The Best Ski Backpacks of 2024-2025

Backcountry skiers, splitboarders, and snowmobilers know how essential ski backpacks are for carrying avalanche rescue tools that can save lives. Other times, these packs carry a few energy bars and a water bottle, or an extra pair of mittens. Picking the right ski pack for your day on the slopes depends a lot on the mission at hand.

While most packs have a lot in common — namely, shoulder straps and a central zippered compartment — they differ wildly in size, weight, and how much they’ll comfortably carry. Packs these days are incredibly well-made. Materials are built to last, seams are heat-welded or bar-tacked, and buckles only break if they’re abused.

You’ll find moderate-volume packs with extremely durable construction and intelligent pocket designs, like the BCA Stash 30, as well as higher-end, larger-volume packs with airbag compatibility, such as the Mammut Pro 45 Removable Airbag 3.0. Smaller day-use packs for lightning-fast missions or hydration at the ski area are on our list, too: the CamelBak SnoBlast 22 Hydration Pack and the  Black Diamond Cirque 25 Pack.

For more help choosing the best ski backpack for the season, check out the details behind pack designs in the Buyer’s Guide or jump to the Price & Value summary. Still weighing your options? Consult our Comparison Chart to see how ski pants stack up. Otherwise, take a look at our top picks for the 2024-2025 season.

Editor’s Note: We updated our Ski Backpacks guide on November 12, 2024, to include the awarded Dakine Women’s Poacher 30 L & Dakine Men’s Poacher 32 L and our new Price & Value section.

The Best Ski Backpacks of 2024-2025

Ski Backpack Comparison Chart

Scroll right to view all of the columns: Price, Best Use, Weight, Capacity, Carry.

How We Tested Ski Packs

Our GearJunkie team includes backcountry skiers and splitboarders who explore backcountry zones and inbounds ski areas across the United States and overseas.

Our Expert Testers

Among our testers, Snowsports Senior Editor Morgan Tilton started alpine skiing in her backyard at Telluride Ski Resort at age 4, followed closely by snowboarding. In 2007, she completed her first AIARE 1 course. She’s thankful the industry now makes stellar splitboards, breaking the need to snowshoe with a solid board on her back. While Tilton manages our testers, she also gets field time. In 2023, she put ski packs to the test for 84 hours on skis, splitboard, and snowmobile. To date, in 2024, she’s tested ski packs for 75 hours.

Our test team has included backcountry skier Nancy Bouchard and Eric Phillips — a splitboarder, search-and-rescuer, and snowmobiler — since 2021, when this article was first updated. The guide has been updated seven times.

Our Testing Grounds

From the West to East Coast and around the Rocky Mountains, our testers pull on ski packs. They travel around the U.S. and overseas, venture into the backcountry, hike uphill at the resort, and use off-trail snowmobiles to play in and access out-there terrain.

The GearJunkie team meets for an annual on-snow test week to grind out turns and swap notes, including two previous gatherings at Crested Butte Mountain Resort, which is known for its expert terrain.

Our Testing Process

Throughout our field tests and personal experience, we determine the best ski backpacks based on a variety of metrics, including fit adjustment, ergonomics, gear-carry options, zippers and straps, hydration compatibility, ease of use, organization from compartments to pockets, access, load placement, comfort, hip belt and shoulder strap design, performance, quality, durability, and value.

These excellent ski backpacks serve a range of athletes, applications, volume of gear, and budgets.

Buyer’s Guide: How to Choose the Best Ski Backpack

The trick to deciding what pack to buy is knowing what you’re going to use it for.

Do you want something small and compact you can carry for a quick uphill session at the ski hill after work? Or do you need a spacious, weight-bearing pack for an overnight hut trip or a weeklong summit snag with a remote basecamp?

Then, think about feature sets and overall capacity. Will you be carrying ice tools? A ski mountaineering axe? Crampons? Will you be on a splitboard or skis and what type? Will you be in-bounds only?

In your terrain, will you need avalanche safety equipment? Do you have room for all the necessary layers, enough food and water, and a tailored first aid emergency kit? Do you need to carry a radio? Do you prefer to drink water through a bottle or hydration bladder?

These are a handful of the questions you should ask as you consider the best ski backpack for your needs.

Types of Ski Backpacks

A wide variety of ski backpacks exist. Depending on your objectives and the terrain you’ll be in, you might want a pack that’s lightweight and simplified for in-bounds use or uphill sessions at a ski area. Or, you might need a streamlined, minimalist pack for fast and light training and skimo races.

If you’re heading into the backcountry, the ski or snowboard backpack you choose will have unique features. Namely, there will be a dedicated compartment with pockets for your avalanche safety gear: shovel and probe.

There will also be a helmet carry and radio integration via sleeves on the shoulder straps and, on some packs, an elastic loop on the chest strap to secure the mic.

