An intensive 3 day early season ski touring skills weekend, for learning new techniques and brushing up on avalanche safety training. This is an ideal ski touring training course, or makes good preparation for joining a week long ski touring trip later in the season **free safety equipment rental is included with this course**

Trip Info

On the ski touring skills weekend we cover all the skills required to join a guided ski touring trip. Techniques covered include skinning skills, uphill kick turns, transceiver training and avalanche safety and avoidance. Tips and coaching to improve your off piste skiing also form an important part of the weekend. We tailor each course to your future plans and ambitions, so glacier travel and using ice axe and crampons may also be included if appropriate. Teaching and training sessions are always incorporated into ‘real’ days out ski touring, so that you get to do as much skiing as possible over the weekend.

Trip reports >> Ski Touring Skills Long Weekend

Suitability

This is an introductory level trip. To take part you should be at Fitness Level 2 and Tech Level 2 (this is equivalent to Ski Club of GB Silver/Purple off piste ski standard – see our Fitness/Experience guidelines). You need to be a regular off-piste skier, but no previous ski touring experience is necessary.

Guiding ratio

One IFMGA guide skiing with 6 clients.

Included in price

• 3 days of guiding/instruction
• All guides expenses
• Local travel during course (free local/public ski bus inside the Chamonix valley)
• 4 nights accommodation in the Chamonix valley, including breakfast and evening meal
• **Safety equipment hire: avalanche transceiver, shovel, probe, ice axe, crampons, harness and backpack

**Please select any equipment you require during the booking process

Excluded from price

• Uplift
• Lunches
• Any taxis or transport for trips outside the Chamonix valley
• Flights and transfers
• Insurance
• Ski and boot hire

Hotels

Our base for the week is the Chaumiere Mountain Lodge, in Chamonix. The hotel is well set up for touring, with a comfortable bar, good local food and quick access to the local skiing. Hotel rooms are provided on a twin (or occasionally triple) sharing basis, but if you wish to book a single room please let us know and we will confirm availability.  Hotel details can be found on our Accommodation page.

ABTOT Protected

This trip is protected by ABTOT – Alpine Guides Ltd, Membership Number 5394.  For further information, please visit our Financial Protection page.

Subject to weather and snow conditions, the plan is as follows. Please note that this is a sample itinerary only – on trips like this, itineraries are always subject to change as the current snow, weather and avalanche conditions need to be taken into account. This is an essential part of safety planning for all backcountry skiing, so please be ready for changes as part of your trip.

Saturday

You should arrange outward travel to arrive at your accommodation by Saturday evening in time for the evening meal at around 7.30pm.

Sunday

AM Morning Briefing. Your guide will run through kit checks and safety routines, as well as hand out any rental equipment, before going on to discuss the current weather and mountain conditions and how these affect our plans.

On day one, we start with some warm up runs and an introduction to ski touring kit, before practicing skinning skills, kick turns and doing some avalanche transceiver training, then we set off on a lift assisted day tour.

Skinning Skills

Knowing how to skin uphill is pretty fundamental to all types of backcountry skiing away from resorts. Once you’ve got the basics of how to put skins on and off and how the ski touring bindings swap over from uphill to downhill mode, then it’s time to head off and practice some skinning.

The technique is to slide your skis along the snow in smooth strides – ie don’t lift them up off the ground with each step – it’s more of a ‘shuffle’ than a ‘walk’.

As the terrain gets steeper, eventually uphill kick turns are needed to change direction. These are difficult to master, but it’s important to practice them until you become proficient, as they are your ticket to travelling through the high mountains. In icy conditions, harscheisen (ski crampons) may also be needed for extra grip.

There are different spacing protocols for travelling on terrain such as glaciers and steeper slopes, in order to reduce the loading on the slope – so it’s important you know how and when to spread out within a group.

We’ll choose a tour appropriate to the level of the group, so that nobody struggles and everyone has the time to learn new skills and ask questions etc en route. You’ll need to bring a packed lunch, as we’ll be out in the backcountry all day, enjoying the skiing and scenery.

