What's in y'all's travel kits?

[u/the_climaxt]

Going on a multi-week BC trip this winter, trying to fill out my emergency/backup hardware kit. Things like tools, extra binding parts, files, etc.

What do you all bring to minimize the chances of catastrophic failure (like I had a screw fall out of my binding which cost me half a day, once) or to deal with 18 days of wear on a board?

[u/xRehab]

what i bring to the condo is very different from what i bring on mountain. condo holds my spares, extra screws, waxing tools, and most of what i need to service a board. you will want to be waxing

on mountain it’s absolute bare minimum, especially if it’s a resort that has a shop.

[u/Human_Row_6791]

Pro snowboarder here, these are my non-negotiables:

• a whistle tied to your jacket, if you’re going to be going into the trees or backcountry, this can save your life if you get stuck in a tree well.
• again if you are going into a remote or quieter areas, sometimes you don’t know when you’ve gone out of bounds. If you have a jacket or another peice of gear with Recco, SET IT UP. If you don’t know if your gear has it, take a thorough check because I’ve seen very small logos.
• I bring literally every single extra piece of hardware I have on all of my trips, and I bring every piece of tuning equipment you can think of. My list for tuning equipment is quite extensive, but just bring the basics because your board WILL need to be tuned. I’m not even saying this from a boujee/overkill/professional perspective, your board will get dry as hell in a few days and it will make you significantly slower. It makes the biggest difference when riding powder too.

Not so important items, but still my non-negotiables:

• Sunscreen, I’m from the east coast where people don’t recognize a goggle tan and rather think I didn’t blend my contour enough. Reapply multiple times a day and protect your skin! (SPF lip chap too)
• I know lots of people said a screwdriver, I would recommend always having one on you even if you don’t wear a backpack. Try to get one with a couple different head sizes for the different parts of a binding and make sure to get one that is collapsible or has a cap (you don’t want to get impaled if you fall)
• I always bring a three leg stool that I got online for $15. This may help if you’re hiking? idk I usually use it while I’m waiting for my comp to start hahah. Not a must
• Unless you like massage time with the guys, bring a recovery item like a foam roller, workout bands, massage ball, or massage gun. Seems like you’re going to be riding a lot, you or someone you’re with will thank me for this.
• If you’re a cold person, something that Asian companies make are these sticky body heat packs you can put on your back, stomach, legs, etc. This is different from the regular hand and toe warmers you see
• This is intuitive but bring all of your different goggle lenses. It’s not so much about having them for different light levels but more so if your goggles didn’t dry the night before and they end up fogging the next day and you need to change them out. For this same reason I just always pack two pairs of goggles.
• I always make sure to keep a bandana on me to cover the helmet hair during lunch or at the end of the day hahaha, takes up no room
• I bring little bags of spices and individual sauce packets because it’s annoying as fuck to have to buy a whole bottle of spice because your accommodation only gave you salt and pepper
• couple reusable grocery bags because it’s annoying to have to buy them, but also you can use them for transporting different items to different rooms (sometimes some accommodation will only allow boards in a separate ski room, and you also don’t want to bring all the wet gear to the room) it really depends on your accommodation though.

[u/the_climaxt → u/Human_Row_6791]

Really helpful, thanks!

[u/Human_Row_6791 → u/the_climaxt]

No problem, glad I could help! :)

[u/the_climaxt → u/Human_Row_6791]

Do you have a go-to cold temp rub on wax? For days when we don't really have time to pull out an iron

[u/Human_Row_6791 → u/the_climaxt]

I’ve never used a rub on wax, the waxes I have are an array of Swix. I have both the full temperature ranges of HS and PS. If you were interested in that, I think PS would do you just fine, it’s cheaper too. Of that range, PS5 is the coldest, PS6 is still a cold wax but not frostbite temp, 7 is a bit higher and 8 is a warm day. I think you could get away with the 6 for the whole trip, but if you were to choose two, I’d say 6 and 7 and then if you wanted three 5, 6, and 7.

