The Pre-Season Ski Checklist: Sort It in October, Not December

The season starts earlier than you think.

Nordic resorts open from late November. In September that feels far off, which is exactly why the first trip so often ends as a scramble in a dark car park at six in the morning.

The jobs worth doing now are the ones that go wrong when you rush them.

Load the car once, in daylight.

Take a Saturday in October and lay it all out in the garage. Skis, boots, poles, and a week of clothes for everyone who is coming. You find out one of two things: it goes in but nothing else does, or it does not go in at all.

If you are short of space, work out where the extra room comes from now, while you still have time to choose. A cargo box on the tow bar keeps skis and wet kit out of the cabin and leaves the seats for people. Check what fits your car first with the measuring guide. You need the clearance above your tow ball before you order anything.

The boring checks

Winter tyres, washer fluid rated for the cold, and a scraper that stays in the car rather than in the shed. Walk round the car while someone presses the brake pedal and check the lights. You will be driving both ways in the dark.

Order in October, not December

Anything you sort out in October is done before the holidays. Leave it to December and you are queuing behind everyone else who left it to December.

If the space is what you are missing, IXTAbox Pro and Classic both mount on the tow ball. Neither is just useful only in ski week. Life with one is mostly the other fifty weeks of the year.