UKH

I skiied and snowbladed a bit when I was in school but haven't touched the things since. 25 now, fit, good on my feet and wondering how long it takes to learn to ski steep stuff?

I have a pair of skis set up for touring (I realise this is probably not ideal) and a pair of touring boots, after how much skiing do people start looking at things like the goat track in sneachda/the broader, easier Ben gullies?

R

In reply to Roberttaylor:

What can you ski now, steepness wise, how much off-piste have you done? Something like No. 4 on the Ben is pretty easy (cornice dependant for the full descent but you can always stop before the top) so if you're half decent and happy in variable conditions I'd climb up something like No. 4 until it feels like it's getting too steep, build a platform, strap the skis on and ski down. Repeat, starting from higher up until you're happy bucking a backflip of the cornice and straight lining it to the bottom.

In reply to Roberttaylor:

What makes you think touring skis aren't ideal for backcountry skiing? Skis you can tour on would be my first choice, I'm guessing its not a super lightweight race/skimo set up you have? You could go with a non tour binding but then you'd have to carry them everywhere when you could be skinning.

To give you an idea of what I'm on; I have a pair of scott surf air's 168cm, with dynafit tlt speed's mounted on them and I use a pair of scarpa maestrale's.

If you can get the miles then I think you should be able to tick off some of the steeps in a season. Depends how comfortable you are already with steep ground really and how much off piste you've done?
If you only ski well groomed snow and blues then it'll take a bit of work but if you're already heading off piste for more interesting descents then the transtionion probably won't feel like too big a step.

I got into skiing from a climbing background and went straight for touring skis as my interest lies with touring and ski mountaineering. Pretty confident on steep ground on foot in ascent and descent but found blue runs quite scary with skis on intially, worked on it throughout the season and by about two thirds of the way through I was happy to hit up grade 1 gullies and faces etc. Admittedly I got a few more days in than most people do, 76 days on ski's and 26 winter routes last season.

Skiing the numbered gullies on the Ben was my 5th season ambition but I got 3 of them in my first.

If you haven't already bought Kenny Biggin's guidebooks I'd highly recomend going out and grabbing a copy of each, they're full of routes from easy tours to fairly nails descents.
If you start working through the book you'll get an idea for what grade you can comfortabley ski and what to progress on to next.

My advice would be to find a mate that does it already or get someone who's keen to learn and go out there and start working up gradually. Know the score with avalanches, carry the right rescue kit and know how to use it!

If you want a list of suggested descents to start on once you've got back in to the swing of things give me a shout and I'll give you a quick list.

Hope this helps
Cameron