uphill kit for my 5yr old

My 5 year old boy wants to join me for a ski-hike, so here is the recipe I came up with for him:

-Last year's skis and bindings
-Tails from an old straight pair of skis
-2 hinges from the hardware store
-2 elevator bolts with washers, nuts, and "T" knobs from the hardware store
-Old skins from narrow skis

We have a date for Friday morning when he doesn't have school!



Pretty proud of the countersink.


There is some play in the hinge and the post doesn't always line up with the hole in the upper platform, so I think this is going to be a full time lifter.




I can see from the photo now that the hinge point is probably too far forward.  We'll see.  At least it's a free pivot (with a giant range of motion).


The sacrificed skins were long enough that if this works for my 5 year old, I'll still have enough left to make a kit for my 7 year old.

You sir, are an awesome DIY dad.

That's all kinds of rad! Thanks for sharing.

Cool, but looks like a lot of extra effort for the little guy to get uphill...

FYI- Alpine trekkers, XL Fritschi's, Silvrettas, and Naxo's can all be disassembled
and the cross bars cut down to size to fit as small as ~200mm BSL.

that's really cool! Let us know how the on-snow test goes

It works!  My boy figured out the stride almost immediately.  I hadn't considered shortening an old pair of AT bindings.  Thanks Mofro for the idea.  I'll try that for my daughter.  Previous ski-hike outings with my kids have been walk ups for them, with gear on my back.  Today Tag started out with his skis on his feet, but around half way up the bunny hill, we had a sit-down rest and then his skis went on my pack for the rest of the up.  I think for little kids, it makes more sense to carry their gear if the snow is firm.  The binding system seemed to ski just fine.  It took us about an hour to walk up the bunny hill to Midway.  Tag had a blast and is proud of himself for "skinning up to midway".















One thing I'd change if doing it again;  I'd make the hole for the elevator nut big enough so the "lifter" could be either on, or off.  As I have it, the hole is too small to nest with the bolt on each stride (due to play in the hinge), so the "lifters" have to be "on" all the time.  Would be nice to have the option to stride flat.