How to Pull a Toboggan With a Harness

Toboggans are used in ski mountaineering and glacier travel.

Toboggans serve a useful purpose other than sliding down snowy slopes with reckless abandon. Toboggans make useful ski pulks for mountaineering and backcountry winter touring. Any toboggan becomes a pulk simply by means of pulling it over snow; pulk is the more common term in mountaineering circles. Lash gear and supplies to the toboggan to turn it into a modified ski mountaineering pulk. Pull the toboggan with a mountaineering harness for efficiency and proper weight distribution. Using a harness places the weight of the toboggan over the body center and on the hips, thus preventing early fatigue and body injury.

Things You'll Need

• Mountaineering harness with side loops
• Two carabiners
• 7 mm nylon cord
• 4 feet of 1 inch-wide tubular webbing
• Locking carabiner

Instructions

1. Thread the 1-inch nylon tubular webbing through the front rope attachments of the toboggan. Make a V-shaped loop off the front with the webbing. Open the locking carabiner gate (the carabiner is a metal D-clip with gates that open and close). Clip the carabiner into the webbing and close the gate. Turn the locking barrel clockwise until it stops, then turn it counterclockwise one quarter-turn.

2. Tie an 8-foot piece of the nylon cord to each carabiner. Tie the other ends to the locking carabiner. Use double figure-eights for the knots on all of the carabiners.

3. Step into your harness. Step into a harness like a pair of pants, making sure the front has the 'biner loop facing out from the crotch. The loop is a single strand of nylon webbing sewn into the harness. Keep the side loops above the hip, just slightly (approximately 1 or 2 inches).

4. Clip one carabiner to each side loop (a left and right loop). Begin skiing with the toboggan in tow. Be prepared for the added weight pulling back at you. Lean forward at the torso and use your body weight to pull and distribute the weight over the harness.

5. Go uphills by traversing the slopes. Do not go directly or straight up inclines. go at an angle to keep the toboggan from pulling you backward and off your skis.

Tips & Warnings

• If crossing avalanche chutes, be sure to attend an avalanche safety class first. Never travel in avalanche country without a beacon, probe, shovel and the skills to use them.

References

• Out Your Backdoor; Homemade Ski Pulks; March 2008