Boondock Puffins

Ski touring can be rather intimidating initially, but once you have your head around the basics and have gone once, it is worth the extra bit of faff to have the slopes to yourselves and have the extra added bonus of some free exercise!

To start with, you need the right kit – obviously touring skis (we started with ones that are very basic… and very heavy!), skins (like mini carpet strips) to put on your skis, and ideally some good layering kit that means you don’t boil on the way up or freeze on the way back down.

We are by no means ski touring experts, in fact we’re still very much babies in the ski touring world, and if anything that should give anyone else confidence to get out there and tour up the mountain. We rarely go off piste when we are ski touring, namely because we still cannot afford two transceivers or the big shovel and stick that are needed to make off piste touring safe, and also because we are not hugely proficient off piste skiers. However, this doesn’t mean that ski touring is boring – the key is to find enjoyable pistes or paths that will guarantee a view that is worthwhile at the top, a flat place to sort your skis at the top (and to pause for a hot chocolate while you admire the view), and ideally isn’t too steep so that you don’t have to master the weird twisty turny way to zigzag your skis initially*

We love to set off in the dark to make the most of the sunrise – here in France (at least in Tignes), there’s no rules against being on the pistes before the lifts open, so we tend to pick routes that we already know at least vaguely and that have the sun on them as early as possible to help us warm up. I know that in other places, such as Austria, have rules against being on the pistes outside of the allotted times so it is always worth checking your local laws. As it is sometimes a while before sunrise at the start of our tour, we are always careful to wear head torches and make ourselves visible for the piste bashers that we sometimes encounter on our route. While I wouldn’t be surprised if the drivers were frustrated with us for ruining their pristine new chords, they generally give a small wave or smile as we pass each other – the key seems to give them an enthusiastic wave first!

I hope that anyone reading this who’s considering ski touring for the first time might feel a little less intimidated and a bit more confident now to go out and start small and slow, knowing that the rewards will be worth it, and that no matter what level of skiing you are, nothing beats that feeling of freshly groomed snow and no one else on the mountain as you zoom down before the rest of the world seems to have even woken up.

*this is a technique to enable you to traverse particularly steep sections of a ski tour but requires a fair amount of practice before it feels less ridiculous!