ROOKIE
You are looking for your first touring experience. The pace is relaxed and typically we skin for less than 2 hours per day so ascents are less than 600m vertical. You need to be a reasonable off-piste skier (at our intermediate level), able to link controlled parallel turns in powder snow and ski through trees in control. You need to be prepared to hike short sections on foot carrying your skis on your rucksack (though you won’t need any specific mountaineering knowledge, so crampons and an ice axe are usually not required).
You are fit enough to ski all day with only short stops for food and drink. You’re used to doing cardiovascular exercise 3 to 4 times a week (bike, run, gym) to maintain your fitness, and you’re able to push yourself if needed for short periods of time at a higher rate than usual.
INTERMEDIATE
You’ll have ski toured before and can execute good uphill kick turns on steeper slopes and have some familiarity with use of crampons and ice axe. You need to be a reasonably strong off-piste skier able to deal with a variety of snow conditions (powder, crust, slush) and able to ski on steeper and narrower slopes with the requisite ability and confidence for exposed sections. These tours will involve around 2-4hrs of skinning per day, achieving around 600- 1000m of vertical ascent. We would expect you to be able skin to a pace of 300m of vertical ascent per hour.
You can ski all day comfortably off-piste. Your stamina and endurance fitness is good and you work hard to maintain a good level of fitness. You will be exercising 3-4 times a week and also at the weekend and have a good cardiovascular stamina.
ADVANCED
You are an experienced ski tourer who’s previously completed hut-to-hut trips or multiple day tours. Using the Imperial Crown Haute route as an example of an advanced-level tour, you will be expected to ascend on skis at around 400m/hr and be able to skin for at least 5hrs with up to 1000m to 1300m of ascent per day. A large proportion of the terrain may be steep and exposed; thus confidence in your uphill kick turns on 35+ degree slopes is a must, as is your ability to ski slopes of 40 degrees. You will be a strong, fluid off-piste skier able to handle all conditions. You will be confident of using crampons and an ice axe and happy climbing on snow and rock on short climbs to summits, and in gullies to gain a col.
Your stamina and endurance fitness is good and you work hard to maintain a good level of fitness. You will be exercising 3-4 times a week and also at the weekend; thus running a half marathon, doing a 50 mile cycle ride, 3-4 hours on a mountain bike or a full day’s hill walk would all prove possible with this stamina level.