For Christmas I made a bunch of friends pairs of skin sacks. I took nylon taffeta from the fabric store and cut it into 16″x20″ sections. I folded them up into 8″x20″ bags and talked my sister into sewing the edges together leaving a 7″ opening at one end. I had to seal the sewn edge to prevent fraying but they have been durable and light so far. I’ve used them a lot now.

To use them I stick my hand one turning it inside out and grab the tail of my skin. As I start to peel the skin off my board I turn the sack right side out onto the skin so that the last third of the skin is inside the sack. Then I roll the skin over one side and back up the other side so it is stuck to the sack on both sides. The skin ends up rolled into thirds and is easily folded in half again (so it’s in sixths now) and tucked into a pack. To put the skin back on the ski I hook the tip clip while the skin is still in the sack and then just unroll it. It’s something that I learned about from a friend who has done a lot of touring in the alps.

One of the nice things about the bag is that nothing is flapping in the wind. By the time the bag is already covering a third of the skin the front half of the skin and the tip clip are still on the board and keeping tension in the skin. I get the second third stuck to the bag before I pull the tip clip. Putting the skins back on is the reverse and has been flap free. I have not been out in blizzard winds yet but I don’t doubt that they’ll be easier to deal with than cheat sheets.

The only downside is that I’ve sized my bags to work best with thin gloves or without gloves. If you climb in thicker gloves you’ll probably need more than a 7″ opening to get your hand inside the bag.