Carrying skis: straps, slings, and the technique that costs nothing
The walk from the car to the lift is where a family trip goes wrong. Four people, eight boots, four pairs of skis, and nobody has a spare hand.
By Sawyer V. · Published
We have not tested this gear. Everything below is compiled from published specifications and published safety standards, and the arithmetic is public so you can check it. This page carries affiliate links: if you buy through one we earn a commission at no extra cost to you, and it does not change the order of the picks. Full disclosure.
The short answer
Learn the free shoulder carry first: clip the skis base to base, tips forward, and rest them on the shoulder opposite the hand holding the poles. It costs nothing and handles most walks. Buy a strap or sling if you routinely walk more than a few minutes, and buy a pack with a carry system only if you also need the pack. For a parent hauling a child’s gear too, a sling is the difference between one trip and two.
| # | Pick | Best for | Score | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dakine Heli Pro 20L Backpack A resort day pack that also has to carry skis or a board on foot | Not publishedon snow | 0.0/10 | Check price on Amazon |
No live price is currently verified, so every button here reads Check price rather than a number we cannot stand behind. Why we do it that way.
The technique first, because it is free
Skis are designed to clip to each other. The brakes on the bindings interlock when you put the two skis base to base, and most rental shops hand them over already joined. That single fact turns two awkward objects into one manageable one, and a surprising number of first-timers never discover it.
Once they are together, the carry is: skis on one shoulder with the tips pointing forward and slightly up, bindings resting behind your shoulder, one hand steadying them at the front. Poles go in the other hand. Tips forward matters and it is not a preference: tips carried backward at head height in a crowded lift line is how people get hit, and every lift attendant in the world will tell you the same thing.
For a snowboard, the equivalent is carrying it under one arm with the bindings facing your body, or by the binding straps if the board has a comfortable grab point. A board is one object already, which is one of the small compensations for everything on the flat-ground page.
The four options, compared
| Method | Cost | Best for | Downside |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shoulder carry, no equipment | Free | Anyone, most of the time | One shoulder takes all the weight; no hands free |
| Ski strap or sling | Low | Walks over a few minutes, and carrying two sets | One more thing to lose, and it lives in a pocket |
| Backpack with carry system | Moderate to high | People who wanted the pack anyway | Expensive if the pack is only for carrying skis |
| Ski and boot carrier trolley | Moderate | A family moving a full set across a large parking lot | Useless on snow, and one more thing in the car |
The strap is the item that surprises people with how useful it is relative to cost. It is a padded loop that goes around both skis and over your shoulder, taking the weight off your hand and letting you carry a child’s skis in the other one. For a parent, that is the difference between one trip from the car and two.
Pack carry systems, and when they earn their place
A snow-specific backpack usually publishes one or more ways to attach skis or a board to it, and the published systems have names worth knowing.
- Diagonal carry. The pair runs corner to corner across the back of the pack. Quick to load, and the tips stick out where they can catch on branches or doorways.
- A-frame carry. One ski on each side of the pack, tips meeting above your head. More balanced and more stable for a long walk, slower to set up, and wider through a doorway.
- Vertical board carry. The board sits upright against the back panel. The standard for snowboards and the one that works on stairs.
- Horizontal board carry. The board sits across the pack. Lower center of gravity, but it turns you into a wide load.
The pack in this ledger publishes all four. That is genuinely useful if you walk to a lift, and it is also worth being honest: if you do not otherwise want a pack, a strap does the same job for a fraction of the price. The backpack page has the whole argument, including the case for owning no pack at all.
Carrying a family’s worth
The realistic problem is not carrying your own skis. It is carrying yours and a seven-year-old’s, plus four poles, plus the bag with the snacks, while the seven-year-old carries nothing because a child in ski boots on ice with their arms full is a fall waiting to happen.
Three things that work:
- Children carry their own poles and nothing else. It gives them a job, and poles are the one item that is light and does not unbalance them.
- Adults use a strap for the child’s skis and a shoulder for their own. One set on each side, hands free for a hand.
- Make two trips deliberately. Park, walk the gear to the base area, leave it in a rack, come back for the people. It feels inefficient and it is faster than one trip that ends with a child sitting in a puddle.
