Writ­ten by Stephen Heath

In the back­coun­try we rely on our skis, bind­ings, skins, and boots to take us long dis­tances into remote cor­ners of the back­coun­try. We stress them and test their lim­its with­out think­ing much about it and take it for grant­ed that they’ll bring us back to the trail­head with­out any hic­cups. But gear breaks, espe­cial­ly light­weight gear with lots of mov­ing parts. Are we pre­pared if the equip­ment that we’re rely­ing on sud­den­ly is no longer func­tion­ing? If you can’t click into your skis how will you get back to the car? These and oth­er ques­tions are addressed in our Back­coun­try Ski Fun­da­men­tals Course, but you can get start­ed prepar­ing with some things list­ed below.

It’s vital that every­one car­ries some sort of repair kit in the back­coun­try so you can fix your gear or rig up a way to get home. In the pho­tos you’ll find pic­tures of my repair kit that lives in my pack. I’ve used it many times to fix mine and oth­er peo­ples gear. The tools I’ve used the most are the ski straps. These can fix so many prob­lems. Make sure you car­ry the long ones and not the short­ies, the short ones are pret­ty use­less in my expe­ri­ence. The oth­er is the Black Dia­mond bind­ing bud­dy, along with var­i­ous bits to fit any screw you may encounter.

My Repair Kit Includes: Leather­man Skele­tool, bind­ing bud­dy with bits, 5 long ski straps, scraper, skin wax, skin tail piece and clip, pow­der bas­ket, 3 zip ties, large-small pipe clamps, 20ft of cord, hex wrench tool.

This all nes­tles into a small pouch and comes with me on every tour.