Offpiste Skiing or Snowboarding can be everyone

22nd February 2009

With the latest essential offpiste equipment and with a good guide, off-piste skiing needn't be just for the experts – any adventurous intermediate skier or snowboarder can make the transition from piste to off-piste.

Offpiste Skiing or Snowboarding can be everyone

And once you've experienced the silent, calm beauty of the mountains unspoilt by chairlifts, pylons and people, you can be floating through deep untouched powder - the experience will have you hooked in an instant.

Off-piste means different things to different people

Just as the pistes are graded from green to black, off-piste can vary hugely in difficulty. You can make beautiful turns next to or between marked pistes or hike or go under marked boundaries to access more uncontrolled terrain.

Increasingly the term "backcountry skiing" is being used for any off-piste that is away from the piste.

In Europe genuinely off-piste areas are not checked for avalanche risk, your insurance as standard won't cover you and ski patrols may not be able to help you in an emergency.

Off-piste itineraries

An off-piste itinerary offers a relatively safe backcountry experience, routes that are avalanche-controlled and marked with poles but are neither groomed nor patrolled. Méribel, Les Deux Alpes, Andermatt, Zermatt, Ischgl and St Anton are now offering off-piste itineraries offering extensive "free-skiing areas".

These areas are safer, but for the non-expert off-pister you should hire a a qualified ski instructor or mountain guide. These introductory off-piste courses allow off-piste new comers to begin to enjoy the sheer majesty of untracked powder away from busy pistes.

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