Choose from ski tours in the Pyrenees, French, Italian, Swiss or Austrian Alps or the Tatra Mountains in Poland

Pyrenean Mountain Tours are the Ski Touring market leader. This year we are organising more than 27 ski tours, in 7 countries. Our touring season starts in January (when we run one of our Introductory Courses) and continues through to the middle of May. All of our tours are led by UIAGM mountain guides but many are also supported by BASI ski instructors.

Telemark skiers are welcome to join any of our ski tours as long as they are able to meet the skiing, climbing and fitness requirements of the tour. See the D:A:F scale. These are described in detail for each itinerary. Bear in mind that most ski tours are predominantly made up of people using Alpine ski touring gear and so you'll need to be sure that you can keep up with them. See our advice below.

However, four of our ski tours this year will be accompanied by a BASI Telemark instructor and on these tours you will find more telemark skiers and get informal ski and touring coaching as we go. These tours are described below as are the equipment requirements.

Joining and Alpine Ski Touring Group
If you want to join any of the 27 tours we are offering you should start by reading through the itineraries and then checking the D:A:F scale. In our experience Telemark skiers are often at an advantage up hill, but most ski down at a slightly slower pace if conditions are difficult. So when you look at tour descriptions bear in mind that descents are likely to be easier and less tiring on alpine skis and therefore you'll need to compensate for this by being slightly fitter than your Alpine buddy.

Also, Alpine skiers have the edge skinning on steeper slopes as they have ski crampons and the heel hinge of a alpine touring binding enables better, more fluid kick turns.

If you are thinking about joining one of our standard Touring groups and want to check your abilities email Simon - he has completed all of these tours on Telemark skis and can tell you what they are really like !

Last of all, check the equipment list below.

Ski Tours with Telemark Instructor Support
We are offering four tours with informal Telemark coaching. On each of these there will be a small dedicated Telemark group supported by a BASI Telemark instructor. Informal tuition will be targetted at heling with skinning and climbing skills as well as off piste skiing. Choose from:

EQUIPMENT AND CLOTHING NEEDED FOR TELEMARK SKI TOURS
We recommend that telemarkers joining our ski tours are equipped with the following:

Technical equipment
Alpine Touring Skis with Telemark Cable Bindings
Ski Poles
Skins (with good glue!)
Ski Crampons (if possible!)
Crampons
An Ice Axe (when specified by the individual tour dossier)
Ski Strap (for tying top of the skis together when carrying on rucksack)
Avalanche Transceiver
Snow Shovel
Climbing harness

Clothing suggestions
Thermal underwear- 1 set as a base layer
Fleece
Waterproof jacket
Waterproof over trousers
Warm hat
Warm gloves
Warm walking socks
Sun hat or peaked cap
Sunglasses/Goggles

Other useful items
40-60 litre rucksack (needs side straps so that you can carry skis)
Head torch and batteries
Sun block for face and lips
Personal First Aid kit (plasters,compede, paracetamol)
Water bottle or Platypus
Penknife

Optional items
Change of clothing to include: underwear,tracksuit bottoms/ long-johns,dry shirt, spare socks.
Camera and film
Paperback novel
Maps
Ear plugs(there is always one snorer)
Snack bars/dried fruit/chocolate
Sheet sleeping bag (if you like them...)