Monday and Tuesday

2 further days of ski touring, incorporating training and instruction in ski touring skills and avalanche safety. Areas covered include:

Avalanche Avoidance

Avalanches are the number one cause of serious accidents to backcountry skiers, so it’s essential that you know how to plan a safe day in the light of the current avalanche forecast, as well as make observations and ski defensively on the ground.

This is an area that we discuss constantly throughout the course, both at a planning level and during each day out – on the way up and on the way down.

Danger signs to look out for, how to select a safe route, skin up safely and then back down again in a way that minimises risk are all covered, as well as emergency procedures and avalanche rescue.

Having all the skills and knowledge is one thing, but being aware of how group dynamics, peer pressures and other psychological factors cause people to make poor decisions in avalanche terrain is equally important, so we teach strategies to avoid these heuristic traps and improve your decision making.

Avalanche Rescue

If you are involved in or witness an avalanche incident, you only have 15 minutes to locate and dig out any buried victims, in order for them to stand a realistic chance of survival.

This is no easy task, so training and practice in how to carry out a coordinated avalanche rescue is vital for you to stand any chance of success.

There’s a lot more to it than simply doing a transceiver search:

Knowing how to protect the rescuers, coordinate a group search, divide up jobs, do a final pin point search, probe for the victim and finally, undertake a coordinated conveyer belt dig out are all essential skills needed to cut the rescue time down to 15 minutes.

Glacier Skiing

Glacier skiing is a wonderful experience, but one that brings it’s own hazards. In order to travel safely across a glacier on skis, you need to know how to move correctly as a group and find a safe line through crevasses.

Carrying the right kit is equally important, so we’ll show you what you need to carry on your harness and in your rucsac, including how to set up a ‘cowstail’ to make recue from a crevasse easier.

It’s important to know how to conduct a safe descent, including the need for extra caution and control on glaciated terrain. In poor visibility or heavily crevassed terrain, you may even need to ski roped up – this is something you definitely need to practice before trying it for real.

Tours are planned to involve as wide a variety of terrain as possible, including glaciers and using ice axe and crampons if appropriate. Tips and coaching to improve your off piste skiing also form part of the course.

Tuesday PM

Course debrief and advice for the future.

Wednesday

Morning departure.

Your course starts and finishes in the Chamonix valley, at our base in Chamonix – La Chaumiere Mountain Lodge. The most common way to reach Chamonix is fly to Geneva, then take a shared minibus taxi transfer to the Chamonix valley (must be booked in advance).

Flights and transfers

• Fly to Geneva with numerous budget airlines, for an overview of the best options check out the excellent Sky Scanner website.
• Airport transfer from Geneva to Chamonix: Mountain Drop-offs offer the best all round service, with regular reliable transfers through the season. They offer a shared minibus taxi service which meets you in the airport and drops you off at the door of your hotel. Book your transfer here and use promo code ALPGUID to receive a discount on your journey.
• Alternatively hire a car at Geneva airport (1.2 hrs drive to Cham).

For flights and other travel options, including train, coach and driving, visit our Travel Planning page.

To enjoy this trip you should be comfortable operating at Fitness Level 2, and Ski Tech Level 2:

Fitness Level 2
You do 2-3 hours cv training/sport per week. At this level you should be happy doing either a 3-4 hr hillwalk, cycling 30-40 miles or mountain biking 2-3 hours without being exhausted. On foot: you should be able to walk from Ogwen Cottage in North Wales up Glyder Fach – Glyder Fawr – Y Garn – Ogwen in ~5hrs. Or in the Lake District Langdale – Bowfell – Esk Pike – Angle Tarn – Langdale in ~ 6hrs. On skis: you are capable of off piste skiing all day or doing a couple of hours skinning with out finishing up exhausted – ie you can do this for a number of days without taking a rest day.

