, where was that photo taken? I have always wanted to ski that desert country, but when the snow was that good I was up in Aspen, or the backcountry.
I'm having major back surgery on Monday. My ski season was over before it ever snowed. Much making up to do, next year.

cobrad, believe it or not that is in the black ridge wilderness area just outside of GJ.

I am not familiar with that area... will have to learn about it.
Thanks.

Blackridge is normally a great place to run this time of year. I finally gave in and went skiing , or maybe hoking today. Not that much snow up above 12k, but still had a nice run.

You guys are killing me here! I haven't been able to mtn bike, backpack... I even missed hunting season!
I hope it snows to beat hell and you guys have a GREAT ski season!