Steeps coaching

I have just finished 4 days of steep ski coaching here in the Vanoise for IFMGA Mountain Guide Andy Perkins and his friends Jim & Pete. We struck lucky with 4 days of reasonable weather & visibility, with some variable snow to keep the team on their toes. The guys have all skied some steep terrain in the past including the NE face of Les Courtes, but were looking to build confidence and solid technique & tactics to handle steeper terrain with less stress.

Day 1 in Courchevel saw a cloudy start clearing to give blue skies and lots of fresh snow - perfect to warm the legs and get in to some easy steep ground:

Andy warming up on some lower angle powder:

Checking out the line:

Couloir action:

Jim:

Pete:

Me (thanks to Andy for the photo!!):

On Day 2 we went back up to Courchevel again, with thechnical input for the team which we then took onto some 40º+ ground.

Andy P in action:

Pete:

Opening up the curves below some steeper ground:

Mottaret was the venue of choice for Day 3 with technical input mixed with plenty of opportunity to put the skills into practise as before. Bad light put paid to any decent photos and a thin rain crust from the night before helped to focus the mind on steeper terrain!

On our last day we took the chance to put it all together on a longer descent, and headed for the North face of the Bellecote. Sadly strong winds during the night and morning restricted our choices somewhat, and we had to tone down our objectives but still found an interesting challenge in the Canadian couloir with a tricky mix of snow, particularly on the entry pitches which definitely feel steep & exposed when not in great conditions:

It was interesting to watch a lone skier rock up to the top of Cairn couloir (which we had decided against due to a very wind-loaded looking top cone) and jump in without even pausing to assess conditions - either I am getting old and boring or people are getting very risk-tolerant (is that a polite way of saying stupid??).

Off to Bourg D'Oisans this week for the Off Piste Perfection course - hopefully conditions will allow to make the most of the fantastic skiing down here with Alpe D'Huez, Deux Alpes and of course the one and only La Grave all on the agenda!

Andermatt - continued

A short video showing conditions in Andermatt last week on the Off Piste Improvers course:



Now back in the Vanoise, getting psyched for 4 days of steep coaching for IFMGA Mountain Guide Andy Perkins and 2 of his friends. Had a quick blast in Courchevel yesterday and rediscovered some forgotten couloirs - 400m of 40/45º straight off the lifts...

A is for...

A is for...
... Andermatt

Though it could easily be for Awesome, Amazing or even Powder (OK, I know that doesn't start with an A...).

Last week I was running an Off Piste Improvers course here, my first visit, but certainly not my last!

Poor visibility on the first 2 days did little to slow the team down, and we found great powder every day. The slow lift system at Andermatt is a bonus - like La Grave it limits the number of people skiing the mountain each day, meaning the powder lasts much longer than resorts with 'modern' uplift.

Just off the side of the piste on Gemstock:

The views aren't bad:

Even the sunny side skiing is good - a 'busy' day at Natschen:

Splitting our time between Natschen and the Gemstock we managed to cover a lot of the terrain available, with lots of coaching on the way... Alex, Chas, Julie, Sarah, Ruan and Peter all made great progress through the week and ticked off some of the classics: Felsental, Guspis and Vermigel amongst others.

More deep powder off the Gemstock:

Backside of Gemstock:

Alex going deep:

A big 'thank you' my friend Bjorn Becker who works on ski patrol here and provided some great info on conditions & skiing!

There are still some spaces left on our remaining courses this winter - check out the offpisteskiing.com website for details.

Powder

More fresh snow for the French Alps!

Yesterday I had what may be my last day off for some time, and with 30cm of fresh snow and clear skies it would have been rude not to make a few turns. I haven't skied with Charlie for a few years so it was good to catch up and watch him ripping telemark-styley on his Kingswoods:

Courchevel bling

Courchevel - it's all about Russians, bling, fur coats, and expensive everything... right?

Not necessarily...

Warm up turns:

Time to head up - a gentle 800m uphill:

Into the halls of the mountain kings...:

Breche de Portetta:

First turns.. a few tracks already but still mucho softness:

Taking the skinny variant - still plenty of room to link turns though:

As soon as it widens there is softness aplenty:

Last turns in the couloir:

Time for some speed in the Creux des Dents:

A short skin & some lunch later & its time for the bonus turns:

Greg gets excited at first sight of the secret couloir:

A short ab is needed to access the goods:

And finally... 700m of steep powdery couloir to the valley floor:

Thanks to Greg for his good company, 'unthanks' to the Office du Tourisme in Pralognan who, while confirming the time of the bus back to Bozel, failed to mention that it wasn't leaving from the usual stop...

New Year couloirs

Great day in the Espace Killy today with Leanne & Si; a mix of technical coaching, lots of good terrain & fantastic snow!

Leanne in Table D'Orientation couloir:

Si ripping up PIsteur's couloir:

Loads of space to lay down tracks below Pisteurs:

Saying hello to Mickey's Ears

Leanne drops in:

Good snow all the way down!:

3 days off now & a good weather forecast. I might need a day off skis after 8 days straight of work, but the weekend could be fun!

Merry Christmas!

Its been a busy start to the season here at Offpisteskiing - off piste coaching in Chamonix and Val D'Isere last week with some fantastic early season snow conditions, but also high avalanche risk needing careful and considered management - more on this later.

I am currently enjoying a few days downtime before work kicks off again after Christmas - though sadly rain to a high level put paid to a lot of powdery plans for today...

Here are a couple of videos from Bjarne Sahlen of Endlessflow featuring Andreas Fransson - I had the pleisure of introducing these guys along with Mike Douglas at the Kendal Mountain Festival Snowsports Session this November when they were presenting the film 'Tempting Fear'. These 2 videos are from Andreas and Bjarne's adventures this summer in Patagonia, and feature one of the most exposed steep lines I have ever seen - respect!

Reaching My Limit Episode 1 from Bjarne Salén on Vimeo.

Reaching My Limit Eisode 2 from Bjarne Salén on Vimeo.

But back to avalanches - there have been an awful lot of incidents this winter so far - despite the snowpack being quite clearly unstable on many aspects skiers have been venturing onto steep slopes regardless. It is always easy to look back with hindsight and say "Yes, of course you wouldn't have caught me going in there today" but it does seem like a lot of 'red flag' warning signs are being ignored. There has been a lot of research done on 'Heuristic Traps' - the social factors which can influence our decision making and make us ignore obvious warning signs - I am a firm believer that this plays a huge part in the creation of avalanche incidents and will try to summarise the main points in the next week or so... stay tuned.