Your ski touring fitness level, measured in minutes of skinning
Updated: 3 days ago
By Boris Malesset
Every ski touring day begins with the climb, and how far it carries you rests on one simple measure: how long you can skin uphill in snow at a pace that still leaves room to enjoy the view. That measure is your ski touring fitness level. Knowing it before you join us lets us shape the day around you, so the descent arrives on fresh legs and the whole outing stays a pleasure from the first step to the last turn.
We sort it into four levels. Each is defined by a duration of skinning, from around twenty minutes to three hours and more, and by the terrain you already handle with ease: soft snow, hard snow, and the kick turns that take you up steeper ground. Read them as a gentle ski touring fitness test you can run on your next outing, watch in hand.
A word on pace. The figure that counts is the one you hold comfortably, breathing easily and still chatting to the person beside you on the skin track. Time yourself on a steady climb in snow, on touring skis and skins, and keep the number modest. A day pitched with a little margin is a day with room for the light, the snow and the company.
Fitness is half the picture. Once the skins come off, your technique on the descent matters just as much, and we describe it in a companion piece, What's my off-piste skiing level?. Read the two together and you will have a clear sense of the outings that suit you.
Level 1: about twenty minutes of skinning, or your very first outing
You can skin uphill for around twenty minutes, or you have yet to try ski touring and would like an introduction. Both bring you here, and it is a lovely place to begin.
The first steps on skins feel surprisingly natural once the grip makes sense: the ski slides forward, the skin holds, and the slope simply rises beneath you. We take our time over the essentials with you, putting skins on and taking them off, finding a rhythm that suits your breathing, and switching back to downhill mode at the top of a short climb. Twenty minutes of skinning already opens up a quiet corner of the mountain, and the descent that follows begins in the stillness above the lifts.
Level 2: an hour of skinning, and a taste for more
You can skin uphill for about an hour, and you have a little ski touring behind you, perhaps more. The movements are familiar; now the day can open out.
An hour of climbing changes the scale of things. It is long enough to leave the bustle below, to reach a col or a shoulder with a view worth pausing for, and to start reading the slope ahead: where the snow softens, where the skin track wants to bend. At this level we enjoy refining with you the small things that make a climb flow, a steadier pace, quicker transitions, and kick turns that begin to feel like part of the dance.
Level 3: two hours of skinning, kick turns on soft snow
You can skin uphill for about two hours. You have toured many times, and you are comfortable climbing in soft snow, kick turns included.
This is where ski touring starts to feel like travel. Two hours on the skin track carries you well into the mountains, and the kick turn, that pivot on a steeper slope where you swing one ski round and then the other, has become second nature. Soft snow is your ally on the way up, and you reach the top with energy to spare for the part everyone quietly climbs for. Longer days open up to you, with more terrain to choose from and more time to savour it.
Level 4: three hours and more, at ease on hard snow
You can skin uphill for three hours or more, you have solid ski touring experience, and you are comfortable climbing on hard snow, kick turns included.
Hard snow rewards precision: an edge set cleanly, weight centred over the ski, a kick turn made calmly on a firm, steep slope. Feeling at ease there means a frozen morning crust holds few surprises, and far more of the mountain becomes yours to explore. Three hours of climbing and more is the threshold for the fullest outings, the ones where the descent is long and the day feels complete when you finally click out of your bindings.
Somewhere between two levels? Choose the lower one. A day set just below your limit leaves you free to look around, to linger at the top, and to ask for a little more the next morning.
Three questions before you set off
<details> <summary>How fit do you need to be for ski touring?</summary>
About twenty minutes of comfortable skinning uphill in snow is enough to start at level 1, and complete beginners start there too, with an introduction. From there, ski touring fitness grows in steps: around one hour for level 2, two hours for level 3, three hours or more for level 4. </details>
<details> <summary>Is there a simple ski touring fitness test?</summary>
Yes. Time how long you can skin uphill in snow on touring skis at a steady, comfortable pace. Around 20 minutes places you at level 1, about one hour at level 2, about two hours at level 3, and three hours or more at level 4. </details>
<details> <summary>What separates level 3 from level 4?</summary>
Duration and snow. At level 3 you skin for about two hours and you are comfortable with kick turns in soft snow; at level 4 you skin for three hours or more and you are comfortable with kick turns on hard snow, with good ski touring experience behind you. </details>
Once you know your level, take a look at our six-day off-piste ski week on the Packages page or at our Val d'Isère page, and tell us when you would like to come and how many of you there will be. Our trip pages also rate fitness out of five: Hokkaido is rated 2/5 (moderate effort over several hours, with climbs of up to 800 m) and the Lofoten 3/5 (three to five hours of skinning a day).
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