British Association of Snow Sports Instructors (BASI) Level 1 Course - Allgauer Alps, Germany. Part I

Between the 22 Mar and 03 Apr 09 I completed the final part of a qualification that started about 3 weeks prior in the Allgauer Alps in Germany/ Auatria. If you are not familiar with this area, as I wasn't, it is certainly worth a visit as some of the skiing, both alpine and alpine touring, is phenominal. To put it on the map for you, the most well known town in the area is Oberstdorf. Oberstdorf hosts major ski jump competitions and X-country skiing races. The 2009 season saw the most amount of snow for 10 years in the region so conditions were awesome.

I started with a week long Alpine Ski Touring leaders course, in the same region between 22 and 28 Feb 09. My previous experience with Touring was in Norway about 3 years earlier, a positive experience but world apart from what I was about to undertake. If you are not familiar with Alipne Ski Touring it is basically skiing up to the top of a mountain and then skiing back down again. Before I arrived at the course I managed to get an insight into the what to expect and it left me with the familiar feeling of excitement and anticipation that I experience prior to heading out on any expedition.  

SO MUCH SNOW!!! I'm not sure I have ever seen so much snow before and this was in the valley I could only imagine what we were going to see above 2300m at the summits. The touring ski's and equipment was of a high standard which inspired confidence in me. My memory was of heel cable bindings and leather boots that were ridiculously uncomfortable.  This time we were treated to freeride bindings that had 3 climbing settings and a fixed heel position for descending.

Day 1 -  Poor visibility and a relitively high avalanche risk kept us at low altitudes looking at basic skills and focusing on avalanche transiever training. We did have a short ski up but nothing too strenuous. I think we managed to get to about 1700m. The ski down however was interesting. I was doing my best impression of Bambi on ice. I was a biff in the deep snow!! Must try harder Jonny Boy.

The next couple of days were similar, digging snow shelters and looking at mountain skills and leadership. I saw some gradual improvement in my back country skiing ability. Still not ideal however.

Everything started to come together however on day 4. My favourite day of the course. The weather cleared and it was glourious. We climbed up a mountain called Grosser Damen. I think its about 2300m ish. The climb was long and hard and we certainly were at the mercy of the mountain.  I was breathing hard and the summit arrived at the perfect time. The ski off was incredible, fresh lines and the snow was perfect. I had a smile a mile wide on my face the highpoint of my week.

So exped time. We spent the final night of the course out on the mountain. The weather had closed in and visibility was poor. Navigating proved tricky and we arrived at the mountain hut later than we had planned. The climb was hard but slow because of the difficult naving conditions. I think I did about 600 kick turns to get up there, fantastic?!?!  One of the girls in the group was 'celebating' her birthday so we managed to sneak in some gluhwein into our bags. A suprisingly good nights sleep followed. The next morning the weather had cleared so we set off fairly early. We climbed about 150m further and assessed the avalanche risk, as we were in the process of digging our pit about 500m away a slab avalanche released. NOT IDEAL!! We finished the pit and assessed the risk. TIME TO LEAVE ME THINKS. We headed down the mountain and into slightly safer ground.  The cloud lowered again and slowed up the descent. However afer a few hours we were down safely. Course over and a succesful pass.