Choosing
the course
It
is essential for you to select the correct
level of skiing course, both
in terms of your safety and enjoyment, so
we have developed the self rating
system below for you to judge your Skiing
Skills and Skiing Stamina levels. As
with most sports, your skills get
a little rusty if not practiced regularly,
and this could not be truer for skiing.
If you are planning on attending a course,
you could consider arriving a day or two
early to get you "ski legs" back,
and for expert tuition and fine tuning why
not hire
a guide? From only £300 per day, split
between up to six people, a day of guiding
would really get you back in the
swing of things before you start your course.
Skiing
Skills
- your technique self assessment
All
of our skiing courses are off piste. As a minimum level
you will be able to ski anything on piste (competant on
blacks / double blacks / black diamond runs), and have
the following off piste skills at present.
Off
Piste Level 1 courses: If you are very new to off
piste skiing, or perhaps have just skied a little
between pistes or on their edges. You should be
confident and competant on all pisted runs, but
the key prerequisite is that you are very keen to
move into the off piste world.
Off
Piste Level 2 courses: For
this level you have skied a little bit off piste
in soft snow. Typically you will have managed to
get down this terrain, but will probably have struggled
a bit if there was a crust. Your key ambition is
to improve and get some really good instruction.
By
this stage you should be fairly confident of safely
coping with
most types of conditions off piste,
but you are still a little bit unsure of steeper
slopes and difficult off piste conditions. Again,
you want to improve your techniques and skiing style.
Typically you will have skied between two weeks
and a season off piste for this level.
Now
you are an experienced off piste skier and are ready
for all kinds of conditions. At this level you will
have all the following to cope with: breakable crust
/ crud, icy sections, very deep powder, spring snow
and of course speed on your course!!! Several weeks
off piste skiing will be the minimum experience
for this level.
For
this top level, you should be put off by no off
piste conditions, and be keen to ski any route that
the Guide judges safe, in a stylish and controlled
fashion. Even at this level
our Guiding team will be able to give you tips and
advice to improve.
Ski
Stamina
- your endurance self assessment
We
cannot emphasise enough the importance of good mountain
fitness and off piste / ski touring stamina. Enjoying
a 'hard day' of pisted skiing compares with about an hour
of steep ski touring!
At
this level, even though this is our least physical
level of course, you still
need a good basic level of fitness, as this will
help you enjoy the course more and prevent any injuries.
If your course is a week long, it will take quite
a bit of effort to keep going.
For
this grade course you will encounter a need to put
in a reasonable amount of physical effort each day.
Each day you will be skiing with a day sack, and
the idea of hiking for up to an hour to get to the
best off piste conditions should not deter you.
Every
one of our ski tour and safaris are this level or
above. You should be able to cope with up to four
hours of ski touring up hill each day. On
most of these
tours, your rucksack will weigh between 10 and 15
kg, to carry kit for staying in mountain huts.
Very
good fitness is required for these levels of courses,
and you should expect up to eight hours a day of
travelling through the mountains. In addition you
should be prepared for several days at this level
back to back, normally staying in huts.
This
is the most demanding level of course, and requires
excellent fitness as you will be skiing tough routes
uphill and off piste with large bags that will be
necessary for you to carry all the technical or
camping equipment. Get into peak shape for this!
What
does all this mean?
It is hard to assess your ski level, as unlike graded
climbs, assessing your ski level is very subjective. Our
course booking form asks people on ski courses to outline
their previous experience in detail, and it asks a series
of questions to help you explain your experience and competance.
We have tried to judge the ski and stamina level of each
course, to give you an idea of who it should appeal too,
but we should point out that the conditions and weather
are highly likely to influence the exact grade of the
courses on each week. We make every effort to ensure that
everyone on a course is of a similar stated level, and
on a week will try to accommodate skiers of slightly different
levels as long as everyone is of the minimum required
stated level. In other words, as long as you are honest
with us about your experience, we can ensure that you
are pushed to your limits on the week. Equally at the
other end of the scale, if you book on a course with far
more than the required level of experience, do not for
example expect that an Off Piste- Level 1 group can be
expected to ski 48° couloirs or that an Intro Ski
Tour group can undertake vertical ascents of 2000m in
a day!
Ski
tour Vallée Blanche
This
video clip, hosted on YouTube, shows a group
of ours on a ski tour across the infamous
Vallée Blanche above Chamonix. To see
other course videos, click
here.
Ski
equipment advice
We
have produced a detailed page which outlines
the types of ski kit you should consider buying
or hiring for use on our off piste and ski
touring courses,
click
here.
Top
course tips
Equipment
- The
key to enjoying ski tours is to travel
light. For hut
to hut tours, you do not require a
rucksack any larger than 40 litres
at a maximum.
Hire
Skis
- You
do not have to go out and buy new
skis or bindings for a course. Consider
hiring them.
