The Best Ways to Dry Ski Gear Fast, According to Real Skiers

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There comes a time during any ski season when the snow just keeps piling up and you just can’t get enough of it. The deep days and epic runs just keep coming, and your gear (and your body) starts to take a serious beating. Those repetitive 4am wake-ups to score first tracks leave little time to adequately dry out your boots, socks, jacket, gloves, or helmet–and there’s really nothing worse than sliding your destroyed toes into a pair of wet, stinky boot liners before you’ve had a chance to eat breakfast. Day ruiner, anyone?

Fret not, there are plenty of ways to keep everything dry–it just takes a little extra work after a long day of riding. However, your gear (and tomorrow you) will thank you for the bonus effort you put in today. 

Wipe down your skis at the end of the day.

The easiest way to avoid rusty metal edges (which can lead them to get duller faster) is to wipe down your skis at the end of the day. Use a small dish towel or rag and just wipe any snow or moisture off the bases, topsheets, and around the bindings. If you’re driving home with skis on a roofrack, I’d recommend waiting until your home to do this–that will give you a chance to remove any road grime or salt that has accumulated along the way. 

Remove your boot liners and footbeds after skiing.

This one is especially necessary if you’re skiing multiple days in a row. Pop your boot liners out of your shells and pull out the footbeds–even if you’re planning on storing the boots on a dryer or wall rack overnight. That gives everything plenty of room to have air circulate to help dry and fend off nasty odors. 

Hang your jacket and pants up–but keep them away from too much heat!

It’s easy to just throw your outerwear in a pile at the end of the day, but do yourself a favor and hang everything up on separate hangers to allow your jacket and pants or bibs to dry properly. If you roll up your pant cuffs to walk around, unroll them first. One thing to note is to keep these somewhat sensitive fabrics away from too much heat, like a fireplace or space heater–you don’t want to accidentally melt anything overnight.

Don’t wipe the inside of your goggles, let them air dry!

If you’re out on the hill on a particularly wet day, it might be tempting to run into the bathroom and wipe down the inside of your goggles. Don’t do it! That runs the risk of destroying the delicate anti-fog treatment that keeps your lenses dry and fog-free in the first place. Just take them off and give them a few minutes to air dry. If the face foam is also soaked, use a paper towel to gently absorb water out of it. 

Always bring a second buff or facemask.

On pow days, I always carry a second buff or facemask in my jacket or pack to swap out once my first one gets soaked. I’m a bit of a mouthbreather when I’m skiing, so condensation quickly builds up and freezes around my face. Quickly swapping out a second buff gives me the chance to keep skiing without having to go inside and spend precious pow day minutes drying my gear.

Unfold and hang up your skins by the tip loops.

I find that ski touring puts even stricter demands on your gear than most resort days. If I’m going out for a day in the backcountry, the first thing I do when I get home is take my skins out of my pack, pull them apart, and hang them by the tip loops. That lets them dry out fully, keeping the glue more intact (and lasting longer), and allowing the plush to dry out and retain its grip. I generally don’t use the plastic mesh “skin savers” that come with skins, as I find them finicky and annoying–hanging them up to dry does the trick just fine.

Unpack your backcountry pack to dry everything out.

Once I have my skins hung up, the other thing I’ll do right away is unzip my bag and pull out any wet layers or other items like goggles or gloves I might have stuffed in there after the final lap of the day. If I pulled out my avalanche shovel for whatever reason (like digging a snow pit to investigate stability) I’ll also pull that out to let everything fully dry.

Wash your Gore-Tex and other technical fabrics!

This one isn’t an everyday thing, but it’s super important to wash your technical outerwear at least once a season (more frequently if you ski more than 20 days a year). Gore-Tex and other technical waterproof/breathable fabrics are made of porous membranes that allow water vapor to escape without letting liquid or frozen water in from the outside. That membrane will get clogged pretty quickly, greatly reducing its ability to both breathe and prevent outside moisture from entering. Here’s our full how-to guide on how to wash your Gore-Tex–it’s really no harder than doing your regular laundry.

Invest in an at-home drying system (or build your own).

Finally, investing in an at-home drying system is worth its weight in gold. There are many different ways to approach this, from built-in dryers to small portable units.

The baller option is installing a pro-level drying system in your mudroom or garage like a Gear Dryer Wall Mount or a unit from Williams. These are expensive and might require professional installation in your home, but will keep your gear dry and fuss-free all winter long (especially if you have kids or need room for lots of gear). If you’re handy at DIY stuff, it’s even possible to build something like this from PVC pipe and a hair dryer.

A second more budget-friendly option is using a smaller wall-mount unit like the Hedgehog Wall Dryer–which I’ve been using in my garage for the past season to dry boots and gloves. This doesn’t quite have the capacity of a larger unit like the Gear Dryer, but dries your gear just as fast. 

Finally, using a small portable electric boot dryer like one from Therm-ic allows you to keep your boots wherever you want and dry them. There’s also the added benefit of being able to bring this along when traveling.