Ways to reach untracked snow: the backcountry modes
Updated: 2 days ago
There are several ways to reach untracked snow, and each one gives you a different day in the mountains. A calm climb on skins to a summit at first light. A chairlift and a short traverse to fresh powder just beyond the resort. A week of travelling from fjord to fjord. A heated snowcat in the forests of the Altai, or a helicopter that sets you down on a ridge above the sea in Iceland.
All of them come under backcountry skiing. What changes from one to the next is how you travel uphill and the rhythm of the day. Wherever you go, you reach snow that nobody has skied yet.
Ski touring: first light, the skin track, then the powder
Many of our weeks begin like this. You set off in the calm of the morning, skins on, and the track climbs into the light as the sun reaches the slope. Kick turns take you up the steeper sections at an easy pace, and the valley opens out a little more with each one. At the top there is time for a hot drink. Skins off, boots locked into ski mode, and below you a whole face with nobody's tracks on it.
This is ski touring; its close cousin, freeride touring, keeps the climbs short and lets the descent set the tone. A touring morning is measured in metres of vertical: 800 to 1,200 is typical before the first turn, at a pace that leaves time to watch the light on the snow and settle on the line you fancy. Then the turns come, one after another, in snow that has been waiting all night.
Off-piste, straight from the lifts
Some of the best snow of the season lies a few minutes from a chairlift. In Val d'Isère, in the Alps, a lift and a short traverse take you to slopes of fresh powder right beside the resort. In Niseko, on Hokkaido, a gondola and a gate lead into the deep, dry snow that brings skiers to Japan. On a big snow day, that means lap after lap of fresh snow before it is tracked out.
Lift-accessed off-piste is mountain terrain all the same. Beyond the ropes the slopes are neither controlled nor groomed, so you ski with a BEES-qualified ski instructor specialising in off-piste, and/or a UIAGM mountain guide, who reads the snowpack, checks the avalanche bulletin each morning and picks the slope for the day. Everyone carries an avalanche airbag pack, transceiver, shovel and probe. With that in place, the lift does the climbing and the whole morning goes into the descent.
The ski-safari, from fjord to fjord and hut to hut
On a ski-safari you travel on skis, linking summits and valleys over several days and arriving somewhere new each evening. In Lofoten you travel from fjord to fjord, with the sea in view on almost every run. In the Austrian Alps you go from hut to hut, with a hot dinner waiting each evening.
The pleasure lies in the travelling itself. Every col shows you new country, and by the end of the week a whole range sits behind you. In Svalbard the approach changes again: we reach the snow by sea, on ski-sailing trips aboard the Noorderlicht.
Cat-skiing and heli-skiing, far from any lift
Where there are no lifts at all, a snowcat or a helicopter takes you up. The snowcat climbs a forest track or a broad ridge with you warm in its heated cabin, sets you down at the top and meets you at the bottom for the next run. On our cat-skiing trip in Kazakhstan, in the Altai, that means run after run of cold, dry snow through open forest. The snowcat is slower than a helicopter, keeps running when the cloud comes down, and costs less than heli-skiing.
Heli-skiing goes higher and further. The helicopter reaches summits, ridges and glaciers with no lift access, and the flight puts you at the top of a long run. It flies when the weather window opens, so the days are planned around the forecast.
Iceland: the drop, the skins, the long run to the sea
On the Troll Peninsula, Tröllaskagi, in the north of Iceland, the helicopter and the skins come together in heli-assisted ski touring. The drop zone is about twenty minutes from the lodge. The helicopter sets you down on a ridge or close to a summit, and you often put your skins back on to reach the line you have in mind. Then the run unfolds towards the sea, cold powder up high and spring snow lower down, some descents approaching 1,400 metres of vertical in one go.
The season runs from March to the end of May, with April and May at its heart, when the spring light stretches long into the evening. Groups are four skiers, five at most, and the lodge is shared by two groups: eight guests in all, or ten when you book it privately. Dates and details are on our heli-skiing in Iceland page.
Choosing the mode that suits you
Every mode takes you to fresh snow, so choose by the kind of day you enjoy. Lift-accessed off-piste and the snowcat keep the whole day for the descent. Ski touring and the ski-safari add the quiet pleasure of the climb and call for good fitness on skins, and in Iceland the helicopter drop is often followed by a skin to the line.
Our guides to how good a skier you need to be and what a ski adventure costs will help you see where you stand.
The five modes at a glance
Ski touring / freeride · a calm morning on skins to a summit · fresh powder and the first tracks of the day.
Lift-accessed off-piste · a chairlift and a short traverse · fresh snow beside the resort, with an instructor and the full avalanche kit.
Ski-safari · several days from fjord to fjord or hut to hut · a new valley and a new place to sleep each evening.
Cat-skiing · a heated snowcat in place of a lift · one run after another through the Altai forests, even under low cloud.
Heli-assisted ski touring (Iceland) · a drop on a ridge, then skins to the line · long runs down towards the sea.
The questions we're asked most
What's the difference between ski touring, off-piste and heli-skiing?
Ski touring means climbing on skins to reach your descent, off-piste usually means skiing fresh snow reached from the lifts, and heli-skiing means a helicopter takes you to the top. All three lead to untracked snow; what differs is how you travel uphill. In Iceland we combine them: the helicopter drops you high and you often skin to the line, which is heli-assisted ski touring.
Do you need a helicopter to ski powder?
No, fresh powder is within reach in several ways. A chairlift and a short traverse in Val d'Isère or Niseko, or a morning on skins, will take you to slopes nobody has skied. The helicopter and the snowcat open up terrain with no lifts at all, such as the Troll Peninsula in Iceland and the Altai in Kazakhstan.
Cat-skiing or heli-skiing: which should you choose?
Choose the snowcat if you love skiing through forest and want a day that keeps going when the cloud comes down; choose the helicopter if you dream of summits, ridges and glaciers. The snowcat is slower and costs less than heli-skiing, while the helicopter reaches higher terrain and depends on a weather window.
How do you know which mode suits you?
It depends on how confidently you ski off-piste and how much you enjoy the way up. A love of the skin track points to ski touring or a ski-safari; a taste for long descents in fresh snow points to lift-accessed off-piste, the snowcat or heli-assisted ski touring. Tell us where and how you have skied, and we'll suggest the trip that suits you.
A word from the founder
Since 2001 we have watched the same moment on every kind of trip. A group stops at the bottom of a run, turns round and looks back up at their tracks in snow that was untouched that morning. It happens at the end of a ski tour, beside a chairlift in Val d'Isère, next to a snowcat in the Altai and close to the sea in Iceland.
Boris Malesset, founder of PowderWeGo
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