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Nordic, Telemark and Alpine skiing vacations in the Alps, Europe and Norway, cont ...
• Hut-to-hut ski touring in Norway, Sweden and Finland
• Telemark ski touring in the Alps of Europe
• Telemark skiing in the Spanish Pyrenees
• On-piste and off-piste with the big vertical of world-class Alpine resorts … and those of the Andes!
• Telemark and Alpine skiing amongst the wonderful and dramatic environment of the Alps
• How you can join our ski packages and arrangements
• Ways to pay
• Questions and queries
Hut-to-hut touring in Norway, Sweden and Finland
Norway is the spiritual home of free-heel skiing and offers a wonderful and unique touring experience.
Norwegian 'huts' are actually remote mountain lodges similar to staffed lodges in parts of the Rockies; they offer warm, dry and very comfortable accommodation, including a shop (waxes and ski paraphernalia, chocolates and 'goodies', beer and wine, maps and first aid items, etc.), showers and drying rooms and with full-board arrangements. The staff are always very hospitable and the network of 'huts' covers most of the country.
A part of this network includes 'self-service huts'; these are lodges that have everything there for you: beds and bedding, gas cookers and all cooking implements, wood for heating and snow melting, basic but very adequate food supplies – in fact everything you need to enjoy the accommodation, its location and your tour without the need to carry very much at all! Depending on the area there is a mix of lodges so you might be alternating between 'staffed' and 'self-service' huts or any other mix of huts permutation.
The spacing between huts is typically something in the order of 12 to 25 kms; this is ideal for touring in undulating hill and plateau terrain and also allows time for skiing peaks as well, if time, inclination and weather so dictate. |
Nordic hut-to-hut touring
– our 'North West Passage' tour in the Jotunheim mountains, Norway.
Photo: John Eames
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What some North American visitors have said about us ... |
"First many, many thanks
for the adventurous ski trip in Norway, Yes it was challenging in
the end due to the icy conditions , but it was SPECTACULAR!!! and
exactly what I was looking for. Stefan was an excellent leader,
and the group was just the best you can choose for this type of
activity. I hope to be able to do the Jutenheim tour next year ..."
E.R., Massachusetts, March 2004 |
"To think I had to come
all the way over here (French Alps) for some decent telemark instruction!"
T.R., Los Angeles, Jan. 2004 |
"The snow's better here
(Greece – Telemark skiing) than Whistler!"
P.R., Vancouver, Feb. 2004 |
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Occasional two or three night stops also give the opportunity to do day tours from a base e.g. our Snohetta & Dovrefjell, Trollheimen Triangular and Jotunheim: The North-West Passage tours. Our other tours include the Hardanger: 'Vidda Venture' and the Rondane Hut-to-hut tour (specifically designed for novice skiers) and two point-to-point traverses; the Skarvheimen Traverse and the Hardanger Crossing. This year we are also offering two tours with husky dog support, giving the chance to do a tour amongst the forest, ‘fells’ and frozen lakes of Central Finland and through the mountains surrounding Sweden’s highest peak, Kebnekaise, following 'The King’s Trail’, well North of the Arctic Circle.
Depending on the touring venue, you can simply take the train from Oslo Gardermoen Airport, get off at your destination, ski tour for a week, get back on the train to the airport and fly home! What could be easier? All these tours are best done on Nordic mountain touring gear i.e. Nordic cambered skis with very little side-cut, stout leather or soft plastic boots and using waxes, with 'skins' only for longer, steeper climbs. |
Telemark and Alpine touring in the Alps
Traditionally the environment for those with AT gear, more and more folk are doing classic 'Alpine' traverses, high-level routes and circuits on freeheel equipment. For this everybody uses wide, shaped tele skis, plastic boots and skins for climbing. Skiers on AT gear are, of course, very welcome and we have found that mixed groups of skiers on AT and Tele gear ski well together – and are also makes for plenty of comparison and lively discussion over a beer!
A bit like in Norway, there is a very comprehensive 'hut' system; the quality of huts varies from country to country but generalisations would be Italian huts for food, Austrian huts for overall comfort, almost luxury, in remote, high altitude locations, and French huts for general 'flair'.
Lightweight telemark touring is possible amongst some stunning terrain which is of easy access – the big international airports like Geneva, Zurich, Turin and Munich are all a snow-ball's throw from the mountains! The touring season extends well in to May, 2000 m descents are not unusual and snow conditions can be worth dying for! We offer led tours in the Oetztal (Austria) and the world famous Chamonix-Zermatt Haute Route.
