PACKING TIPS 101
10 Packing Tips for Your Family Ski Trip
You need a lot of stuff but it can be done
Going skiing requires a lot of preparation. Going with four children means a hallway groaning under the weight of stuff and endless jokes about not being able to fit it in the car this time.
For us, a ski trip means at least 7 hours of driving. This adds the extra challenge of things you need “at the top” to get through the journey which might extend into 10 hours if it’s snowing.
Still willing to try it?
We’ve done it many times, nevertheless, because we were not ready to give up on skiing just because we had triplets.
Here are the tips that survived all the trips.
- Dress in layers for the car trip
Kids may get nauseous if they are too hot, parents need to be nimble during the long drive, and you all need to stretch during breaks.
2. Remember that snow pants compress well
Squeeze all the air out, roll them tightly and shove the rolls into empty caverns in your trunk. Ski equipment is awkward to pack and you will have many small places to fill.
3. You don’t need a lot of other clothes
One pair of jeans for shopping and a set of loungewear to collapse after skiing is all you need. You will be so tired you will not want to do much. With kids, a movie in front of the fireplace counts as après-ski.
During our trips we try to go out at least once to walk around the village or most likely get extra groceries, and other than that, we are pooped.
4. Bring lunch supplies
Do your research before and know what amenities are available. It’s not just about the money, but your precious time and standing in lineups.
We usually bring tea in a thermos, snacks, and cut-up vegetables for lunch, and buy the rest — soup or sandwiches.
Sometimes, we bring sandwiches and only buy soup. Some cafeterias are very slow and you will wait a long time for your burger, but soups are ready-to-serve in big pots.
We bring veggies, apples and mandarins — it cheers up cafeteria lunches.
Consider packing a lunchbox, thermoses, ice packs, containers, tea bags, and a travel knife.
5. Slippers for cold floors
You will be going in winter. Most rental places will have hard floors. Carpets don’t make sense in a skiing cottage.
You will need something for shuffling around the kitchen and the cold tiled bathrooms floors.
You don’t want you ski socks wet before the day even started.
And you will be grateful to have something on your feet when all the stuff unravels in your hallway after a day of skiing.
As you shake the snow out of endless jackets and scarves, and wade through dripping puddles among the hordes of ski boots, keep your poor tired feet dry and don’t slip.
6. Electric boot & glove dryer
This might have to go to #1. For us, skiing as a family of six means twelve boots, twelve mittens, six balaclavas, six scarves and the rest of it that needs to be dried every evening and be ready for the next day.
The whole evening, while making dinner and monitoring the shower queue, you have to keep an eye on drying things.
You will hang things on chairs, drape them over the baseboards, spread them in front of the fireplace, or as a last resort use a hairdryer. You need to watch, switch, and rotate things. It is a tedious job that requires you to move and bend when you are stiff and creaky.
Our electric dryer can quickly dry four boots or four mittens at once. It is running the whole evening and it’s already paid off many times over.
7. Toe and hand warmers
These neat little packages are disposable but they can save you on a freezing day. You stick them on your ski socks and shove them into your mittens to keep your extremities from going numb.
You can buy them cheaply at Costco, or you will pay for them an arm and a leg at the chalet boutique.
8. Equipment maintenance kit
Depending on what you can do yourself, bring the edge sharpener, the wax for polishing the surface, and a screwdriver to adjust the bindings. Of course, the resort staff will do it for you , but you often have to wait in lineups, and time is precious on the mountain.
9. De-fogging spray for ski goggles
The best thing ever. You know what I mean if you ever had to scrape the ice from the inside of your goggles because you could no longer see where you were going.
10. Check and recheck your equipment
Once, we brought the wrong pair of boots and had to deal with rentals.
Another time, we miscalculated the number of poles and had to find a shop and buy a new set. Precious time lost.
Check everything : count the skis (twelve?), poles (twelve?), and boots (twelve again?) and put the goggles inside each helmet (six and six).
And then, drive carefully and enjoy the mountains. You are doing it all for the views, the air, and feeling alive.
