5 Expert Tips to Make Packing for Your Backcountry Hut Trip Way Easier

There are few responsibilities we wouldn’t totally blow off for a hut trip. Getting fully off the grid at a cabin in the woods, skiing until the sun goes down and making snow cone margaritas might be as close to heaven as you can get.

Once you’re there, a multi-day backcountry hut trip is bliss. But wrangling gear into small spaces and getting organized for a group trip can be daunting, especially if there's a long drive in a cramped car involved. Here are a few tips I’ve picked up along the way that will hopefully keep packing stress to a minimum while you get ready for a refresh in the mountains.

Of course, what you pack largely depends on your destination. Heading on a week-long heli-access trip to the Esplanade Range in BC? Go heavy and cram it all into the approved packing sizes from the operator. On the other hand, if you're walking deep into the woods for 10th Mountain Division hut weekend or into Idaho's Sawtooth mountains, you'll want to pack light, and compress everything into waterproof containers to make sure everything arrives in one piece.

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Use Packing Cubes to Organize Your Stuff

These cubes from Thule make packing for a hut trip like a fun game of Tetris, especially if you have to carry everything into your destination under your own power. When dealing with a ton of gear, getting it sorted into smaller cubes or bags makes hauling your gear a lot simpler. It’s really valuable to be able to reach into your pack and grab out all your food, or all your sleeping stuff without having to dig through everything. If your backpack is a little small, it also allows you to strap more gear to the outside if it’s contained like this.

If you aren’t Type-A enough to purchase packing cubes (reasonable), you can use anything from an extra skin bag, ZipLoc bags, or sleeping bag stuff sacks to keep your gear organized within your pack.

Prep and Organize Your Food Ahead of Time

Depending on how your group has divided up the food, I try to take everything I’m bringing out of whatever packaging it comes in to make it smaller and easier to pack. For instance, if we’re making eggs for breakfast, I like to crack all the eggs into a sealed plastic container to consolidate them and protect them. Even chopping up onions and other vegetables ahead of time can save space, since you end up throwing away stems or extra parts you wouldn’t eat anyway. Likewise with salsa or other dressings—take it out of the glass jar and double-bag it to save weight and space.

If you're heading into a week-long trip via helicopter, consider pre-cooking some of your meals. Pasta sauces, baked goods, and breakfasts are an easy thing to make at home, freeze, and simply thaw and re-heat at the hut. Cooking is fun and all, but skiing all day is way more fun.

Bring Spare Parts For Your Gear

Turns out, things break. And when they break, it tends to be at the most inopportune moments. That's why I always make sure that at least one person in the group brings a comprehensive repair kit in addition to a heavy-duty medical kit. You'll want to be able to fix things like broken boot buckles, repair a busted touring binding, and even do some basic ski maintenance if you clip a rock and blow an edge.

On longer trips where weight is no object, I like to bring spare parts when possible (like a spare binding and way to mount it, or even an entire extra pair of skis), as well as the tools to perform basic surgery on my gear. I've found that the MTN Sense Backcountry Rescue Kit has more or less everything I need to fix my broken stuff. Check out our full review on the kit here.

Bring the Right Pack

This one very much depends on your destination. Some prefer to stuff all their gear into a massive 80-liter backpacking pack and strap a smaller ski day pack to the outside, but I’ve found a good 40-60-liter ski pack (when packed correctly) can get the job done and saves you the extra bulk of carrying two packs.

On the big pack front, we've been a huge fan of Hyperlite's Headwall 55 pack. Designed with heavy input from Cody Townsend, this pack is simple, extremely light, and fits literally everything you might want to carry. Better yet, it compresses enough to double as a reasonable day pack for when you're out skiing. Check out our full review of the pack here.

Bring An E-Reader

There are hut trips where you ski a lot, and there are hut trips where you lounge a lot. If you end up getting hut-bound during a massive storm, you're going to want to bring something to read. Thankfully, we live in modern times, and someone invented the E-Reader for exactly this situation. I never leave home on a ski trip without charging up my Kindle, downloading some literature onto it, and knowing that I'll have something to keep me entertained while the wind batters the hut and my friends are outside shoveling snow.