RVing with Winter Sports Gear
When you’re a full time RVer, you have to be selective when choosing what to pack into your tiny home-on-wheels. We all know the struggle of picking through cherished belongings, deciding what to take and what to toss, and getting creative with our storage options.
So when traveling on the road, does sports gear earn a piece of valuable real estate in our RVs? Well, it depends!
For winter sports in particular, like skiing and snowboarding, the gear is known to be bulky, awkward, and heavy.
On one hand, there is something about hitting the slopes with the boots and skis or snowboard(s) that fit you perfectly, without having to wait in line for a rental. Every moment in fresh powder counts, and the larger your skiing or snowboarding group is, the longer the rental process will take.
On the other hand, storing gear year-round for seasonal fun isn’t exactly space-efficient. Not everyone is willing to store gear that they’ll only use for a quarter of the year. Then there’s the issue of packing it all up into your car and dragging it from the car to the lift once it’s time to play in the snow.
Xscapers seem to be all across the board when it comes to bringing their gear – those with bigger rigs and a greater love for snow sports tend to find plenty of space to bring theirs along, while those with smaller rigs are happy to rent when fun in the snow is nearby. However, you might be surprised that even those traveling in tiny rigs will still sacrifice their limited space to cart their gear around with them!
Where to Store Your Gear
So, where do you store such bulky gear in a small rig, after all? In my last RV, which was a 27-foot Class C, it fit either in the pass-through storage bay or up along the side of my bunk. In my current RV, a 24-footer, I don’t have a pass-through storage bay anymore – so the board fits along the front length of the bunk, the boots are in my largest storage bay, and the winter layers take up a full cabinet.
Of course, I alone am not a very big sample size. So, I spoke to some Xscaper friends to see where they store their gear as well.
Cass Beach, another solo Xscaper, travels in an Airstream Basecamp and stores her winter gear in multiple places. Her skis and poles go in the roof rack on her 4Runner, the boots are in one of her dinette benches, and the layers of winter clothing go in her trunk.
Kevin Ridley, who travels with his family, has a large fifth wheel and has carried his winter gear every year since he began RVing. He says he’s a bit spoiled with his truck, where his skis, poles, and boots live, but every family member has a full winter outfit with boots as well. Those winter outfits go under their bed, in vacuum bags to save space during seasons like summer when they won’t get any use.
Store & Carry Your Winter Gear, Or Rent It?
Funnily enough, I’ve only been snowboarding once while on the road for the last 4 years, so for all of that mileage the gear I’m carrying hasn’t seen much use. When I first began carrying it, I convinced myself I’d go stay a month or so at a slope somewhere – but as we know, road-life is flexible and that just hasn’t happened since the warmth of the desert calls me each winter.
However, this year I bought a Canadian RV with features like dual pane windows and extra insulation, so I definitely plan to get more snowboarding fun in on the slopes. In fact, the nearby ski passes should be opening up in about 3 weeks, and since I’m still in Colorado this late in the season, I’m hoping to make up plenty for lost snowboarding time!
At the end of the day, what you choose to bring is a very personal decision – if you only take advantage of winter weather and sports every so often, renting might be a better choice! But if you’re a die-hard snow junkie who wants as much time on the slopes as possible (even if those times are rare), you can definitely find the space if you try. For me, even the one time I have used my gear made it worth it to carry all of this time.
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Author
Hannah Martin SKP# 141112
Hannah is a digital marketer originally from Washington state, but left her “normal” marketing job in Los Angeles to pursue working for herself and ended up hitting the road. Now she has been RVing full-time since 2016 with her faithful canine sidekick Trixi. She has traveled all throughout the west, and is currently working on a nomadic dating app at NomadsOnlyApp.com with her business partner and fellow Xscaper Jason Iles. You can find out more about what she’s up to at thecurlynomad.com.
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I’ve taken a hybrid approach. With my class B rig, space is at a premium. I’ve chosen to take my ski boots since they can be notoriously difficult to find a good fit as a rental. However, I don’t carry my skis figuring that they are much easier to find something suitable to rent.