Other backcountry packs offer greater capacity, enhanced back and shoulder support, and special organizational features for ski and splitboard mountaineering or multiday backcountry tours.

Size & Capacity

It’s important to match the pack size to your body shape and size. You don’t want a pack that’s too big or it will shift around. Nor will it be comfortable if it’s too snug.

Pack capacity is a personal choice, dependent on whether you go fast and light or you’re the type of person who wants or needs room for plenty of gear.

In general, sub-20 L packs are ideal for resort skiing and riding, uphilling, or skimo races. Some of these compact packs even have a ski and snowboard carry, which is a nice feature for hike-to in-bounds terrain.

A pack from 20 to 35 L that can haul more is ideal for side-country, backcountry, and gear-intensive trips. A few of the packs in that house include the Thule Upslope 35 L.

Some pack designs in the 30 L to 35 L realm are designed to support ski and splitboard mountaineering expeditions like the BCA Stash 30.

Packs from 40 to 50 L are more stout for backcountry overnight missions and hut trips as well as mixed alpine and mountaineering ascents.

The leanest pack among our top picks is the 22 L CamelBak SnoBlast 22 Hydration Pack for hike-to terrain and lift days. The beefiest load-carrying pack is the Eddie Bauer Alpine Sisu 50, a 50 L animal for backcountry tours, mountaineering, overnighters, and hut trips.

Suspension & Carry Comfort

Suspension refers to the shoulder straps, hip belt, and frame sheet. Generally, the bigger the backpack, the more weight you can carry. And more weight requires a more sophisticated suspension system for comfortable carry.

Shoulder straps are generally padded to help cushion your shoulders from the weight. They also help disperse the weight from the pack.

New materials provide cushioning with less bulk. Most modern shoulder straps are a combination of dense foam and breathable mesh. The more weight a pack is designed to carry, the more robust the foam in the shoulder straps.

Hip belts are designed to help keep the pack from swinging around on your back. Packs that will carry 20 pounds or more need some sort of padded hip belt to help transfer weight to the hip bones.

Most hip belts are made of the same dense foam as shoulder straps. They’re built to snugly wrap around your iliac crest so the weight of your load is dispersed between your shoulders, back, and hips.

Torso Length

This is the distance (generally in inches) between the top of your shoulder to the top of your hip bone (iliac crest). Most packs fit torsos from about 16 to 20 inches.

If you have a very short or very tall back, you need to do some research into manufacturers’ recommendations. Fortunately, most packs come in small/medium, large/XL, or small/medium/large sizing.

And with shoulder strap adjustments and load-lifter straps, you can generally get 2 to 4 inches of adjustment out of any pack. Plus, some manufacturers make packs with back panels that have adjustable lengths. In most cases, this is done by moving the shoulder straps up or down the back panel or moving the hip belt up.

Women’s-Specific Packs

Most of our top choices for ski pack designs are unisex or men’s, which can work fine for many riders and skiers regardless of gender. That said, everyone’s body is unique. Some women swear by women’s-specific packs. If you generally have a smaller frame, consider checking out a women’s-specific ski pack.

Compared to men’s or unisex packs, a women’s pack is constructed based on the average size of female bodies. The back length is shorter, and the carrying system — the hip belt and shoulder straps — hugs a narrower body figure. The hip belt is also made in a conical shape, which sits more comfortably on the hips.

Materials

Modern materials are unbelievably tough. It’s really difficult to wear a hole in a pack when it’s used correctly.

Abrasion is most likely to occur on the bottom of a pack. This is more common in packs hauling heavy loads of solid gear but naturally happens from setting the pack down on various terrain from rocks to ice or snow.

Packs designed for carrying ice-climbing equipment will generally have a padded bottom. This keeps sharp objects from poking through the bottom of the pack when you set it on a hard, rocky surface.

These specialty packs often use durable material in places where you attach an axe or crampons. Ski packs also have reinforced attachment points so sharp ski edges don’t cut into the pack.

Organization

A major differentiator between ski pack styles is whether or not there’s a designated compartment for avalanche safety equipment — the shovel and probe. That design component is essential for backcountry and side-country recreationists because efficiency and organization are critical and life-saving.

Many ski and snowboard packs have an internal sleeve for a hydration bladder and a sleeve to route the hose but not all sleeves are insulated. Beware — the water in your hose can freeze. To be proactive, you can blow the water back through the hose after each sip, but it can help to get a proper pack, too.

Pockets add weight but are nice to keep everything in place. Again, efficiency is key when we are playing outdoors in cold, gusty, snowy elements.

We appreciate at least one spacious hip belt pocket if not two. These are handy if you want to keep snacks, sunscreen stick or sunscreen chapstick, slope angle reader, straps, or glove liners handy. Most packs for backcountry or front-country use have a softly lined goggle pocket and ski helmet carry, too.

