Ski touring for beginners – how to start right

Can I go ski touring? The requirements

• Skiing ability: you ski confidently parallel on red slopes. Off-piste, the snow is often more difficult than on the piste.
• Fitness: you can manage 2–3 hours uphill at a moderate pace. If you hike in summer, you usually have enough.
• Willingness to learn: avalanche knowledge and using a transceiver, probe and shovel are compulsory, not optional.

What do I need?

Touring skis with skins, touring boots, poles and emergency equipment. You'll find the full list in our Ski touring equipment list. To start with, rental equipment is perfectly fine.

Where do I do my first tour?

1. Uphill routes in the ski area. Many ski areas have marked uphill tracks along the edge of the slopes. Here you learn technique and pacing without avalanche danger. Please follow the ski area's rules and uphill times.
2. Guided beginners' tour. With a mountain guide you learn to set a skin track, do kick turns and assess terrain in real backcountry.
3. Your first own tours. Short, familiar tours when avalanche danger is low, never alone.

The five most common beginner mistakes

1. Starting too fast. if you're sweating in the first half hour, you're going too fast. Walk at a pace where you can still talk.
2. Dressed too warmly. dress so that you feel slightly cool when you set off.
3. Lifting the skis. slide the ski forward when walking – don't lift it. That saves an enormous amount of energy.
4. Raising the climbing bar too early. only use the highest setting on steep ground, otherwise your calves suffer.
5. Only skimming the avalanche bulletin. read it in full and think about the danger spots, not just the danger level.

Why a course is worth it

Ski touring isn't a sport you teach yourself from videos. On a course you'll learn in a few days what takes others years: tour planning, avalanche knowledge, uphill technique and searching for buried victims. In our Ski touring camp for beginners in the Nockberge, mountain guide Paul Pöcher takes you to your first self-planned tour in three days. Transceiver, probe and shovel are included.