UCPA Ski Off Piste Half-Time Instruction
Course Description
Half-Time Instruction includes 12 hours over 5 days from Monday to Friday. Equipment hire and liftpass are valid from Sunday morning onwards for a warm up day. This is a UCPA course and the price shown also includes UCPA accommodation for 7 nights and all meals every day (breakfast, lunch and evening meal).
The skills are focused on two areas:
Personal Skill & Technique – very different techniques are required to ski off piste, where conditions may be deep powder snow, hard crust , neve, transformed spring snow or soft slush. Obviously we all search for the powder but it’s important to master all conditions.
You will learn all about balance and weight distribution, how to initiate turns under different conditions working towards the goal of leaving perfect tracks on a virgin snowfield.
Mountain Skills – this is all about being safe on the mountains. How to read snow conditions, assess avalanche risks, how to navigate, make sense of the weather forecasts and what they mean to skiers. You’ll spend time practicing with transceivers, to ensure that if the worst happens you have the skills to deal with it.
For many people the best thing about these courses is the local knowledge of the instructor. He or she knows the ski area intimately and will always be able to find the best conditions. Often by making a short walk from the top of a ski lift you can find fresh powder days after the last snow fall – this really takes local knowledge.
All equipment is provided - Skis & Boots – mostly Rossignol as they are a partner of UCPA. Half of the skis are replaced each year meaning that the equipment is all up to date and in good order. You will also be given a transceiver (ARVA), shovel & probe for the week. Personal clothing is not provided. You will be given a lift pass for the whole week when you arrive.
Levels
At most of our centres, on most weeks we have enough clients for 2 or 3 Off Piste groups, meaning that we can cater for a range of experience. The minimum standard for the Off Piste course is skiers who are already fairly accomplished on piste skiers, who can already ski between the pistes in rough cut up snow. If you already have very good off-piste skills you should consider one of our Freeride Courses which will raise the bar higher still.
Itinerary
- Saturday – Arrival, check-in and registration
- Sunday – Equipment issue (may also be available on Saturday afternoon), free skiing.
- Monday – Meet your instructor, ski close with the other off piste groups.
- Tuesday – 1/2 day session
- Thursday – 1/2 day session
- Friday – 1/2 day session
- Saturday - Morning free skiing, check-out at 2:00pm
The 1/2 day will be scheduled either in the morning or in the afternoon - depending upon group / instructor. There are a few local variations – eg in Chamonix all of Wednesday is a free day and the extra time is added onto the other days. Depending upon which centre and which time of year you may come back to the centre for a hot lunch or take a picnic with you. At the reception you will find a notice board where the details of each day activities are planned.
We often get asked “do you have to go to every lesson ?” – it’s not the army and of course if you want to have a morning off, or ski with other friends then it’s no problem. All we ask is just let the instructor know so he or she doesn’t have to wait for you.
Instructors
All of the Off Piste UCPA Instructors are fully qualified under the French system. The French system is generally agreed to be the most demanding of all systems. Whilst the average age of the UCPA instructors is fairly young they have chosen Ski Instruction as a career and take the job seriously, albeit still having fun! The level of English varies, all of them speak enough English to teach effectively.
Freeride courses are run by a qualified High Mountain Guide, allowing the group to ski on glaciated terrain. All UCPA Ski Guides are also fully qualified Ski Instructors.