Ski Equipment Hire
We stock a range of hire equipment for ski courses. These items can be ordered online during the booking process, or contact us asap before your trip.
Technical Touring Kit Hire
- Avalanche transceiver £8 daily hire or £40 weekly hire
- Shovel and probe set £4/day or £20/week
- Avalanche safety package (all items above) £12/day or £60/week
- Harness with sling and karabiner £4/day or £20/week
- Ice axe £4/day or £20/week
- Crampons £4/day or £20/week
- Full ski safety package (all the above items) £20/day or £100/week
- 30L ski touring backpack £4/day or £20/week
Ski and Boot Hire
Ski and boot hire is available at local ski shops in most areas. Please contact one of our recommended hire shops at your course base and order them well in advance – let them know your objectives plus your ski level, and they will advise on the best setup for your needs. On a number of our trips to more out-of-the-way locations, no local hire is available – therefore, any ski rental equipment should be taken from home: see your trip PDF fact sheet for more info.
Expect to pay approx. 200 – 250 Euros per week to hire touring skis/bindings/skins/harscheisen/poles, or 250 – 300 Euros a week also including boots.
Ski and Boot Hire Specifics
Skis, bindings, skins, ski crampons (harscheisen) and ski poles usually come supplied together as a package, and boots can be added if you don’t have your own.
Ski crampons provide security whilst skinning on hard icy snow, which is often encountered early in the morning on spring tours, but they can be useful (or essential) at any time in the season. They attach to the ski binding via a simple hinge and sit in between the boot and the ski, so they swing clear of the snow when you slide the ski forwards, but grip the snow when your foot/the ski is planted. Ski crampons are designed to fit specifically to certain brands/models of binding, and also to match the width of the ski – therefore there are many different possible permutations. For this reason, ski crampons cannot usually be hired on their own, only as part of a ski/binding rental package. Therefore, if you are using your own skis and don’t already have ski crampons, you will need to purchase some in advance – they are required for all of our ski touring trips.
Skins are shaped specifically to fit the model/shape/size of the ski, and therefore it’s also difficult to hire these on their own.
Bindings will either be a modern pin binding, designed to clamp the holes on either side of the ski boot toe, or a heavier alpine type step in binding with a touring mode. If you are using your own boot but hiring skis, make sure the hire shop knows your foot size and boot model as there are some nuances/variables that can affect compatibility. If you are hiring boots as well as skis from the same shop, they should be compatible by default.
For more info on ski – boot – binding setups, please visit our advice article here.