And if you leave gear in a rack while you go back for the rest, read the page on gear theft first, because a base-area rack at nine in the morning is exactly where equipment disappears.
Walking in ski boots is the other half of this
Half the difficulty of carrying skis is that you are doing it in ski boots, which are designed for standing still in a binding. Two things help. Undo the top buckle and the power strap completely before you start walking, and do them up at the lift; a boot in walk mode is a different object. And take short flat-footed steps rather than heel-toe steps, because a ski boot sole has no roll in it.
If your resort involves a long walk on hard ice, the honest answer is to change into boots at the base rather than at the car, and carry the ski boots in the bag instead. Which is what the boot bag is for.
The verdict
Learn the shoulder carry and use it. Buy one padded strap per adult if there are children in the group; it is among the cheapest things on this site and it removes the single most reliable source of parking-lot friction. Buy a pack with a carry system only if you wanted the pack for its own sake, and skip the trolley unless your resort has a genuinely enormous lot.
Every pick, with the working
Each entry shows the published inputs, the axis scores they produce, and what you give up. The order is the computed order, not a commercial one, and the arithmetic is open underneath each score.
1 · A resort day pack that also has to carry skis or a board on foot
Dakine Heli Pro 20L Backpack
The only pack here that publishes its dimensions, its weight and both ski and snowboard carry systems, which is the whole specification that matters on a day pack. 20 L holds a layer, lunch and water without becoming a thing you take off on every lift.
- Published price
- Not published
- Cost per day on snow
- Not published
- Amortized over
- 3 seasons (15 days)
- Certified to
- Not published
- Published sizes
- One size, 20 L, published at 55 x 32 x 20 cm
- Weight
- 860 g
- Warranty
- No term published on the product page
Dakine publishes no single MSRP for this pack across colorways, so the cost-per-day axis is not scored.
What it gets right
- Published 20 L at 55 x 32 x 20 cm, so it can be checked against a locker or an overhead bin before buying
- Publishes diagonal and A-frame ski carry plus vertical and horizontal snowboard carry
- Large fleece-lined goggle pocket published, which is what stops an inner lens getting scratched
- 860 g published, light enough to forget you are wearing it
- 100% recycled polyester body and lining published
What you give up
- No published warranty term
- No single published price, so cost per day cannot be computed in advance
- 20 L is generous for a lift-served day and small for a full day away from a resort
The working behind the 0.0
- Cost per day on snow: not scored
- No manufacturer-published price, so this axis is not scored.
- Published protection: not scored
- This category carries no protective standard.
- Size availability: not scored
- Sold in one size, so size availability does not apply.
- Warranty and support: 0.0
- no published term (0 of 6); no published crash replacement (+0); no published repair route (+0)
Axes with unpublished inputs are dropped and the remaining weights re-normalized, so a product is not punished for a manufacturer’s silence. Specifications compiled September 7, 2026 from Dakine published specifications.
No live price is currently verified, so every button here reads Check price rather than a number we cannot stand behind. Why we do it that way.
Questions people actually ask
What is the easiest way to carry skis?
Clip the skis base to base so the brakes interlock, then rest them on one shoulder with the tips pointing forward and slightly up, steadying them with the hand on that side and carrying the poles in the other. Tips forward is not a preference: tips carried backward at head height are how people get hit in a lift line.
Are ski carry straps worth buying?
For a parent, yes. A padded strap takes the weight off your hand and frees the other one to carry a child’s skis or hold a child’s hand, which is the difference between one trip from the car and two. For a solo adult walking two minutes, the free shoulder carry is enough.
How do you carry a snowboard?
Under one arm with the bindings facing your body, or by the binding straps if the board has a comfortable grab point. A board is already a single object, which makes it easier to carry than skis and harder to move on flat ground once you are riding it.
What is the difference between diagonal and A-frame ski carry?
Diagonal runs the pair corner to corner across the back of a pack: fast to load, with tips sticking out to catch on things. A-frame puts one ski on each side with the tips meeting overhead: more balanced for a long walk, slower to set up, and wider through a doorway.
How do you walk in ski boots?
Undo the top buckle and the power strap completely before you start walking and do them up at the lift. Take short, flat-footed steps rather than rolling heel to toe, because a ski boot sole has no roll in it. On a long icy walk, carry the ski boots and change at the base instead.