Hacks to Pack for Family Ski Trip

Are you planning on taking a family ski trip this winter?

Sometimes it feels a bit overwhelming trying to figure out what to pack for family ski trip, how to pack a ski bag and make sure you don’t forget anything.

So as we get ready for our first family ski trip of the year we pulled this information together and a few ski hacks we use when packing for ski trip. Including a family ski bag and a family ski trip packing list!

9 Ski Trip Hacks: How and What to Pack for Ski Trip Family

1. Family Ski Bag – Hockey Bag

Yep, we use an inexpensive smaller hockey bag to hold most of our gear and it works great as the best kids ski bag. Seems a little odd, I know, but hockey bags usually have wheels, lots of pockets and sections to keep your family organized.

We put everything in, aside from our skis, snowboards, and poles, in one bag! We use the side of the hockey bag as our family ski boot bag, as it fits all our boots on either side. This also keeps the rest of the gear clean with having the boots in a separate area.

If you need to fly with your gear, you will have an oversize bag charge but keeping this all together keeps us organized and useful for storage in the off-season.

2. Keep Each Person Items Together

Inside the hockey bag, keep each person items together. For example, in each person’s helmet, we pack their goggles, mitts, baklava and neck warmer. We have found this to work the best on how to pack ski helmet and keep everything organized.

This way you can easily grab it and know it is all together and you aren’t forgetting anything.  This is by far one of our best ski packing hacks! 

3. Label ALL your Kids Gear

We label ALL our kid’s gear before you go, this will keep you organized before you get to the ski hill. Put a label on their skis, boots, and helmets.

How to label ski equipment? The best way to label skis is to use duct tape or hockey tape with their names on it. Write their names on all their clothing in case anything goes missing and dropped off in the lost and found. 

4. Attach Kids Mitts to their Jackets

Have you ever heard of the term “yard sale” on the ski hill?

It will happen and attaching their mitts to their jackets will save you time, your kid’s time and their ski instructor will thank you! Our ski hack is to use hair elastic bands to attach the mitts. There are other options with clips that can be attached to jackets.

This is really helpful on the chairlifts because then the kids won’t lose their mitts if they take them off!

5. Ski Backpacks for the Kids

If the kids are going to a lesson or all day daycare we send small kids ski pack or backpack to help keep them organized. This then becomes routine for them like school and it will help keep everything together. A great option if you are packing their lunch to save some money.

6. One Family Ski Backpack

Aka our Big family Backpack! We have one large backpack (50L) that we take to the ski hill to keep our entire family stuff in; lunches, extra mitts, extra clothing, camera, etc.

We use one large backpack because it is easy to put on our back and keep our hands free for carrying gear and sometimes even the kids! Ours is very similar to this Saloman snow gear backpack.

7. Packing List Family Ski Trip

What to pack on a family ski trip doesn’t need to be overcomplicated. Keep it easy with our simple ski packing list for each family member:

• Clothing:
  • Baselayer
  • Sweater
  • Ski jacket
  • Ski pants
  • Mitts (2 pairs)
  • Toque & Neck Warmer or Baklava
  • Ski socks (2 pairs)
• Ski/Snowboard Gear:
  • Helmet
  • Goggles
  • Ski Boots, ski poles & Skis OR
  • Snowboard & Snowboard boots

This really should be all the basics on what to pack for a family ski trip, besides what you would regularly pack for a on vacation.

8. Rent Gear vs. Buying Gear

• This really depends on how much you plan on skiing or snowboarding in one year. Kids grow fast and usually you will only get one season out of the boots/skis/board. Be realistic about how often you plan ongoing. Check into the ski hill you are going to and price out what is the best value for your family.
• If it is your first time, generally there are really great deals on first time ski/boarders and included rentals.
• We ski/board about 10 days out of the season, so we purchase our gear and then sell it after the kids have outgrown.

9. Where should you rent ski gear from?

There are a lot of options:

• Rent from the ski hill for the days you need them; try renting them for multiple days so you don’t have to wait in line for sizing every time.
• Or rent from home ski shop for the duration of your trip.
• Or some ski shops have a kid program where you pay for the season a certain amount and then just return it at the end of the year.

Family Ski Safety Tips:

• Before you head out on the slopes with your family, be sure to check some safety tips that are good to review with the kids.
• I always like to remind the kids of the responsible skiing and boarding tips that are listed too!
• Always have a meeting spot on the hill with your family.
• Don’t rely on your cell phones to work everywhere on the hill due to limited cell phone coverage so decided on meeting times and places.
• Dress for the weather at the TOP of the mountain, all resorts will have this information on their websites with weather updates.
• Don’t forget to have travel insurance for when you are visiting from out of the country. We use World Nomads for our insurance and would highly recommend it since it covers skiing and snowboarding. Really easy to find out a quote! You can read our entire review of World Nomads for travel insurance here.

Taking your family on a kids ski trip can be overwhelming, but once you see your kids gliding down the hill trying to catch snowflakes it will all be worth it! We started taking our kids on ski trips since they were infants and both kids have been on ski since they with 2 years old toddlers – it’s part of our life!

Hopefully, you have found some useful tips and tricks to packing for family ski trip! 

What hacks do you have to make packing for family ski trips easier?

Did we miss anything in what to pack for ski vacation? If so, comment below.

More Ski Trips with Kids Information:

• Best Ski Resorts Around the World for Families
• Big White Ski Resort – British Columbia, Canada
• Things to do in Big White Ski Resort (other than skiing)
• A Day in the Life of Whitefish Ski Kid
• Whitefish Mountain Ski Resort – Montana, USA
• 7 Minutes of Self-Reflection
• Sunshine Village – Alberta, Canada