Choosing a ski touring pack sounds simple until you're three hours into a skin track digging for a water flask at the bottom of a bottomless bag. Ski Magazine put 18 packs through a full season of testing with 14 male and female testers across Colorado, Utah, Alaska, the Alps and Scandinavia, and whittled the field down to six winners for 2027.
The overall pick is the Ortovox Venet Tour 30 ($170), a 30-litre pack praised for its triple-zipper main compartment, which lets you grab snacks, water or a camera without taking the pack off. Testers toured with it in Hemavan, Sweden and Helgeland, Norway and called it the most comfortable and versatile Ortovox yet, with a generous hipbelt pocket and a hidden stash for an emergency bivy and med kit.
For bigger objectives, the Raide EX55 ($599) solves a classic problem: hauling enough gear for a hut trip or expedition while still having something that skis well once you've dumped the excess. Its rolltop expands from 55 to 75 litres for the approach, then cinches down tight. A tester on a four-day traverse out of Bishop in California's Eastern Sierra reported booting up couloirs feeling like he was wearing a normal daypack. Probe and shovel deploy without removing the pack — handy for glacier travel — though it lacks an external helmet and skin sleeve.
Women got a dedicated winner too: the Dynafit Women's Radical 30 ($190), with thick back padding and an ergonomic fit that testers said 'disappeared' during big days on Mount Shasta and around Lake Tahoe. It's tight at 30 litres — one tester crammed in avy gear, crampons, an ice axe, a helmet, two gloves, a puffy and even a rescue sled — but if you carry a lot daily, look elsewhere.
Spring ski mountaineering types should eye the Rab Descendor 40 ($200), whose long side zipper swallows a DSLR, skins and food without opening the rolltop, plus smart shoulder-strap pockets that keep a soft flask from bouncing away. The refreshed Black Diamond Cirque 35 ($260) earned the quick-transitions nod thanks to tougher, more water-repellent fabrics and easy side access, tested around Aspen. And if you mostly do lift-served pow laps or short sidecountry missions, the Deuter Freecline 15 ($100) is the compact, low-profile choice.
Why does this matter if you're planning a winter trip? The right pack genuinely changes your day out: faster transitions mean warmer, happier skiing, and better organisation means you actually find your avalanche gear when it counts. Match the volume to your mission — 15 to 30 litres for slackcountry and day tours, 40-plus for mountaineering and multi-day trips — and you'll feel the difference on every climb.
