Ski Touring: What is Ski Touring

Ski Touring

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What is Ski touring? Ski touring is the ultimate mountain experience. You get solitude, untouched powder, beautiful scenery, snowy summits and relaxed evenings by a wood burner eating traditional cuisine.

Some of those things at least are why most people rave about ski touring. There are of course other sides to it, sometimes the snow will have a crust on it that you keep unexpectedly breaking through and probably falling over or the mist blows in and you cant tell which way is down. But that is the beauty of ski touring. It adds a little variety and when you find that perfect slope it makes it all the better.

In simple terms ski touring is walking or skinning up hill using special bindings so that you can then ski down a slope that is not accessible by lifts. It is described as skinning because you put synthetic skins (used to be seal skins) on the bottom of your skis which stop you sliding backwards. The touring bindings allow the heal to lift up while the toe stays fixed so that it is possible to slide the ski forward. When it is time to swoop down the untouched slope you simply peel the skins off and fix the heel down.

Ski touring requires a combination of skills. Firstly, of course, an adequate level of skiing ability is required. You do not however need to be a god/goddess to be able to ski tour. That is not what ski touring is about.

However, you do need to be at the stage where you are comfortably making parallel turns on the piste and have tried some off-piste skiing. The great thing about ski touring is you choose where you want to go, as long as there is snow, you can ski. So, it is quite easy to choose an area and route that is suitable for your level. You can choose big open slopes to cruise down and traverse 20 meters before making another snow plough turn if you want. Ski touring is less about style and technique and more about the overall mountain experience. It allows you to go to places that otherwise in the winter would be totally inaccessible Of course, a little technique goes along way, but off piste technique is quite different to on piste. So don’t be disheartened if initially you find it hard work, it will be! But once you get into it, nothing beats it!