Packs with one or two oblong pockets toward the top-front of the pack offer an easy-to-access placement for quickly grabbing items like a goggle lens, sunglasses, snack, ice scraper, rub-on skin wax, compact phone, or satellite communication device. Pockets that are buried deep inside the primary compartment are not ideal, because we typically need to dig through a pile of items to reach what we’ve stashed.

Ski & Snowboard Carry

Many ski backpacks have a ski-carry system — which can be used for skis or splitboard skis — and potentially one for snowboard carry, too.

Generally, backcountry skis — or a splitboard — can be attached to a ski pack via an A-frame setup, which many travelers feel is well-balanced. The caveat? An a-frame carry cannot be used with packs that are set up for an airbag to deploy. The other ski option carry is diagonal. Some pack designs feature straps for both of these arrangements. Other packs also provide a solid snowboard carry that is either vertical or horizontal.

Most of the time, how you carry your skis, split skis, or snowboard is a personal preference, but terrain management can also influence your choice, especially for split boarders. For instance, if you’re bootpacking a backcountry ridge or a short hike-to at the resort, you might not prefer a vertical snowboard carry if the tail is digging into your calves between steps. However, if you are bootpacking a steep slope that will not top out with enough space to transition from split to solid or rappelling into the start of the descent, you might need to strap your assembled solid splitboard to the back of your pack.

You’ll want to be sure to practice clipping your skis, split skis, or snowboard onto your bag before you head to the backcountry to make sure you know how the strap arrangement functions. Be sure to pull on your pack to make sure your gear isn’t smacking the back of your calves or head.

Compartment Access

Snowsport packs often have back-panel access via a U-shaped zipper that lets you fold back the entire back panel like a clamshell. This method of entry is handy if you’re going to throw your pack down in the snow when you open it up. This way, your shoulder straps and back panel stand a better chance of staying dry and not soaking up water.

This design is also a convenient way to access gear that’s sitting in a certain quadrant of your pack without needing to unload all the goods into the snow or wind.

Some packs have front access through a large U-shaped zipper. Other designs blend the two entries with both a front and back-panel entry, which is super helpful. A handful of designs are top-loaders or have a roll-top closure.

Extra Ski Pack Features

Additional pack details range from a helmet carry system — usually a pouch or pocket that’s removable, stashable, or compressible — to a hydration sleeve for a bladder and an arm sleeve to protect the hose.

Compression sleeves are really nice for hugging a load and making it more streamlined. Load-lift straps are also key for adjusting how the pack sits on your shoulders and back, a fit that changes throughout the day due to adding or pulling out gear from inside the pack. Some packs also have external and internal gear carriers — that are fixed, removable, or adaptable — for ice tools, an ice axe, poles, crampons, or a rope.

Price & Value

Ski packs have a huge price range from $120 to $900, and the investment is worthwhile no matter which end of the spectrum you’re on. Meaning that all of the packs on our list are of excellent quality and well-made. Here’s what you’re paying for on each end of the spectrum.

Budget

As far as price goes, the lowest-tier ski packs are designs that are lower volume with a few simple pockets and streamlined exterior straps or carry options. These designs are great for resort days, short backcountry outings — around a few hours — fast missions, or uphilling workouts. For instance, the CamelBak SnoBlast 22 Hydration Pack ($120) is a solid choice for inbounds adventures when you find yourself in the back bowls, far away from concessions on a pow day. The Black Diamond Cirque 25 Pack ($200) is a straightforward, lean, tenacious mountaineering pack with an avalanche gear sleeve and not much else in the way of pockets.

Mid-Tier

Into the $200 lane, you’ll find more pockets, more padding, and more strategic features like an integrated safety whistle, helmet carry, and radio pocket. This collection includes some of the most comfortable, moderately-sized packs for half to full-day backcountry adventures — plus women’s specific hip belts and frames: the Osprey Kresta 30 & Osprey Kamber 30 ($210) and the Dakine Women’s Poacher 30 L & Dakine Men’s Poacher 32 L ($215). On the upper level of this tier, you’ll find a super strong high-volume pack like the Eddie Bauer Alpine Sisu 50 ($299), but it most likely won’t have avalanche bag integration. Tougher materials like Cordura are more commonly integrated into this mid to high-level price range.

Premium

It’s easy to see a steep hike in price for ski packs that add on avalanche bag integration and a large volume. Adding volume to a pack involves more materials but including avalanche airbag systems really drives the price up. Some of our favorite mega-space and safe packs include the Mammut Pro 45 Removable Airbag 3.0 ($900) and the BCA Float 42 Avalanche Airbag ($750).

Frequently Asked Questions