 Poster: A snowHead
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I'm trying to figure the difference between all the off piste courses UCPA has. There's an intro to off piste, off piste advanced and ski free rando at multiple locations. Argentiere has an intro to off piste and ski touring. Has anyone been on any of those trips? What are the differences between trips? How much time is spent going uphill vs down? Are you given touring skis/boots for skinning? Are any of these trips better for finding powder?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I’ve done off piste at Chamonix and Argentiere. We did lift served offpiste with maybe a short boot pack. They have all of the gear for touring. That said we did a tour when we were in Serre Chevalier and you really did need ski crampons, they didn’t have any for my skis but did for my husband.
Probably worth chatting to the guys at Action Outdoors about the difference in courses.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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I did advanced off-piste at Val Tho last spring: we did one quite significant bootpack all week, up Pyramides, for a really good descent (having had to do a decent amount of poling to get out of the Vallée des Avals earlier that day). Otherwise pretty much all on skis except on the two avvy drills (on the Monday and Wednesday afternoons). We were given off-piste skis with downhill bindings. I didn’t get the impression that the Ski Rando group found much more untracked stuff than we did. Report here if you’re interested.
For what it’s worth, that week at least the Ski Rando group was entirely Francophone, the Off-Piste Advanced group taught/guided in English.
Last edited by Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see? on Tue 26-09-23 11:58; edited 1 time in total
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Intro to off piste - kinda what it says. Good standard of piste skier but little or no off piste experience. Lift accessed, occasional bootpacking.
Advanced off piste - kinda what it says. Good standard of off piste skiing with lots of experience. Lift accessed, occasional bootpacking.
Ski free rando - similar to advance off piste but with more focus on touring.
There are also variations at different times of year / different resorts including an intro to ski touring (off piste experience required but no experience of touring needed).
All the info is on the UCPA website and if you look at each course it tells you what experience you need and level you should be skiing at.
With regards to "better at finding powder" - that's luck of the draw and will be more dependent on conditions on the day. Lift access will cover more ground and have more time downhill but will only be the easy to access stuff so will get tracked out more quickly. But if there's plenty of fresh snow you will probably get a few runs before it's tracked. Rando / touring will be more skinning and uphill so less time downhill but better chance of untracked conditions away from the lifts if there's no fresh on the day.
However, it's worth noting the groups can be quite large so chance of untracked even within the group can be small (but that's why the courses are such good value and not €450 a day for a guide).
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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How big are their groups typically? (i've been looking at them for this season but this could be a deal breaker)
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| vandarle wrote: |
| How big are their groups typically? (i've been looking at them for this season but this could be a deal breaker) |
I think the max is ten; we were 7 in April.
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@american202, I have done loads of different UCPA off-piste/freeride weeks across plenty of resorts. I have undertaken a couple of Freerando weeks in VDI and VT. The guide might suggest you do some Freerando/touring on an off-piste week anyway. Les Arcs is one of my favourites as you can boot pack or skin-up the north face of Foglietta in St Foy and the Couloir en S is pretty epic and then you have the north face of Bellecote in La Plagne. It is the luck of the draw with the weather, group and the guide you get. I have had some epic powder weeks and epic spring skiing too - enjoy! You have loads of great options to choose from.
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@american202, I have done loads of different UCPA off-piste/freeride weeks across plenty of resorts. I have undertaken a couple of Freerando weeks in VDI and VT. The guide might suggest you do some Freerando/touring on an off-piste week anyway. Les Arcs is one of my favourites as you can boot pack or skin-up the north face of Foglietta in St Foy and the Couloir en S is pretty epic and then you have the north face of Bellecote in La Plagne. It is the luck of the draw with the weather, group and the guide you get. I have had some epic powder weeks and epic spring skiing too - enjoy! You have loads of great options to choose from.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Just signed up for an 'Intro to Off-Piste and Ski Touring' course with UCPA in Jan.
Does anyone know if standard piste ski clothing (pants, jacket) is enough? Or do you recommend buying/renting specialized backcountry ski clothes.
Any suggestions and tips greatly appreciated.
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@bartoon, if you are going to be ski touring and boot packing then vented trousers and lightweight jacket will make things more comfortable. If it is the spring then lightweight salopettes/pants will be handy but it depends on conditions the individual and how they sweat or feel the cold. A simple quality goretex shell and layering for your top, I find it useful having both lined ski pants and touring pants and I take both on my trips and wear what best suits the day and activities. Loads of suitable gear out there, I do not think you need specialist backcountry gear per se.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| bartoon wrote: |
Just signed up for an 'Intro to Off-Piste and Ski Touring' course with UCPA in Jan.
Does anyone know if standard piste ski clothing (pants, jacket) is enough? Or do you recommend buying/renting specialized backcountry ski clothes.
Any suggestions and tips greatly appreciated. |
I have done 3 'intro to off-piste' courses with UCPA (2 x to Val Thorens and 1 x to Tignes). Had a great time on each trip. Definitely a great way to get into off-piste skiing with limited/no prior off-piste experience. They really push the skiing safety/avalanche risk aspects on the 'intro' courses and you will do a few avalanche rescue drills over the week.
The standard is a bit pot-luck depending on who has booked that week. On one of my groups I the 'intro group' ended up being a much better standard than the 'advanced' group.
Group sizes are fairly big, maximum size is 10 (although on one of my trips my 'intro' group was only 5 even though the 'advanced/expert' groups both had 10).
The instructors for the off-piste courses seem to be a bit more experienced than some of the other UCPA instructors (all the ones I have had had done at least 6-7 seasons with UCPA).
Where you ski will depend on:
1. The weather/snow conditions over the week and preceding weeks (If there has been no snow for 3 weeks you may go further afield to try to find good snow. If it is whiteout conditions all week you will be more restricted with where the group can go safely).
2. The overall standard of the group (they have to accommodate the least confident skiers, but if the group is confident the instructor may push things with a bit more trekking/traversing to access a particular run towards the end of the week).
For the 'intro' course we did a bit of bootpacking on a few days to access certain runs or to find better snow when the conditions were bad. But nothing too extreme, even for the less fit members of the group. The 'advanced' and 'expert' groups did more and from earlier on in the week
You don't need to bring any specialist clothing/equipment unless you want to bring it.
Not sure about the ski touring course but as the name suggests it will likely involve more physical exertion between the downhill parts. You get hot and sweaty pretty quickly when walking uphill with skis, especially in the Spring if it is warm. So breathable outerlayers with vents and lots of layers that you can easily put on or take off depending on the temperatures/wind are your friend.
If you are using the UCPA equipment I think they provide ski touring boots/skis for the touring courses.
The website says that you need to take your own backpack and batteries for transceivers but on every trip that I have done they have provided a backpack with the shovel/probe in it and fully charged tranceivers.
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FAQ
