UKH

So some complete scumbag stole my skis at a French resort today.

What retractable ski locks can people vouch for from personal experience?

I appreciate the cable is generally thin on ski locks so a determined thief could do it but deterrence is good. 

I gather some people recommend splitting your skis with a chum so that in two different places on the racks there are two pairs of non-matching skis. I like this idea but want to be sble to beef it up with a lock.

Thank you for your advice.

I've got one that's just a cable with loops at the end and a small combination padlock - think it's an Eagle Creek one.

As you say, not much, but better than nothing.

I've seen a few snowboard leashes that double as a lock.

Thanks.
I just found this via google. looks good, particularly as the steel cable is 10mm as opposed to 2-3mm of most padlock/cable things. 

https://www.squirelocks.co.uk/shop/straplok-combi-10.html?utm_source=google...

Almost identical to Hiplok Z LOK - check your local bike shop.

It's 10mm wide, not thick, too.

See also https://hiplok.com/product/hiplok-fx/ and a few others

Thank you.

I've got one of those - the combination version - for my bike (more of a "cafe lock" than the full wearable hiplok). Almost certainly tougher than a thin cable, though.

Never thought of using it for my skis before. Something to remember for my next trip, maybe.

(Hiplok seem to have 20% off sales on a fairly regular basis. Worth waiting for if your not in a hurry to get one.)

Thanks, Martin

Like others, I've got these for the bike https://hiplok.com/product/z-lok-twin-pack/ and use them for skis as well. On my touring skis they furtle through the rear binding. Not 100% secure but enough to make scum go to a different pair instead.

Where are skis getting stolen from? Outside a mountain restaurant at lunch?

Not sure hiploks and the like are long enough to lock 2 skis to something solid without a lot of chaining together - locking skis to each other will make zero difference other than the rare occasions of punters with similar skis taking yours.

Skis (and bike frames) also make pretty good levers to break locks, especially when the thief dgaf about potential damage.

I've got this for portable locking of bikes and skis: 

https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/accessorieslocks/safeman-compact-pocket-cable-l...

Regarding the Hiplok FX - sorry, but nah... Had something similar, had to pop into a shop once on the bike, couldn't find anything solid to lock it to so locked the back wheel through the frame. Of course, when I came out of the shop, forgot about the lock and set off... Rear wheel hesitated briefly before the lock exploded into dials, plastic & wire - the spoke that took the brunt didn't even pop. File under rubbish

Yes

My wife got a set stolen from a café rack in tignes a couple of years back. We have a lock and a cable now.

It's not massively robust but should deter any grab and walk thiefs

I was at Tignes in early December, not an especially busy time but several pairs of skis were pinched from the Marmottes restaurant which is accessible only by cable car. One pair had been racked separately and some distance away so the thieves had clearly been watching and targeted this pair of skis. New hire skis seem to be the most popular thing so definitely worse early in the season. I imagine snowboards might be even more popular.

I've never worried as I always have touring skis though I had a pair of Shift bindings on this time which are both desirable and expensive so it did make me wonder if I should make more effort to split them up or secure them. 

Nick: What a bummer. Was it touring skis or piste skis? I'd have thought the market for fenced touring skis was limited but what do I know.

Yep it was a pair of very new hire skis. It was definitely not a case of mistaken identity, top station, cold and snowing, there were about eight people in the café and eight pairs of skis outside, no one came in or out apart from a dude with UIAGM badge and as I walked out he was clipping into his tourers. I know all this as I had a quick coffee and was by the door. I guess their MO is to do it in bad weather when very few people are about as they are all hunkering down in the café.

We've always used one of the cheapy thin cable locks and just chained my skis and other half's snowboard together. 

A pair of wire cutters would snip the cable no bother but always figured that thieves would go for non chained kit first.

Very frustrating - I sympathise as you don't expect this to happen. 

I have one of these:

https://www.alpiniste.fr/abus-combiflex-stopover-antivol-velo/?aid=3085e36b.....

Cheap and simple but is a deterant and slips nicely in the pocket. My thought is if anyone wants to nick some skis they will go for easy pickings first. And if they really want to nick my hired skis, no lock will stop them...

I used to wonder about insurance scams with hire companies.

I only lost my skis once. Turned out some bloke took them by mistake, and brought them back when he realised they weren't his (didn't fit his boots). Fortunately, we had hung around in case that happened...

I know I'm a cynic, but someone stealing new hire skis up the mountain sounds like a total racket! 

Back door sale back to the same/another hire company. Insurance payout. 

Just can't picture people targeting hire skis for onward sale to the open market. 

Must admit that that was my thought too.