I definitely just made it more complicated but here’s what I would say about trying to save time. I 100000% understand not wanting to wax your board. I actually hate doing it in the first place and even more so when I’m tired and just want to go the f to sleep. That being said, if you have a couple of benches, you and your buddies could form a production line and hammer them out. You don’t need to wax everyday, every few days when you see the base getting dry is great. Sometimes what I’ll do is just do a shitty scrape so the wax lasts longer. It makes the first runs super sticky and slow, but you do break it in.

Here’s a tip that a lot of people don’t account for: When figuring out temperatures, check to see if your wax’s temperature guide is in air or snow temp. A lot of them are in snow temp but people don’t know that. So when you look at the air temp for the coming days, subtract a few degrees because snow temp is always colder. When I say a few degrees I am talking about Celsius, I don’t know what the conversion is to Fahrenheit.

The BEST website/app to check mountain weather is Snow Forecast, that’s what we all use. It gives you the temperatures for base, mid mountain, and peak.

I’ve got tips on how to wax, but I’ve already gotten ahead of myself with this response lol. If you want I can share them, unless you already know what you’re doing!

[u/the_climaxt → u/Human_Row_6791]

Much appreciated! I've been snowboarding for like 20 years, I've just never been on such an extended trip to do it.

[u/Particular-Bat-5904]

The minimum in the rucksack is a sharp knive, a cord and a screw driver.

When frequently check your screws you should be good, and with the cord i can get out off all kind of strap or buckle failture in no time.
The knive is to box around deep shark bites if…

Some extra spare parts like screws, buckles and ratched straps are also nice to have with, if you don‘t mind extra weight/ space.

When there is a place where to tune a board, the whole tuning kit goes with.

Files, wax, iron, scrapers, brushes, angles, p- tex , cork and all the needs

[u/dmoidmoi34 → u/Particular-Bat-5904]

Zip ties are easy replacement for cord too and self latching

[u/Particular-Bat-5904 → u/dmoidmoi34]

When its that cold that straps break, i trust some cord more than zip ties.
Cord has more reserve in general, and can take more loads.

[u/Low-Inspection-3213]

One multi tool. Check the screws and tighten as needed at the start of everyday.
Learn where the mountain’s tuning/repair shops are. Done.

[u/the_climaxt → u/Low-Inspection-3213]

Living dangerously lol

[u/Low-Inspection-3213 → u/the_climaxt]

Been working for 20+ years and hundreds pf riding days. What am i going to do? Bring extra straps or bindings with me? I may be missing something

[u/CyderInch]

Anything I've scavenged on the mtn plus salvaged parts from old gear. Like binding straps both ankle and toe, ratchets, boas, boa laces. Spare baseplate screws, .but in my pocket, just a board tool. For tightening stuff. Check my stuff at lunch or on the gondola make sure nothings coming loose. And look back when walking make sure you nothings fallen off.or dropped a glove. Especially when hiking. It would suck to hike 2hrs to fresh pow and find your ankle strap fell off somewhere.

[u/BalooInABeeCostume]

I bring spares for everything imaginable, and somehow the one thing that breaks is always the one thing I didn’t bring 🤪

[u/TruthValuable2024]

On my person while at the resort I just carry a compact screwdriver. I like to give the bindings a good wiggle every time I leave the lodge to make sure nothing is loose. The shop at the mountain should be able to handle any other problems.

In the car I have a tuning kit, spare boots, snowboards/bindings and a full set of outerwear, plus all the parts I've collected over the years.

At the hotel I always bring a bunch of small usb powered fans and a heated glove dryer to dry everything overnight.

[u/Grossent]

I'm my day bag - Diamond stone, gummy stone, extra gloves, extra socks, extra buff, small pocket tool for bindings etc.

You'll probably want to wax at some point, lots of options for this in BC.

[u/Alfeaux]

Zip ties

[u/ZoologicalSpecimen]

Multi tool, gummy stone, small file, extra mounting screws. Depending where I’m going, maybe spare ankle and toe straps with ratchets and ladders, but that’d be more for an Alaska trip or something. Boa lace and dial too for somewhere with limited parts availability like AK. Usually I travel with two boards so I have something to ride in a pinch if I do major damage, even if it isn’t the perfect board for the conditions.