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.