MountainPlan Ski Mountaineering courses start on the 1st of December and run through to the 1st of April.
Ski mountaineering is a growing sport with many seeking un-tracked snow away from the pisted slopes and crowded lifts. We offer a range of ski courses that range from intro courses through to more advanced gully skiing. The Highlands are an ideal place to get to grips with the technicalities and skills required for ski mountaineering both here and in the Alps. We cover a range of skills which include skinning, technique coaching for both uphill and downhill skiing, avalanche awareness, navigation, winter mountaineering skills and for those preparing for the Alps crevasse rescue.
This is ideal for those who are new to the sport and would like to have a go to see whether they would like to take it further. We shall look in depth into skinning uphill, winter mountaineering skills, navigation and avalanche awareness. We shall run the course near one of the ski areas and do short tours from there covering things as we go. Course costs are £170 per day for one then £20 per head after that to a maximum of 6 clients.
This course would be ideal for those who have some experience of ski mountaineering, perhaps using this as a course to get ready for an Alpine tour. You should be comfortable skiing off piste on different snow types. We shall look at the above and aim to refresh or improve existing skills. We shall look further into skinning on steeper ground and the use of ski crampons. We will also look into ski technique for descending steeper ground. Also we shall look at skiing roped together and also into crevasse rescue.
This course is designed for competent skiers. You should be happy skiing black runs and steep off piste lines. We aim to coach you on the skinning and also some winter mountaineering skills. We will look at technique and aim to guide you on some of the fantastic gully lines that the highlands have to offer. We will try to ski lines that are classed as grade 1 climbing gullys. We shall use gullys like, Number 4 on Ben Nevis, The Goat track or Aladdins Couloir in the Northern Cairngorms or Broad Gully in Glen Coe. This course is conditions dependent as the gullys require good snow to ski so we recommend that this is booked closer to the time you wish to come. This course will be run by the director Dan Goodwin. Course cost is £190 for one person and £20 per head on top of that; maximum is 2 clients to Dan.