Also on offer is a 'combination week' based at Tignes (France) with three days of off-piste coaching and cruising with three days of day tours amongst the 3500 m peaks of the Vanoise National Park – awesome landscapes! It is possible to run the Tignes week together with the Chamonix-Zermatt Haute Route, using the Tignes week as a ‘warm up’ for the Haute Route – see a lot of the Alps and do loads of quality ski-touring! |
Off-piste telemarking at Le Tour, near Chamonix; the Grand Montets ski area in the background with 6,600 feet of vertical and many, many days of steep and deep potential!
Skier: Bonny Masson; photo: John Eames
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Telemark and Alpine skiing in Spain
Most folk will be familiar with the vast ski areas and big verticals of the Alps. Less well-known is the fact that Spain’s highest mountains are in the south of the country, are within sight of Morocco and here is one of the country’s largest ski areas! We are offering a trip to Spanish Pyrenees in the North of the country, to the delightful resort of Celer, just south of the Pic d’Aneto (3400 m) the range’s highest point. Celer offers a very well organised and quiet ski area, a very good variety of on- and off-piste runs, wonderful views and that Spanish character that makes a ski trip here absolutely unique!
One flight, one taxi, one tram ride and you can be here! A perfect day in the Vallee Blanche.
Photo John Eames
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On-piste and off-piste with the big vertical of world-class Alpine resorts
Most of our telemark and Alpine skiing weeks are at resorts that have been carefully chosen for their excellent snow record (most resorts have extensive snow-making facilities and/or a glacier!), a good network of trails offering plenty for all ability levels and also a 'certain something' extra ...
La Thuile (Italy) for no lift lines, untracked off-piste and unrivalled hospitality; Les Crosets (Switzerland) in the middle of the vast Portes de Soleil ski area, lying across the border between France and Switzerland – a huge on- and off-piste paradise.
Hintertux (Austria) for early season reliability due to high altitude and a large and probably the best glacier for ski interest in Europe.
Obergurgl (Austria) a less well-known ski area with extensive terrain, high altitude skiing, not too busy and plenty of variety; Cervinia (Italy), linked to Zermatt, for high altitude reliability and huge lift accessed off-piste potential; Tignes (France) for the unrivalled quality of terrain of the vast ‘Espace Killy’, from tree skiing at Les Brevieres at 1600 m to the eternal snows of the Grand Motte glacier at 3400 m – plus the delights of French food and wine!
Last but definitely not the least, a week at Andermatt (Switzerland), a quiet and relatively undeveloped Swiss mountain town with a growing reputation as a ‘world venue’ for easy access off-piste and freeride skiing, rivalling La Grave and Alagna as the place to ski steeps and deeps. |
It may not be the Alps but the Andes of Chile is our venue in September, 2008. Our 'Ski with Condors' adventure will visit some of the volcanoes and ski areas further south and/or some of the more well-known resorts and bigger mountains closer to Santiago. We will be self-contained with our own 4x4 transport so we can move freely and respond to the best snow conditions – and aspirations of the group! A Chilean ‘road trip’ to sample resort skiing, off-piste powder and day touring, to cherish and savour for a long time afterwards!
Telemark and Alpine skiing in the wonderful, dramatic environment of the Alps
Your opportunity to have a real vacation and a break from your familiar ski venues in Colorado, New England, B.C. or wherever, with the focus on free-heel skiing. We also offer the leadership and guidance from those who know the areas and will ensure you have the best possible time in a new skiing environment. Add in the various cultural and historical associations of the different parts of the Alps – or Scandinavia – and you have a recipe for a unique skiing experience. Or stay on for a week and do Venice and Rome, Paris and London ... or find a quiet Mediterranean fishing village to pamper yourself and fully relax! |
The Alps: dramatic scenery, huge choice, vast ski areas and off-piste runs like this!
Photo John Eames
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How you can join our packages and arrangements
Most of our trips will have a common meeting up time and place at the start of the trip e.g. an hotel in Oslo on the evening of a specific date, or our arrangements will start from a location e.g. Oslo, with a train ride at a certain time to, say, the start point of a tour. UK clients simply find their own flights to join our trips, meeting as above, as specified in the specific trip dossiers. In other words it does not matter where in the world anybody is flying from – everybody simply has to arrange their travel to be there at an agreed time and place! At the end of a trip, the reverse happens. If you wish to travel on to extend your vacation, or maybe a take trip with us is at the end of a longer vacation, then again, no problem.
How you can pay!
• Bank transfer
• PayPal
• Internet banking
For full details of these options, contact us at the time of enquiry and prior to booking.
Questions, etc. please e-mail ...
You will be making a big investment of money and time in coming across 'the Pond' and you will want to be absolutely sure that what you end up doing with us on snow is what you expect when you book – though we hope it will be even better! So please, click on with your mouse, hit your keyboard and ask us about anything to do with a prospective trip with us: travel arrangements, ability levels, expected snowpack ... anything!
We're looking forward to seeing you over here! |
