Touring Skills
Day ski-tours to compliment your off-piste skiing holiday
If touring is completely new to you, take the first step of spending a day or two focusing on touring skills and it should open your eyes to the potential it will have in enhancing your off-piste skiing experiences.
Ski touring in the Aiguilles Rouges, Chamonix
Getting used to the phaff of sorting out touring kitDon’t worry about doing massive sections of uphill skinning! The idea will be to go on ski journeys and about using the touring equipment to allow you to see the best the mountain has to offer away from the lifts, and do as much skiing as uphill work.
Having several changeovers from uphill mode to downhill mode helps you get used to the equipment; putting on/taking off the skins, adjusting boots and bindings all take a bit of practice to get an efficient system that works for you.
Hopefully, soon you may realise how pleasant uphill skinning really is! Gliding forward with each stride and not sinking in, distance is gained more simply and fluidly than if you were to be walking in snow.
Following a track that is at just the right gradient to make uphill progress, height is gained with much less effort too. Kick-turns, the more abrupt change in direction uphill, may take a bit of getting used to…but they will become an essential element in accessing those back-country slopes.
The other thing to get used to will be the downhill performance and feel of the skis with their touring bindings, and carrying a rucksack with a small amount of weight in it will feel unusual too!