Crossing a portage can be very difficult work, usually involving heavy lifting. To avoid injury while travelling on the land, it is important to know how to balance a pack and carry a canoe while traversing a portage. In addition to the risk of back or hernia injuries, there is also the danger of falling off the edge of cliffs or rapids, as many portages follow precarious paths. Dogrib elders know of this danger, and stress the importance of properly balancing one's load, sometimes using stories of travellers who fell to their death to illustrate the point.

When crossing portages, members of the group had different responsibilities determined by their age and gender. In the past, women often carried the heaviest loads across portages.

In some cases, canoes were unloaded at the start of a portage, and the women and children would carry the supplies over while the men used poles or ropes to guide the canoes through the rapids. Elderly men would often lead the travel party over the portage, cutting brush to clear a path while the younger men and women carried the canoes and supplies.

If a large freighter canoe was being moved, a long wooden ladder was sometimes used to ease the task. Laid on the ground, canoes or boats could be slid along the ladder. If a portage was especially wet and swampy, wooden poles were cut and placed across the path to make walking easier.