Backcountry Skiing in Scotland can be maddening, frustrating and disappointing but more often it can also be life affirming, awe inspiring and fantastic! Strike it right with the weather and with the snow conditions and you can have some of your best skiing days on the planet.
Nevis4 Backcountry
24/25 Season we will be offering an increased programme on home turf, we will be offering Introduction to Backcountry courses, Touring days, multi day Ski Expeditions, and later in the season when the snow consolidates, Steeps. Do not underestimate Scotish Backcountry, it can be fantastic and is a great training ground for moving on to the bigger mountains of the Alps. Let us introduce you to this side of the sport.
Introduction to Backcountry
This season we are offering 2 day introduction to backcountry courses in Scotland
- The 2 days will include:
- Personal equipment, how ski touring equipment works.
- Understanding weather and avalanche forecasts
- Skinning up-hill, kick turns & cramponing
- Off-piste ski coaching
- Route planning
- Introduction to rope work
- Avalanche transceiver training
- Techniques for mountain journeying
- The course will include at least one ski tour (if on dry slope we will substitute Performance skiing and off piste skiing skills)
- Costs of 2 days Instruction and leading £190
- The courses will be based at the resort with the best conditions and we will make use of the uplift to get started.
- What’s not included: Food, Travel, Accommodation, lift pass, kit hire.
Course dates – 2024
New for December 2024
Introduction to Backcountry and Mountain Skills
Introduction to Backcountry and Mountain skills. New courses for the start of this season! Weather and snow permitting, we will be running new introductory Backcountry and Mountain skills courses. These courses will introduce you to the skills you will need to move safely through the Scottish mountains in the winter on ski or board. Over a very full 2 days, While skiing in the Cairngorms, we will introduce you to Ski touring kit, Skins, Ski crampons, Transceivers, Avalanche safety, Navigation, Safe route choice and rope work. Turbo charge your Backcountry Knowledge on one of our early season courses!
Cost of course: £195 for 2 days. It’s possible to join the course on either day at a cost of £95. We have a small number of touring skis available with skins and ski crampons These have diamir bindings fitted which you can use with alpine boots an ideal way to try the sport. These can be hired at a cost of £20
We can provide transceivers, shovels and probes for the course if you need them at no cost.
Dates:
December 14-15th
December 21st-22nd
December 28-29th
Email mail@nevis4.com to book.
Kenny early season training
2025
January 25
January 11th-12th Cairngorms
February 8th-9th Cairngorms
February 25
February 10th-11th Cairngorms
February 12th !3th Cairngorms
February 15th-16th Cairngorms
March 25
March 22nd -23rd Cairngorms
March 29/30th CairngormsLater dates to follow
Price of the above £95 per day. If you are only available for one day you can book on either Saturday or Sunday. Price for both days £190
Maximum Group size is 6 per Leader.
Please just give us a call, or drop us an email using the contact form or mail@nevis4.com or
Tel 07971631169
We have a small number of Hire skis available. They are all fitted with Diamir Fritschi bindings with skins and ski crampons which are suitable for use with regularAlpine ski boots. Ideal to try the activity. If these are required please add £20 for the day. We also have Avalanche kit available, transceivers, shovels and probes.
Touring days
Touring days are days where you will be led over some of the classic ski tours in Scotland. No need to worry about route planning or navigation, let us take care of it for you. Days will be arranged depending on weather and snow conditions. We can also arrange Bespoke trips and days for you. Please just ask.
7th Feb- Drumochter – Highland – Price £105 per day
21st March – Northern Corries – Highland – Price £105 per day
11th April- Drumochter – Highland – Price £105 per day
Please note, all tours are weather and snow dependent. Go/No go decisions rest with Kenny and Donnie and will be based on safety. If we have to cancel you will be able to recieve a full refund or book on to the next available tour which ever you prefer.
Steeps
An introduction to steep skiing in Scottish grade 1 Gully’s. We have a smaller ratio on these courses of 1:4 reflecting the additional safety requirements of learning in a steep environment. You must be a competent parrallel skier to attend these events.
5th to 6th April- Northern corries- Highland (Steeps) – Price £200
10th to 11th May -West Highland, Carn Mor Dearg, Ben Nevis (Steeps)- Price £200
All dates and locations are subject to change due to weather and snow conditions.
Avalanche Kit is a requirement for all these courses, if you do not have any, we can supply it You will require a small rucksack to carry them and your skins and ski crampons
Max ratio is 1-6 for touring days and 1-4 for steeps
Please make sure you are not displaying any covid symptoms prior to attending the course and self isolate if necessary.
Ski Expedition
If you are comfortable on touring skis, how about a ski adventure not to be forgotten. A three day Adventure through some of the best ski touring Scotland has to offer. Depending on conditions, we will camp or snow hole on the route we intend to ski, with a maximum of 1000m ascent on each day through some of the best scenery Scotland has to offer.
Dates : TBA
Price for this adventure: £250
Zero to Hero
An intense 4 day ski course followed by 2 days basic ski touring. This course is designed with existing Hill goers in mind, walkers, climbers and hill runners who are looking for an efficient and quick way to get around the hills in winter. Ski touring is a natural extension of other hill going disciplines.
The course will teach participants the basics of Alpine skiing and introduce the tools and techniques of Ski touring to them. The course can take place on snow or on a dry slope but the days touring will be on snow. At the end of the 6 days the participants should be able to perform linked turns down a gentle slope and be able to skin up to make an ascent. If you have no background in skiing but would love to learn to tour, this could be the course for you.
Zero to Hero dates
Next Zero to Hero dates are 3 Jan-6th of January 2024 at Bearsden ski club in Glasgow followed by 2 days basic touring at Glencoe ski centre when conditions permit. Due to weather constraints we have priced these separately.
The price for the 4 days Zero to Hero course is £380 per person. This includes slope use and kit hire..
with a maximum of 6 participants. We will also be subject to a minimum of 4 participants
The price for the 2 days basic touring at Glencoe is £190.
This does not include the price of a lift ticket but does include hire of touring kit if required (£20 less if own kit used)
Booking
Please use the contact form for more details, or to book, email mail@nevis4.com
