Your trip Binding
Your one contact from the day you sign. Books the house, the passes, the transfers and the table for twelve. Answers the group chat so you don't have to.
Ski trips for crews of mates
You've been saying "we should do a ski trip" since the first baby arrived. Men of Snow gets every mate to sign the Binding with their own deposit, locks the trip in, and runs the whole week. One of our Bindings comes with you to guide it.
Named after the group chat for our own trip to New Zealand. The trip happened. We want yours to happen too.
An example group chat. Yours probably looks a lot like it.
For mums and dads
You love your family. You'd also love seven days of doing the thing you were good at before the pram, the party bags and the Saturday sport roster. Getting the leave pass is the hardest part of the trip. Here's how it's done.
Book their weekend first. Hard to argue with someone who's already given you a spa weekend in the Hunter.
Bank credit early. Six straight Saturdays of netball, two school assemblies and a working bee. Then ask.
Pick your moment. After a good dinner. Not while you're both folding washing on a Sunday night.
Lead with the money. "It's already budgeted, and I'm paying it off monthly" beats "it's about four grand".
Say "the crew", never "the boys". One sounds like a committee, the other sounds like a buck's weekend.
Have the childcare already sorted. See the grandparents, below. Never bring the ask and the problem at the same time.
Come home with something good. Not a keyring. Not a snow globe. Something good.
Pick your angle. We'll write the pitch. You send it.
Not legally binding. Unlike the other one.
How it works
A binding keeps your boot on the ski. The Binding keeps your mates on the trip. Everyone commits at the same time, with their own money, so nobody spends six months chasing deposits.
Try it: sign for the stragglers
3 of 6 signed. 2 more to lock it in.
The team
Your Bindings are the people who make the trip happen: one who organises it before you go, and one or two who ski with you all week. They're mountain guides, not ski instructors.
Your one contact from the day you sign. Books the house, the passes, the transfers and the table for twelve. Answers the group chat so you don't have to.
A local guide who skis with your crew every day. Knows which side of the hill got the sun, which lift line to skip, and where lunch is worth stopping for.
For crews who want to go looking. A qualified backcountry guide with the avalanche gear and the training to use it. Added to your trip when the conditions call for it.
Day one
Not at the resort. Not at first chair. It starts the moment you drop your bag and see the crew at the gate.
The kids are with Nanna. The out-of-office is on. It's 5:40am, everyone's wearing their ski jacket because it wouldn't fit in the bag, and someone's already got a round in at a bar that shouldn't be open yet. Seats are together, because we asked. The bags are tagged. Nobody has to do anything for the next seven days except decide how early to get up.
Seven days that start before sunrise.
On the mountain
Some of your mates want first lift every single morning. Some of you have been up three times a night for four years and would like a sleep-in, a sauna and a long lunch. Both are a good week. The day is built so you don't have to choose for each other.
For the ones who set an alarm on holiday.
For the ones catching up on four years of sleep.
First lifters, late risers and the lesson group all back in one spot, telling it bigger than it was.
Back out until last lift, or back to the house. Both are respected.
A table's already booked. Somewhere in there, one photo goes to the family chat: proof of life, proof of snow. On the last night, it's the awards.
Money
Every crew has one person who pays for things and spends the next four months sending polite reminders. Not on this trip.
Everyone pays their own when they sign the Binding. No one fronts the house on their credit card.
Pay it off monthly from the day you sign, so the trip's covered by the time winter comes. Much easier to explain at home than one big hit.
Beers, the hire car, the big dinner, the one who lost a glove. We create a Splitwise group for your crew before you fly, so the on-trip spending sorts itself out and settles in one payment when you're home.
Where we go
One you can do over a long weekend, and three worth the whole leave pass.
Best for: the crew who can get a long weekend but not a week.
Best for: a first trip. Short flight, big nights, home before you're missed.
Best for: powder in the morning, onsen at four, ramen at seven.
Best for: the 40th or 50th everyone clears the calendar for.
An idea we're testing
Right now, getting to Charlotte Pass means five and a half hours in the car, or a charter into Jindabyne airport. Nobody flies a seaplane onto Lake Jindabyne. Take off from Rose Bay after school drop-off, land on the lake, oversnow to the village, ski that afternoon.
Rose BayLake JindabyneCharlotte Pass
Tell us and we'll find out whether it's worth chartering. Your answer goes on the registration form below.
Rituals
A ski binding sprayed gold and bolted to a timber base. On the last night it goes to whoever had the stack of the trip. They keep it for a year, and they have to bring it back.
Engraved plate · example
Last day, there's a shop stop. Nobody comes home empty-handed, and nobody comes home with a keyring.
Your Binding takes the crew shot and it goes to the family chat. Proof of life, proof of snow, and it buys you next year.
Nobody gets left on a run they shouldn't be on. Everybody gets picked up at the bottom.
Your week, printed: photos, plus the stats you'll argue about for years.
Every trip goes on your crew's page. Year one, year two, year ten. The tradition keeps count.
Coming later: The Gathering. One weekend in Queenstown for every Men of Snow crew.
Merch · coming soon
Designs are in progress. Everything below is ski and snowboard kit you'd actually use, with your crew's name on it where it makes sense.
Merino, cuffed, your crew's name across the back.
The two you always lose, in Men of Snow orange.
Vented, big enough for boots, helmet and wet gloves.
For the boarders. Grippy, with the binding mark.
Silicone-backed, crew name repeated across it.
Wax, scraper, edge tool, in a tin that fits the boot bag.
For the ten metres between the boot room and the hot tub.
Insulated, chairlift-sized, engraved with the trip and the year.
Shaped like an old lift ticket wicket. Clips to your jacket.
Only made for winners. Can't be bought.
Founding crews
We're planning the first trips for the NZ winter of 2027, plus Charlotte Pass long weekends. Founding crews get first pick of dates when the first Bindings open.
No. The day splits by ability, and half the crew can sleep in if they want. Beginners get lessons with the local ski school.
No. We plan and run trips, and we guide you on the mountain. You book and hold your own flights and travel insurance, and your accommodation and passes are booked in your crew's name with the people who provide them.
The trip doesn't lock and every deposit goes back. Nobody loses money on a trip that didn't happen.
Their spot is theirs to fill. They pass it to another mate, so the rest of the crew isn't left covering the gap.
Some crews do a mates' trip one year and a family trip the next. Tell us which one you're planning and we'll build it that way.
No. Men of Snow was the name of our group chat. Any crew of mates is welcome.
Now tell the group chat. Copy this and send it:
Men of Snow is not a travel agent. We plan trips, organise the ground arrangements and guide you on the mountain. You book and hold your own flights and travel insurance. Accommodation, lift passes, hire gear and lessons are booked in your crew's name with the businesses that provide them. Our Bindings are mountain guides, not ski or snowboard instructors; lessons are delivered by accredited instructors at the local ski school. Deposits are held against your crew's trip and refunded in full if the crew doesn't reach its minimum number by the deadline on your Binding.