La Grave Backcountry Ski Week

5 days Inter-Adv 5:1 Dates: 16 - 20 Jan '12   23 - 27 Jan '12 Price: £575 Ski Ability: 3-4 Fitness: 2-3 Experience: A good level of off piste skiing experience is required. Some touring experience is useful. Included: Guiding Fees and Expenses. Other Costs: Accommodation, food, travel and uplift ~ £450 Book Online Here

This is a real backcountry ski week. Using uplift and ski touring kit, we ski the best runs in La Grave, as well as making frequent visits to nearby resorts in order to catch the best possible snow.

Skinning and boot tracking to access untracked terrain are a regular feature of these weeks - ie we do far more than just off piste skiing using the lifts.

We base ourselves at the legendary off piste mecca of La Grave in the southern French Alps. It is an unspoilt, traditional mountain village and about as far removed as you can get from a big resort. The skiing however, is second to none.

Subject to weather and snow conditions, we follow the general format below:

We run all of our ski tours on a guiding & instruction only basis. Food and accommodation must be paid for seperately. Our recommended hotel in La Grave is the friendly and comfortable Hotel Edelweiss** run by British/Dutch couple, Robin and Marlon - who we will happily put you in touch with if you'd like to reserve a room (or the hotel can help arrange a twin room with a fellow course member if you like). You are however free to make other accomodation arrangements if you choose (La Grave also has a number of other hotels, gites and rental appartments available at reasonable prices - see the La Grave website for more details).

Full travel details are provided with your joining instructions.  La Grave is most easily reached by a low cost flight to Grenoble, then via bus to La Grave. If you choose to hire a car, then driving times to La Grave are about 1.5hrs from Grenoble, 2.5hrs from Lyon, Chambery or Turin and up to 4hrs from Geneva.

You need to be a strong off piste skier (ski ability levels 3-4) able to ski confidently and in control of slopes of up to 35-40dg. Although some ski touring experience is handy, good skiers can pick these skills up with extra coaching at the start of the week.  Off piste skiing requires good levels of fitness and stamina (see fitness level 2-3) - if we go skinning you can also expect to be climbing for 1-2 hours some days to get the best runs, so you need to have good levels of cardiovascular fitness too.

We will supply you with a full kit list. You are responsible for bringing personal clothing, a rucsac and ski mountaineering skis, boots and kit (local hire is available). We are delighted to be working on this tour with Backcountry UK, who provide excellent service and advice as a leading retailer of ski mountaineering equipment in the UK.