Snow/avalanche training in Vars (Hautes-Alpes)

Description

Everything you wanted to know about ski safety but were afraid to ask!

Do you want to become autonomous in your ski touring practice, increase your off-piste safety, understand what's going on under your skis and make the right decisions? Then this is the day for you.

I'm proposing a day in the field in Vars in the Hautes-Alpes, entirely devoted to the particularities of snow, avalanches and how they work. But also how to use the avalanche beacon-shovel-probe kit, how to manage safety when ski touring and off-piste skiing, and how to manage an avalanche rescue...

Program

• Meet at 8am in front of the tourist office in Vars (Hautes-Alpes).
  • Coffee and croissants at the bar, presentation of the day's activities, followed by a theory session on snow and avalanches.
  • Organization of the day.
  • Review of equipment, different avalanche beacons and their particularities, backpacks, setting up avalanche beacons and different ways of checking them.
• Around 9.30am, departure on skis from the Vars ski lifts. We'll take the lifts to ski between workshops and learn about downhill safety.
  • In the field, the day will be punctuated by a lot of skiing and role-playing workshops. Sometimes we'll be static, sometimes very dynamic, and we'll vary the pleasures all day long:
  • Managing the group's safety on ascents and descents: tackling a slope with or without a rope, organizing the group, how to ski the slope, regrouping, managing the schedule...
  • Snow-cutting and interpretation: understanding the transformation of snow, detecting fragile layers, the influence of weather conditions...
  • Recognize objective dangers.
  • Interpreting snow and weather reports.
  • Tools for preparing your outing.
  • Renato's special formwork.
  • Shovelling competition.
  • Probing workshop.
  • Avalanche beacon workshop and single or multi-victim search.
  • The different airbags and how they work.

The program is not exhaustive, but the days are short! The day ends as we began it, with a debriefing over a drink. Handover of a booklet summarizing the points covered during the day. Separation around 6pm.

The price includes

• Supervision by the mountain guide, who is also a ski patroller and a specialist in ski touring and off-piste skiing.
• The guide's lift pass.
• Loan of walkie-talkie.
• Loan of shovel and probe kit if required.

The price does not include

• Transport to Vars resort in the Hautes-Alpes, about one hour and 20 minutes drive from Gap.
• Lift pass.
• Ski equipment.
• Avalanche beacon-shovel-probe kit.
• Personal expenses.
• Picnic lunch.
• Anything not mentioned in "The price includes".

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