Perfect Conditions On The Vallee Blanche

If you are looking to ski Chamonix's world famous Vallee Blanche, with the recent snowfall, this is the month to do it. Tuesday and Wednesday the forecast is for more snow, and possibly Thursday as well so assuming that is the last of the snow, the weekend looks set for one hell of a day of powder!

Off Piste Verbier

If you are looking for a great off piste run to start you off, but don't want to fork out just yet on all the off-piste equipment, Verbier might just be the resort for you. Situated in the Verbier 4 Valleys ski area, it was one of the first resorts to introduce the off-pste itinerary runs (marked with a yellow and black line).

Whilst purists might say this is hardly off-piste, we would retort that we all have to start somewhere! Yes  it isn't necessarily away from the masses and the solitude that some expert, but it does give you a taster in terms of skiing great scenery, and un-pisted ski terrain, knowing that it is relatively safe if you are competent skier and stick to the marked route.

One of my favourite such routes is in Verbier to ski is Tortin, entered ideally from the Mont Fort side, the run has spectacular scenery and some challenging, if not too difficult elements to it. Prior to the 'itinerary' status, it was a black, but by black standards its difficulty would be moderate to average, rather than extreme as was the case on the Mont Fort black (which is now unmarked and they have made the red Mont Fort run the black piste).

So why not have a go, its a great introduction to life as an off-piste skier, despite what the grumpy purists might say!

Off Piste Ski Equipment

Talking to some skiers yesterday who are about to ski the Vallee Blanche here in Chamonix, it was interesting to note that many holiday skiers are unaware of the importance of having the right equipment when off-piste skiing. In any resort this is important, but heightened if you are skiing Chamonix where the back country is vast, and whilst it can be awesome, it has its risks and hence why good equipment is necessary. Whilst I won't cover glacier or extreme off-piste equipment (we will later and reference some great videos produced by local guides for this), I thought I would cover the basics.

I guess the first things if you are going off-piste is don't go alone, second make sure you know the terrain you are skiing is appropriate for the weakest members skiing, thirdly that at least one of the group has good knowledge of snow conditions and avalanche risk, and fourthly that each of the party are carrying:

• Transceiver (switched on of course)
• Probe
• Shovel

Radios evenly distributed amongst the group are also advisable as our phones. The radios are important however as in many isolated backcountry spots you might struggle to get a signal. Coming back to the equipment, it isn't enough to take the transceiver with you, you need to know how to use it! The modern directional transciever's are great inventions, but you should still know how to use it so practice, it is surprising how much longer during such trials with novices how sticking a transceiver six foot up a tree (to simulate a deep burial reading) wastes search time  as they can't get to grips with why they can't get closer than 2 or 3 metres close to the body! After practising the transceiver search, we would also suggest skiers practice together the probe search, ensuring your ski group know how to search and probe systematically, might sound obvious, but would it be in a real life situation?

Enjoy your first experience off-piste.