The group ski trip packing list
By the Agoroam team · Published 20 August 2026
Quick answer
- Hire skis, boots, and poles. Buy or bring your own goggles, gloves, base layers, and helmet if you can.
- Boots are the one item worth spending money on. Badly fitted hire boots ruin more ski holidays than bad snow.
- A group of eight needs exactly one first aid kit, one set of spare goggles, one boot dryer, and one multi-tool, not eight of each.
- Two pairs of ski socks per person is enough. Six pairs of ski socks is a bag full of ski socks.
- The forgotten items are always the same: sun cream, lip balm with SPF, a spare pair of gloves, and a power bank.
Hire or bring: the honest split
Hire: skis, poles, and for most people boots. Modern hire skis are good, hire is cheap relative to airline ski carriage fees, and you do not want to travel with a ski bag.
Bring: helmet, goggles, gloves, base layers, mid layers, socks, and a neck warmer. These are personal-fit items, they pack small, and hire equivalents are either unavailable or unpleasant.
The airline maths is straightforward. Carrying your own skis costs roughly EUR 40 to EUR 80 each way on most carriers, so around EUR 80 to EUR 160 return, against EUR 110 to EUR 200 for a week of hire. Bring your own only if you have boots and skis you genuinely prefer.
The boot argument
If you ski more than one week every two years, buying boots is the single highest-return purchase in skiing. Hire boots are fitted in five minutes by someone with a queue behind them, and a boot that is 2mm wrong will hurt for six days.
If you are hiring, go to the shop the afternoon you arrive rather than at 08:30 on the first morning. Take your own ski socks, wear them to the fitting, and be specific about pain points. A shop with time will fit you properly. A shop with thirty people waiting will not.
The personal list
For a week, per person:
- Helmet, or hire one, do not ski without
- Goggles, plus a low-light lens if you have one
- Gloves or mittens, plus a thin liner pair
- Two or three pairs of ski socks, merino, not cotton
- Two base layer tops and one or two bottoms
- One mid layer fleece and one warmer mid layer
- Ski jacket and salopettes or ski trousers
- Neck warmer or buff
- Sun cream SPF 30 or higher and SPF lip balm
- Sunglasses for lunch and apres
- Small backpack, 15 to 20 litres, for water, snacks, and a layer
- Warm hat, indoor shoes with grip, and one set of decent clothes for going out
What the group should share
A group of eight brings eight of everything and needs one of most things. Agree the shared list on the trip planning surface a fortnight out and assign each item to a named person.
- One first aid kit with blister plasters, painkillers, and antihistamines
- One boot dryer, or accept that boots will be damp
- One multi-tool and a roll of gaffer tape, ski gear breaks
- One spare pair of goggles, someone will lose or break theirs
- Two or three power banks, cold kills phone batteries fast
- One set of card games or similar for the bad weather afternoon
- A shared supermarket list so nobody buys the fourth bag of pasta
The documents and admin list
Insurance certificate with winter sports cover, and check whether it covers off-piste if anyone plans to ski it. European Health Insurance Card or the UK equivalent if applicable, which does not replace insurance but helps.
Lift pass confirmation, ski hire booking, lesson booking, transfer booking. Put all of these in one shared trip itinerary so that when the person who booked the transfer is asleep at 05:00, somebody else can find the pickup time.
A photo of everyone passport page in a shared place. It costs nothing and solves a real problem when a bag goes missing.
What people always forget
Sun cream. Snow reflects ultraviolet and the altitude increases it, and every trip produces at least one person with a burned face on day two. Lip balm with SPF for the same reason.
A second pair of gloves. Gloves get wet, and skiing a whole day in wet gloves at minus 10C is genuinely miserable.
A power bank. Cold drains phone batteries at two or three times the normal rate, and the phone is your lift pass, camera, map, and the way the group regroups.
Indoor shoes with grip. Resort streets are compacted ice and every year somebody falls over walking to dinner, which is a stupid way to end a ski trip.
Frequently asked
Should I hire skis or bring my own?
Hire, unless you own boots and skis you genuinely prefer. Airline ski carriage runs roughly EUR 80 to EUR 160 return, against EUR 110 to EUR 200 for a week of hire, and modern hire skis are good. Boots are the exception, own boots are worth it if you ski more than one week every two years.
How many ski socks do I need for a week?
Two or three pairs of merino ski socks. They dry overnight on a radiator and one pair per day is unnecessary bulk. Cotton socks are the wrong answer at any quantity.
What should a group share rather than everyone bringing one?
One first aid kit, one boot dryer, one multi-tool and gaffer tape, one spare pair of goggles, and two or three power banks. Assign each item to a named person a fortnight before the trip so nobody arrives with four of the same thing.
Do I need a helmet for skiing?
Yes. Helmet use is near-universal in European resorts, mandatory for children in several countries, and hire helmets cost very little. Bring your own if you have one, because fit matters and hire helmets come in a limited size range.
What do people always forget on a ski trip?
Sun cream and SPF lip balm, a second pair of gloves, a power bank, and shoes with grip for walking on icy resort streets. All four are cheap, all four are annoying to buy in a resort shop, and all four cause real problems if missing.
Plan it with your crew.
Free for the first trip. Everyone votes. The AI does the boring half.