UKC

Hi everyone,

I’m looking at beginner backcountry skiing courses in Feb. Ideally I’d like to combine this with some winter mountaineering in Scotland. 
 

Can anyone recommend any particular courses? I’ve sent that Glenmore Lodge offer a 2 or 5 day course, just wondered if there’s any other options. 
 

Cheers! 

Try British Backcountry. Not used them but Blair is super enthusiastic.

I've done a 2 day course with Gillian Parker in the past - though she was a very good instructor. 

https://www.offpiste.org.uk/courses-trips/ski-performance-scotland/

Depends what you're trying to do and where you're coming from. 

There are courses to improve your skiiing (steeper, nastier snow) - that would be Alison Thacker/James Thacker and one or two others. Or do it in a continental resort. 

There are courses to give you the basics avalanche avoidance/rescue techniques or to take it a lot further and deeper. Combine that with some route finding and "transition from mountaineering" and that would be Glenmore Lodge and set you up to get going in Scotland. 

There are courses on deeper avalanche understanding, route planning, forecast interpretation, group management. You'd probably want a dose of that if your goal was multi-day peer-to-peer tours beyond Scotland, and it would certainly improve your Scottish experience. 

Snowsport Scotland offer courses or links to folk who can provide. The Eagle Ski Club offer a huge range of training and meets which will let you put all those pieces together. 

I could recommend the Glenmore course 10-15 years ago, I'm sure it's still excellent, I've heard great things about the Alison Thacker training and am off to do that in Chamonix this year, and I've been in the Eagles for over a decade and recommend them. 

Y

It isn't clear to me if you're looking for courses working on ski technique, or if you're more interested in an introduction to touring (e.g., skinning, kick turns etc).

The off piste performance course is great - I've done it several times. You should be aware that it's more about skiing technique than touring. It's a great weekend for tuning your technique and getting confident with skiing off the pistes in variable conditions, but you wouldn't learn about efficient skinning or kick turns or any of that stuff, so it really depends on what you want to work on.

I did an introduction to touring course with Glenmore Lodge, and I had no complaints. The course I did had some technique tuning, similar to what I describe for the off piste performance course above, and also some introduction to the uphill aspects of touring (efficient skinning, kick turns, avalance awareness etc). If you don't have your own kit, Glenmore Lodge's rental kit is pretty good - one of the things that I liked was that I got to try several different sets of skis at different weights and widths, and with different binding options. That gave me much more confidence in what I wanted when I was ready to buy.

I've also heard good things about Blair's courses, but have no direct experience of those.

 

Thanks everyone! I’m going to focus on winter mountaineering this season and then get into ski touring next year when I’ve got my own kit. 

Really appreciate the recommendations! 
 

I would look at ski courses in the Alps rather than Scotland, unless you are able to book something absolutely last minute.  Scotland just isn't reliable enough with snow cover or weather to be confident of getting any skiing done at all.

As others have already mentioned, Off Piste Performance' courses in Chamonix are very good, and I'd also highly recommend the introductory courses with Mountain Tracks.

I would also say that March and early to mid-April are generally better months to ski in Scotland, but sometimes there will be no snow at all!