Backcountry course finishes with great weather

March’s Backcountry course finished on Saturday the 7th of March with great weather. The week had certainly been challenging in terms of visibility so it was a very welcome finish to the week. Friday was spent at Grands Montets with instructor Derek Tate. While the visibility was poor this proved an invaluable day with some skinning, companion rescue practice and further development of technical and tactical skills. This prepared the group really well for the final day’s touring with mountain guide Robbie Fenlon. Our next course is taking place 6-11 April so look out for our blog reports.

More details on our backcountry and off piste courses can be found on the basschamonix web site.

4 days into March Backcountry

The March Backcountry course, run jointly by BASS Chamonix & Wilderplaces Alpine is now 4 days old. The group (5 participants) have had two days with BASS Instructor Derek Tate and two days with Wilderplaces Mountain Guide Robbie Fenlon.

Day 1 was spent at Grands Montets and focused on skiing performance, and intro to companion rescue (use of transceiver, shovel & probe).

Day 2 was at Le Tour and included some good off piste skiing, a variety of snow conditions, some further familiarisation with transceivers and further work on skiing performance.

Day 3 was back at Le Tour and included the first skinning of the week and a mixture of snow conditions ranging from very good to breakable crust.

Day 4 was spent in Italy at Courmayeur with some lovely skiing through the trees. A selection of photos from day 4 are included below;

Paul enjoys the fresh snow

Nigel showing good technique

The group listen intently as Robbie explains some tactics

Robbie enjoying the snow