Offpiste advice for noobies

offshore wrote:What about skiing on a piste that has lots of fresh pow on it, surely this is just as dangerous as going off piste?

One of the reasons off-piste will always be more dangerous is that there are not likely to be many people in the vicinity that can raise the alarm and alert the rescuers. You are pretty much on your own. In some places you won't even get a reception and you don't need to be too far away from resort for this to happen. Can be as close as the back side of the main resort runs with ridge or top of the mountain blocking the signal. On a pow day pistes that are considered dangerous will be closed.

This was just above Tignes Le Lac, in sight of our hotel and several of our group. A little gully which was skied out, hundreds of people must have been down there. But sunny warm weather, it went as my mate skied in, he was left standing on bare earth as a couple of feet of snow slid away. I was lower down, but still up on the ridge as the slide went past. That's as close as I want to get. If I had gone first I'd have entered below the weak point.

Interesting all this.
But we've gone from someone asking for advice straight into talking about avalanches.
Whilst I'm fully aware of this being a risk, I was actually trying to ask whether having ventured off piste a number of times before is as risky as some make it out to be. And no ones answered the question about ski routes or itinerary runs.
And for some reason we have got some responses about skiing in powder on piste; this is something ANYONE can do after a dump of snow and whilst its fun and helps teach you technique, its totally not the point.

I'm aware of local avalanche risks, the flag system, and pretty much in tune with the local weather wherever I ski, and aware how different conditions can affect snow.

I've never been the guy who made the first tracks. Off piste, anyway, maybe on piste ;-)
But I'd love to. I've only ever skied where I've seen other tracks. Zurs was a great example; a group of us took a chair over a large open area which had some tracks in it after 36 hours of persistent snow, and we all sad it looked amazing. However, at first attempt some of the group changed their mind so we skied down the piste and back up the chair. This time, everyone looked at it and decided it was well within their abilities and we had an amazing half hour. However, I'm sure on reflection there were risks which we maybe never considered properly. One of those who came got a proper telling off from their other half, who was unable to join us sadly.

I have to say it was great fun and as difficult as it may have seemed to some, everyone coped very well and were buzzing at the bottom.

But should we all have had shovels and transceivers?
I really don't honestly know the answer to that, and certainly none off the other skiers we saw on that area did.

So, can anyone actually shed any definitive light on what's what?
As ally says; do we REALLY need all the kit to ski a few metres between the pistes?????

I have gone off piste with no shovels and safety equipment, but I've always had someone with me! And before i've gone, i always made sure I've checked the area as well as i can! Skiing off piste between pistes thats a tough one, im sure people will say you need all the shovels transceicers, But i do it all the time! I guess, get as much local knowledge as possible

Maybe its because I'm a girl, maybe its because I'm usually the group organiser but I have never gone off piste without
a, local guide that has come recommended.
b, transceiver/shovel/probe.
c, a quick check of the transceivers to check they are working. I have changed my mind about going last minute at this point before now when it became obvious that other parties had never seen one before let alone had a practise.
Of course I've ended up accidently off piste when visibility has been poor (Sweden, sudden blizzard went between poles, ended up on a roadside no harm done but hairy at the time) and have been between pistes as part of a lesson.
I can see how people get carried along with the herd mentality though, I got some stick for my last minute change of heart. The group all came back having had a great time. I don't regret backing out though, I'd have been worried all day and made them all miserable.

Tony, security on ski routes and Itineraries varies from country to country. As a current example, the Verbier Avalanche happened in a ski route area. Not sure if those caught up were on the route or simply near it. Some countries patrol their Itineraries, some don't. Some are properly secured.

There is no "just off piste" status, you are either on or off. If you choose off, then it's down to you to deal with the conditions on the day. If you choose to venture off piste with no equipment or training, it's up to you.
As each ski year passes, you are likely to go a little further off the piste. Consider how far you'd like to be away from everything before it's worthwhile for you to buy the safety kit.

This little series of videos make a lot of sense...Avalanche Avoiding Kung Fu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqWNYiuZS28

Tony_H wrote:
So, can anyone actually shed any definitive light on what's what?
As ally says; do we REALLY need all the kit to ski a few metres between the pistes?????

That's just the point, there is no definitive answer. Every slope is different, and will change depending on weather conditions.
A lot of the skiing between the pistes will be low risk (rarely completely risk free), I'm happy to make a judgement call on whether I'm happy to ski it without my kit, but I'm aware also that there is a risk however small.
It's a judgement call that needs to be made at the time, not by proxy on an Internet forum.

bandit wrote:
As each ski year passes, you are likely to go a little further off the piste. Consider how far you'd like to be away from everything before it's worthwhile for you to buy the safety kit.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqWNYiuZS28

I think you may have just nailed it.
Anything I've ever done has always been under a chairlift, close to a piste, or in clear visibility.
My own judgement wouldn't take me off piste in bad weather at all.
I'm not hankering for touring between resorts.
Yet,