On Tue, 9 Mar 2004 20:56:30 +0000 (UTC), "k" wrote:

I have never been on a skiing holiday and I am planning to go 23 March to
Kitzbuhel. I have been to the Snowdome near Birmingham for the day and
xscape, and seem to be picking it up quite quickly. Rough parallel level.

I have heard far ranging stories about skiing off piste from the good (Great
fun, fresh clean powder snow, great to ski in) to the bad, (stories of
people skiing into rocks, and things they couldnt see under the snow).

I was thinking about giving it a go toward the end of the week, if I am
feeling more confident. Is there such a thing as begginers Off Piste?
Established off piste routes? or am I aiming too high?

You may be. What I'd suggest is to see how you get on in your lessons
on real snow - you _are_ taking lessons aren't you? - and perhaps
start kiing some of the more obvious cuts off the edge of pistes. This
may give you the opportunity to see what it's like in uneven
conditions and you may find that your technique is lacking for
exploring further afield.

Once you have got a bot more confident, I'd suggest you only start to
venture further afield with more experienced off-piste skiers. Perhaps
you should join the ski club and ski with a rep for a while - we (most
of us, I think) like to go off-piste as much as appropriate for the
group, so it may be a way to get a bit more under your belt. Or get a
mountain guide, of course, but at your level that would probably be a
waste of money.

Actually, I think the best thing is probably to take your course of
lessons and specifically ask the instructor to take you off-piste and
give his opinion on what the next step would be.

--
Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
Ski Club of Great Britain - http://www.skiclub.co.uk
All opinions expressed are personal and in no way represent those of the Ski Club.