I've had many pairs of hire skis in my early skiing days and they were usually well worn by the time I had them. Never got stolen.

When I progressed and bought my own skis - many pairs over the years - I never had any issues. Maybe I was just lucky?

Anecdotally, I used to hear that newer hire skis were more prone to theft. 

There's an appkit equivalent of this for about a tenner IIRC - I use it on my road bike when I stop for coffee and I'm out solo

French ski hire shops are always very keen on pushing their insurance, way more so than other countries... need-driven or something more cynical occurring? Same thing happened to me in Chamonix many moons ago. Can't see what the market would be for presumably marked skis with rental bindings, other than to other (or the same) hire shops. 

Can't help with the locks.

We always split our skis and pair them up with someone else in our group. Especially at busy locations next to lifts where it would be really easy for someone to just carry them down the lift.

If I'm on my own, I'll separate my skis and put them on different racks away from each other. Then any potential thief has to hunt for the matching pair.

Personally use a thin wire cable lock that is purely a deterrent but seems to work so far. Easier to pop it in a pocket and always with you, rather than a sturdier system that you keep in the ruck sack that you don't wear one day.I also thread through the baskets of ski poles as they are at more risk.

A friend did this and one pair got stolen anyway (they had to buy two new pairs instead of one)

Obviously not as practically-minded as the idiot who skied off with a pal of mine's pair of rental skis from the top of the Rothorn a few years back.  I'd met up with said pal, along with the instructor he'd had an afternoon lesson with, for a beer in the restaurant before skiing down.  It was late in the day and we were the last customers to leave, by which time the cablecar and the gondola had stopped running.  No problem...until my pal discovered that his skis were gone.

The instructor spotted a single other pair of skis - rented from the same shop as my pal's as it turned out - still in the rack and, after checking with the restaurant staff that they didn't belong to any of them, he guessed what had happened and advised my pal to use those skis to get back down, and sort it out with the rental shop once safely off the hill.  It turned out that the bindings were set too far apart for my pal's boots but the instructor whipped out a screwdriver and soon got that sorted, and we had a jolly run back down to town.

On arriving back at our accommodation we got a call from the rental shop advising that they had a customer in their shop who thought we might have his skis.  My pal trotted off to the shop with the pair of skis that he'd used to ski down, to be confronted by a very rude and angry man ranting that my pal had "stolen" his skis and he was going to miss his flight home because of that.  My pal explained to the shop folks the situation we had found ourselves in at the top of the Rothorn, and they agreed that the other guy was an idiot who had clearly failed to look hard enough for his skis and simply headed off on another pair, having obviously had to spend time adjusting the bindings since those on my pal's skis wouldn't have fitted his boots.  Time that he might perhaps have put to more productive use by looking a bit harder for his skis.

Despite this, the idiot was still ranting about my pal being a thief and ruining his holiday as the staff ushered him firmly out of the shop.  A less mild-mannered person then my pal is might have felt inclined to give him a short but robust lesson in sensible and polite behaviour with the toe of his ski boot to help him on his way...

The locks listed on the Alpkit web site are all Hiplok models.  They're actually cheaper on the Hiplok web site but with postage it works out the same as buying from an Alpkit store, if you have one nearby.  The locking mechanism on the standard Z-Lok is not very secure: it uses a double-pronged "key" which is the same for every Z-Lok, so a thief can just buy a spare key (£2.50 for two from Hiplok https://hiplok.com/product/z-lok-keys/) and open any Z-Lok they come across.  The Z-Lok Combo is twice the price but at least you can set your own 3-digit combination for the lock.

* The Squire straplok doesn't have a 10mm cable, it's a steel strap the same as the Hiplok Z-Loks (the clue is in the name...)

We had ours stolen from outside Folie Douce in Meribel once, luckily the lift was still running. We’d split them up so obviously they’d seen us and wanted those skis.

always go for the insurance now and just consider it part of the hire cost. Its not just the money but the wasted time going to the police station to get a crime number etc.

Many moons ago I got my snowboard stolen miles away from any lifts in Verbier(had to stand on the back of someone’s ski’s to get back to the lifts off the mountain).  It was an ex-rental board that I’d kicked the crap out of so a possibility that it was rental scam alluded to here. I reckon the bindings were the only bit of value. 
The positive is that it alerted us to the fact that thievery was a thing. If we could then we’d dump our boards and skis on the snow then link them all with multiple cable locks. 

Seems like a good idea to split skis, but actually what can happen (as has happened recently) is that they take the skis and don't realise they are not the same and you end up losing 2 pairs of skis  !    I think this approach works to prevent accidental mistaken skis when someone is in a resort up the mountain.