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Tech Level 2
Improving Off Piste Skier. You enjoy black runs and the kind of tracked out off piste terrain found around many big resorts, but you haven’t skied too much in properly deep snow without a base to it yet. *Equivalent to Ski Club of GB Off Piste Level: Silver – Intermediate*
Likely to say: ‘I’d like to ski well in powder/link lots of short radius turns/go ski touring’
Our Advice: An Off Piste Skiing Course is highly recommended. If you’d like to try ski touring, then do either an intro ski touring course or an intro level ski tour.

To view all of our Ski Fitness Levels and Off Piste Technical Levels, please visit our Ski Ability page.

If you need to top up your fitness for this trip, please see our Ski Touring Training Advice page.

Off Piste Ski Ability Levels

To join this trip, you need to be skiing at Tech Level 2 or higher on our 5 point scale. Use the descriptions above and the following video to help work out your current off piste ski ability level.

Ski Training Course Equipment List

Just remember, every extra kilo on your back knocks 10% off your enjoyment on the descents – so try and keep the weight down!

Technical Clothing

• Waterproof Jacket – preferably lightweight and breathable
• Overtrousers/ski pants – preferably with side zips
• Fleece mid layer or equivalent
• Spare fleece or lightweight insulated duvet jacket
• Socks – specialist ski socks or a warm loop lined pair of mountain socks
• Wicking thermal top – not cotton please…
• Thermal leggings or ski pants
• Thin inner gloves
• Warm ski gloves or mittens, if you suffer from cold hands
• Warm hat

Personal Items

• Water container – at least 1 litre
• Personal medications and blister kit – regular meds, zinc oxide tape, compeed and painkillers etc
• Ski goggles
• Sun glasses – CE rated 3 or 4 with side protection
• Sun and lip cream – factor 30+
• Wallet, passport and insurance docs

Technical Equipment

• Rucsac 25/35l – try and avoid ones covered in too many features, just ski and ice axe attachments required
• Freeride boots or ski mountaineering boots – check detailed factsheet kit list for preferred boots
• Skis with touring bindings – if you are joining a teaching course and your ski level is still developing (ie you are currently at level 1 or 2), then we require you to hire skis mounted with hybrid freeride bindings (eg Salomon Shift binding), rather than lightweight touring pin bindings.
• Ski strap – to keep skis together on your rucksack if we need to carry them
• Ski poles – with good size 5cm+ baskets (telescopic poles are not needed)
• Climbing skins – they come with the skis if you hire your kit
• Harscheisen (ski crampons) – they come with the skis if you hire your kit
• Metal snow shovel – must be a full metal shovel (plastic blades don’t work in real avalanche debris!)
• Avalanche probe
• Avalanche transceiver – must be a modern digital model (older analogue models are now obsolete)
• Harness, with 120cm sling and locking karabiner
• Crampons – bring them if you have them
• Ice Axe – bring if you have one
• Ski Helmet – lightweight ski touring or backcountry model preferred.  Wearing a helmet is compulsory on descents and may be needed on other parts of the route depending on conditions

Your guide will have all other safety kit, first aid and survival equipment.

Recommendations and Advice
Visit the Knowledge Base section of our website, where we publish an annual review of the years best new skis, boots and touring equipment, plus a range of other interesting tips and recommendations. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, please get in touch!

Purchasing Equipment
Backcountry UK in Otley offer an excellent ski touring boot fitting service, one of the best ranges of ski mountaineering equipment in the UK and top notch advice.

Hiring Equipment
Please visit our Equipment Hire page for recommended hire shops in your resort, and Alpine Guides hire equipment price list.

For this trip you must have specialist travel insurance providing medical, emergency search/rescue and repatriation cover for off piste skiing and ski touring, as outlined in the trip itinerary. We also strongly recommend that you purchase cancellation cover, in case you’re unable to attend your trip due to personal circumstances or injury. Please arrange your insurance as soon as your trip is confirmed to run.

Further details can be found on our insurance info page.