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Off-Piste Skiing - Don't Just Ski, Have An Adventure!
B.I.S.C.C. off-piste skiing courses
are designed for intermediate skiers. The world of off-piste or backcountry skiing
is not the exclusive domain of top-class expert skiers.
You can go into the mountain world, and you can grow in
the mountain world. And you can do it far more safely than
you probably think.
We use world-class mountain guides who
know their terrain like the back of their hands, so objective
risks are kept to an absolute minimum. Like all our training,
we move on in small increments, building strengths on strengths
as you progressively become more skilful.
Off-Piste Techniques
The skiing techniques you use off-piste
are built on the techniques you use on-piste. Oftentimes
the snow conditions are such that they are scarcely any
different. However, there is more variability in snow conditions
because the ground is not artificially prepared for you.
This means you need to have a bigger "tool
kit" of techniques with you, so you can cope with whatever
is round the corner.
This is why our basic off-piste courses
start on-piste. On-piste is the best and safest place on
which to begin to develop your understandings of variable
snow techniques, and prepare yourself for you big new adventures.
On our courses you will typically spend
the first half, developing your abilities, and the second
half putting them to use.The actual off-piste terrain we
choose is always decided after our guide has watched the
group skiing on-piste, so that we can take you on runs we
know you will have sufficient technical ability to cope
with, and enjoy yourself.
Off-Piste Techniques Are Sometimes Different
When you're skiing in the real mountains
away from the crowds, you will constantly come across snow
conditions you don't find on the pisted runs. You'll come
across -
- Powder - some light, some heavy: some deep some shallow
- Crust - some hard, some crumbly: some wind-hardened,
some breakable
- Crud - heavy, cut-up "porridgy" stuff.
- Thin snow, with rocks protruding
- Ice - (though usually very little and normally avoidable)
- And of course, the ubiquitous moguls where other skiers
have been there first.
For each of these conditions there is
a technical solution, a way of coping with them. Those techniques
are perfectly learnable with practice, and following this
path is a fabulous experience which will completely transform
skiing for you, for ever.
The first half of the week will be on-piste;
the second half will be off-piste.
Prices for training will be the same as
for our other courses. However, other costs are incurred
such as -
- Mountain guide costs
- Sometimes extra lift pass costs, or other necessary
access-system costs (helicopters etc).
- You may need to take out slightly more expensive insurance.
Dare You Do It?
Of course there are more risks than on-piste,
but compared to the numbers of folk now skiing off-piste,
there are very few mishaps indeed worldwide. They get a
lot of publicity, but like all these things, the newspapers
never do articles about all the times things go right.
You will be in expert hands. You will
be provided with all the necessary safety equipment, and
most important of all, you won't be allowed to go until
you are ready, and only on terrain you will have the techniques
to cope with.
Dare you do it? Of course you dare - and
it's a marvellous experience. Makes you feel good!
Other than these, the details of our
on-piste courses apply in the main. Don't hesitate to phone,
fax or email for any further information you want.
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