How to ski off a drop this season with out hurting yourself. No guarantees of course!

Mark Gear skis off a serac at Les Grandes Montets

This is what the ski movie guys do, they don't just jump and hope.

Here are a few top tips for how to ski a drop off.  Watch the sequence of shots.

• Pick your jump carefully.  Jumping can be dangerous.  Its always best to start small.

• Always visually check out a jump or drop is safe before leaping off. The landing and run-out should be clear of obstacles and allow you enough space to land and make turns to slow down. Speed picks up fast in the air so you will need plenty of open space for confidence to land well and ski away.

• It is important to ensure that the landing is not flat. The landing area should slope away from the jump.  Flat landings should be avoided as the impact is greater.

• Snow texture and depth should be checked before jumping so you know what to expect when you land.  For example, deep and heavy snow will slow you down on landing and could throw you forwards over the skis as you land. Hard snow is going to offer a fast landing and a harder impact.  If the snow is hard, you may want to find a smaller drop.

• Once you are happy that all you are going to hit if you get it wrong is snow, there's not alot to it other than take a deep breath, point the skis and jump!

• Take enough of a run up to get some speed off the jump.  It really helps to make a positive, intentional jump upwards and forwards into the air. 

• Hold the hands forwards for the flight also pulling your knees up towards your chest. This will help keep your balance and stability in the air, also setting you up for the landing phase of your drop.

• Whilst in the air, you will need to angle your skis to match the angle of the slope gradient.  You don't want to land too far forwards or backwards on the skis.

• When coming into land, allow your legs to extend a little.  This is like droping your landing gear. It will set you up for absorbtion on landing.

• Land absorbing the impact, standing up and skiing away hearing the aplause from the nearby chair lift.

By Mark Gear Head Coach, All Mountain Performance

Freeride ski coaching in Chamonix for advanced and expert skiers.

If you are thinking of skiing Chamonix, here is some info about the type of skiing the valley has to offer.

 Chamonix is the world capitol of off piste and freeride skiing. There are 6 extensive ski areas offering a huge amount of easy to acess off piste routes. Chamonix off piste is great for all levels of off piste skier from powder puppy to powder hound. This makes Chamonix the ideal place for us to run our off piste / all mountain ski courses.

 Each Chamonix ski area offers a different type of terrain. Le Brevent and la Flegere are great for couloirs and bowl skiing for all levels of off piste skier.

 Further up the Chamonix valley Les Grands Montets is a massive mountain with undoubtabley some of the best skiing in the world. This is where famous freeriders hang out.  Glaciers on the upper sections lead down to wide open bowl skiing with steeps and couloirs. The tree skiing and into valley couloirs are also great for expert skiers. This place is where we often ski 10000 vertical meters per day on our expert ski courses and freeride courses. A great lift system opens up 3 sides to this amazing ski mountain.

 Le Tour at the high end of the Chamonix valley is great for all levels on piste and off piste. The front side is easy terrain for beginner off piste skiers. This is an ideal place for us to take intermediate level ski courses on the first couple of days of the course. The back side offers very nice terrain for more advanced and expert skiing.

 The Aiguile du Midi lift takes skiers and alpinists from Chamonix town to an impressive altitude of 3842 meters. This is not a ski area for piste skiing. All the runs are off piste and on a glacier making the skiing more serious. A High mountain guide is advised for this.

Les Houches is situated as at the lower end of the Chamonix valley and offer very nice tree-lined piste skiing and some off piste. This the where the mens world cup combined event the Kandahar is held. The best skiers in the world race in downhill and slalom over a 2 day event.

 Chamonix is just 1 hour drive from Geneva airport .

Skiing Chamonix this winter season.

Click here to view/download the full sized version

Chamonix piste map

This Chamonix piste map shows the valley as a whole and is an artists impression of the Chamonix valley and ski areas. The ski area seen in the forefront on the piste map is Le Tour This is great for beginers and intermediate skiers. Its also a great ski area for expert skiers to practice high speed carving on the wide open well groomed pistes. The back side chair lift offers access to amazing off piste descents into Switzerland.

  If you follow up the left of the Chamonix valley the next ski area is the brilliant and huge mountain of Les Grands Montets. This ski area  is a mecca for hardcore skiers. Extreme ski movies have been shot here. The mountain is vast and generally steeper than the other Chamonix ski areas offering Glacier skiing at the very top and open bowls and gullys running into the treeline where some great tree skiing can be found.

Then towards Mont Blanc is the Aiguile du Midi. This is the highest lift in the Chamonix valley at 3842m. This lift is used to ski the Chamonix and world famous valley Blanche. This is all completley off piste and on a glacier making it a serious mountain intinery. A guide is necessary but not compulsory.

At the far end of the Chamonix valley and piste map you can see the Les Houches ski area. This piste map does not give Les Houches justice. It makes it look smaller than it is. In Les houches alone there are 95km of ski pistes.

Coming back along the Chamonix valley on the piste map to the right you can see the ski areas of Le Brevent and La Flegere. These are the ski areas more local to Chamonix town. These ski areas are south facing and linked together offering amazing on piste and off piste skiing for all levels.  Watch out if you are skiing off piste here in the afternoons. Avalanches are frequent when the warm sun hits the slopes.

All together this Chamonix piste map gives someone who has never skied the Chamonix valley a reasonably good idea of what the Chamonix Valley looks like. However each ski area has its own piste map giving a more detailed impression of the mountains, pistes and Chamonix ski areas. These piste maps are available at the bottom of each ski area at the ticket desks.

We hope you enjoy this Chamonix piste map.