This year's ski and snowboard season needs early preparation if you want to reach the slopes quickly and easily. The first thing you will think about is the equipment you will use.

Whether you love skiing or are a keen snowboarder, your equipment needs to be in top condition. Get your skis and snowboards ready, but also think about how you will carry them from home to the mountains. You need an efficient way to get your skis and boards to the slopes in perfect condition. So how will you carry them?

There are plenty of "solutions", in quotation marks, where skis or snowboards travel inside the car with you and your passengers. This is very risky for you and everyone in the car, and for other road users too. Why do we say this?

Because the risk of injury with equipment inside the car is quite high. In any impact or sudden braking, ski equipment turns into dangerous projectiles that can injure you or the people travelling with you.

So what is the right and efficient way to carry your ski or snowboard equipment?

In our view, the most efficient and safest way to carry skis and snowboards is a ski or snowboard rack.

These car accessories mount directly on your car and fall into several categories depending on how they attach to the vehicle. Ski & snowboard racks can be:

- ski & snowboard racks for roof bars

- magnetic ski & snowboard racks

- towbar ski & snowboard racks

- spare-wheel ski & snowboard racks

What are the main differences between these racks? First, the type of fitting, and second, how much they can carry.

Which ski & snowboard rack should I choose?

The right rack for you always depends on how many pairs of skis or snowboards you want to carry. The type of rack also matters. You might go for a magnetic rack because it is simpler to fit, or you might already have roof bars on your car.

Ski & snowboard racks for roof bars

This type of ski & snowboard rack attaches directly to the car's roof bars, so of course you need roof bars fitted to use one. These racks generally use one of two fittings: T-bolts that slide directly into the T-slot of the roof bars, or U-bolts that wrap around the outside of the bars and hold the rack in place.

Either way, a rack for roof bars is quick and fairly easy to fit. Menabo ski & snowboard racks are available with both types of fitting.

Before you choose a ski & snowboard rack for roof bars, check that your bars have a T-slot for T-bolts, or that their size allows the U-bolts to wrap around them.

Magnetic ski & snowboard racks

Magnetic ski & snowboard racks are probably the easiest to fit, because they need very few steps to attach to your car. They hold onto the car roof with special magnets and stay in place for the whole journey to the slopes and back. Every magnetic ski rack has a simple mechanism for releasing it from the roof.

Fitting a magnetic rack is very simple: you place it directly on the car roof, with no need for special keys or Allen keys.

Magnetic racks are designed and tested to stay attached to the car roof, so you do not need to worry about them coming loose while you drive. Menabo magnetic ski & snowboard racks are tested to European road-safety standards.

If you decide on a rack like this, remember that a magnetic ski & snowboard rack cannot be fitted to:

- cars with a panoramic roof

- cars with a sliding sunroof

- cars with a ribbed roof

Even if the sunroof is at the front of the roof, you cannot fit a magnetic rack on the rear part of the roof only.

Towbar ski & snowboard racks

Towbar ski & snowboard racks attach to the car's towbar either directly, with the rack's LOCK system, or with a key and bolt. These racks generally carry a large number of skis or snowboards.

To use one, you need a towbar on your car and a working 13-pin electrical socket. The Menabo towbar ski & snowboard rack comes with brake lights and indicators approved for road use.

Fitting a towbar ski & snowboard rack simply means placing it on the towbar and securing it. In principle, it should not take more than a few minutes.

How do I choose the right ski & snowboard rack?

Choosing the right ski & snowboard rack depends only on your needs, in particular on how many pairs of skis or snowboards you want to carry. For more advice on which rack is right for you, get in touch with the SuportBicicleta.ro team.