How to Survive Off-Piste Skiing and Snowboarding

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Skiing pathless powder is one to be enjoyed by off-piste enthusiasts, but it is also filled with all forms of perils that on-piste skiers have never encountered. Most common among these is that most dreadful of all ski-related tragedies, the avalanche. On record, 11 (and counting) avalanche-related deaths in Switzerland (involving seven skiers and one snowboarder), and on the average it is the cause of a hundred deaths in the Alps yearly. Not surprisingly, most of the deaths happen to out-of-bounds or backcountry skiers and snowboarders, yet at times disastrous accidents can take place within a snowball's distance of safety. You might believe that skiing a few meters off the piste is as safe rather than being on it, but as soon as you go off-piste in Europe you take responsibility for your own safety, whether you are two meters or two kilometers away from the patrolled runs.

However, as more and more skiers and snowboarders contend for space on crowded mountains, a rising number of people are choosing to head off-piste or to backcountry skiing areas.>>>READ MORE