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Skiing, 'Winter Freedom', French Alps, Jan 2010, ID 908

Oxford and Southampton UAS

It soon became very apparent to all of us that the off-piste techniques were extremely different to those required when on-piste, despite the excellent conditions. Each day we tried to improve both our skiing and touring skills. For the majority of us, ski touring required a new skill set and the PTI’s gave instruction regarding the basics of ski touring. As a group we all freed our heels, applied our skins and practiced the different balance and coordination that was required to ski up hill.

The PTI’s pointed out the key factors of how to ski as safely as possible in avalanche conditions. We entered an avalanche park with our avalanche transceivers, shovels and probes to experience what it would be like to have to find someone with an avalanche transceiver and then dig them out. The avalanche park gave us all a shock at the levels of team work and effort required to get an avalanche victim out of the snow. Having been told that someone stuck in an avalanche for more than 15 minutes had little chance of survival, we set ourselves the goal to find the avalanche transceiver buried under the snow before 15 minutes were up. We were all exhausted after frantically digging 2 meters into the snow, and finally finding the transceiver after 14 minutes! We then packed up our shovels and probes knowing all too well their potential to save our lives if an avalanche was to occur.

All the ski tours allowed us to get some practice in navigation and focused our attention on how to look at mountain characteristics and features that could help pin point our position on a map. The tours also consisted of a steep ascent to further develop our ski touring techniques. The PTI’s instructed us on how to conduct kick turns, ascend varying gradients and to select uphill routes appropriate to landscape features.

One popular tour took us down the Vallon du Clou which consisted of a 600 meter off-piste ski followed by a 9km tour on skins, through beautiful wilderness.

Visibilities on certain days were far from ideal and the snow conditions were variable. Some areas were extremely crusty and other areas were icy. However all the tours were demanding and utterly enjoyable.

After each days training the evening was spent organising the cooking and cleaning rota among the students. Each night a brief to outline the next day’s possible ski touring routes was conducted as well as a review of the days training.

All expedition members would like to thank the Ulysses Trust: without their financial support the expedition would not have been viable.

23 Officer Cadets gained their Ski Tour Proficiency award on the Expedition.

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