First steps in ski touring
4.93(51)Engadin, SwitzerlandWinter
Four days learning to ski tour in the Swiss Alps: climbing on skins, reading the snow and skiing untracked slopes.
- Learn skinning, kick turns and avalanche basics
- Your first summits on skis
- Untracked snow far from the lift queues
- A qualified mountain guide for every six guests
About the trip
Ski touring opens up the whole mountain. With skins on your skis you climb under your own steam, then take them off for a long descent through snow nobody else has touched.
You should be a confident red-run skier. We spend the first day learning the kit and avalanche safety, then build up to tours of 800 to 1,000 metres of climbing.
What's included
- Three nights in a mountain hotel
- Half board
- Touring skis, skins and boots
- Avalanche transceiver, shovel and probe
- Marco as your guide
Your guide
Marco Dellantonio
Lead guide, Dolomites and Swiss Alps
Marco is a qualified mountain guide from Val di Fassa who has spent twenty summers between the huts of the Dolomites. He plans every route around the best coffee stop and the best view, usually in that order.
Meet MarcoDay by day
400 m up
Fit skis and safety kit, then practise skinning and transceiver searches near Pontresina.
700 m up
A first tour on gentle slopes with a long run back down.
1,000 m up
A bigger day to a summit with views of the Bernina glaciers.
500 m up
A short morning tour, then lunch and the train home.
