For a climber, I think Nordic or Telemark skiing is perfect. Much more freedom of movement and great for touring. The skills in each type of freeheel skiing do cross over, like in touring cycling and mountain biking.

    You could come on our Nordic ski instruction and touring week for novices, Geilo & Finse, 6th – 15th April. This teaches you to travel, have control on moderate downhills and then you complete a hut to hut trip! Norway is certainly quiet – stunning open spaces, wonderful hut system and very reliable snow. We also have a couple of trips to excellent Nordic skiing areas in the Alps, including a long weekend trip, that would also be suitable. The Chamonix Snowshoe & Ski week would be another option 29th Jan. – 5th Feb. Also click on Italian Nordic Ski Weekend for details and dates; these weekends specifically provide instruction for novices in Nordic skiing. Following this type of weekend you will then have the basic skills to go to Norway with and join, say, the Geilo & Finse week and, possibly, the Rondane Explorer hut-to-hut tour or the Venabu option which has a great compromise of day tours from a comfortable base for the week.

     Also/or you could do a Telemark-downhill week e.g. at Tignes starting December 10th, 17th, 24th or 31st, then later in the season in Cervinia, starting March 31st, April 7th and 14th, and at La Thuile, starting Jan 28th and 4th Feb. You probably would be working on ploughs, plough-parallels and basic parallels. This will set you up ready to further develop your parallels and Telemarking. Note you do not need to do the Telemark turn on Nordic or Telemark skis in order to go touring – just a good strong plough can get you about in Norway. For the Alps, parallels are needed. La Thuile is a small unspoilt village on the Italian side of Mt Blanc, with very reliable snow, few people, great food and wine and all of the South side of the Mt Blanc range in view as you ski! Lots of our folk are climbers and they love it. Cervinia and Tignes are larger resorts but both have ideal terrain to get you started.

It is best to start with instruction as that will give a great foundation for further progress, cut the time taken and you'll develop no horrendous 'survival skiing' habits! These will stop you progressing to ski touring for sure. Being averagely fit helps but skill is more important. Age is not a problem as long as you are open to learning and the challenges that can bring for anyone new to a skill. Also come with us! We are the top company in the UK and we only use professionally qualified and experienced instructors. Even then we chose only those with the highest personal skiing and coaching standards to work for us. We also do not run courses or tours with a large range of abilities as this detracts from the enjoyment, learning and even safety of all. Some courses say 'all levels' but each ability group skis separately. This is why it's so important to choose the right trip.
     If you are interested in Nordic skiing then either the Italian Nordic Ski Weekends or the week at Geilo & Finse would be suitable. If you are keen to Telemark, then the March/April weeks at Cervinia would be ideal, the December weeks at Tignes or the January/February weeks at La Thuile.

If you click on to our Ski Info page and then the article titled: 'Nordic or Telemark?' this explains the differences between Telemark and Nordic/cross-country skiing and also the various differences within 'cross-country' skiing e.g. competitive 'cross-country skiing' is related to the racing you see in the Winter Olympics but very different to say, 'Nordic mountain touring'; compare with bike racing in a stadium versus road touring. The skills in each type of freeheel skiing do cross over, like in touring cycling and mountain biking. When our Nordic tourers want to improve their downhill skills (so that they can go on more difficult tours), they will come on a trip in the Alps to specifically hone their downhill on freeheel skis.

    Also, whilst on this website, look at some of the photo galleries for Norwegian and alpine trips. Go to any of the trips under 'Telemark Trips' and the 'Nordic Trips' in the side-bar menu and you will find photos of these two types of skiing to help illustrate the differences – and similarities! For some trips more images will be found by clicking on 'More Photo's'.

For Nordic mountain tours you can start with the trip in the Rondane, the Venabu week or the Geilo & Finse: Pistes, Trails & Tours trip and then if you decide you like the activity, you will need more skills input both in Nordic travel techniques and Nordic downhill.

    To get good enough to ski mountaineer in alpine terrain, you would need to put in time on ski areas to get to the standard. The piste is made consistent so it is easier. Any alpine off-piste or alpine mountain touring will have all sorts of snow and steep slopes. You need to be able to keep moving once on tour so while you can pick up tips, this is not the place for basic learning. The pistes are the place to learn and develop skills. Next would be off-piste using ski lifts. This gives the mileage you need to improve. Finally, you can move on to ski touring! Whether you take the Nordic or 'ski area' route, all the stages are fun in themselves and not just a means to an end: from beginning, to improving and consolidating and eventually to mastering technique.