As a latecomer to skiing (I was in my late 40s) but a keen adventurer, I love the idea of being able to ski everywhere and anywhere (although with safety very much in mind). I have had more than a few off-piste skiing lessons and I have skied some amazing off-piste terrain in Europe, America and Canada, but I still think I look more like a rag doll than someone who really knows how to ski away from the pistes.
Off-piste skiing is especially challenging in Scotland, where it’s often not just snow that you encounter beneath your skis, but heather, rocks and ice, too.
All this meant that I was very happy to receive a copy of Off-Piste Performance: Essential knowledge for off-piste skiers by Alison Thacker.
Who is Alison Thacker?
Alison started skiing at the age of two and trained as a child and teenager with the Gordon Skiers, representing both Scotland and Great Britain internationally.
At 20, she gained the highest level of BASI ski instructor award. At the time, she was one of the youngest people to do so.
After gaining a degree in Outdoor Studies at Ambleside, Alison moved to Chamonix where she lived and worked for 15 years as a ski instructor in winter and a walking leader in summer.
She started running popular off-piste ski courses and later founded specialist ski training and guiding business, Off-Piste Performance, as well as a company delivering Duke of Edinburgh training and assessment expeditions for schools.
Alison continues to run both businesses successfully from her home in Kingussie, in the Highlands, where she lives with her husband James, an IFMGA Mountain Guide, and their daughter Abigail.
My thoughts: Off-Piste Performance: Essential knowledge for off-piste skiers
The best way to learn to ski is to go out in the mountains with a skilled instructor and then to practice. But there are often many months, if not years, between ski trips and so it is useful to have a reference guidebook to refer to just before the next adventure.
Off-Piste Performance: A Practical Manual is very comprehensive. From essential skills to more complex movements, the guidebook provides tactics for all types of snow and terrain encountered off-piste. This, combined with drills to practice both on and off-piste, will help you achieve your best performance.
Chapters include, Going Off-Piste, Preparation, Essential Skills, Key Movements, Turning, Different Types of Snow, Terrain Variations, Combining Snow and Terain Variations, Poor Visibility and Additional Skills.
I really like Alison’s clear descriptions, which are also accompanied by useful illustrations.
While looking through the book, I spotted plenty of useful hints and advice. Some of the tips I’d forgotten about, while others were new to me.
For example, it was useful to have the “Fall Line” described to me again. This is an area of my skiing that I need to improve both on and off-piste.
The section on “Movement skills” is great and I have taken some of the ideas on board for when I next go skiing. I like Alison’s hints on how to get back up when you fall over off-piste. It might look easy but it really is not!
Key Movements is also excellent and the illustrations really help to highlight how to move well on off-piste terrain. Alison clearly describes the “C” shape of a skier – or banana shape – and how to do this, as well as why it’s useful.
There’s a whole section on turning, which is brilliantly in-depth.
Alison alsos write about different types of snow and a variety of terrain – and how to ski each of these proficiently. If you have skied in Scotland you will have no doubt encountered many of these variances, sometimes in just one day!
Finally, a section a the end entitled “commonly asked questions” provides another useful resource.
This is the sort of book to pick up and browse when you have time and one that I might well take on my next ski holiday so I can learn while I am actually on the snow.
Off-Piste Performance: A practical Manual by Alison Thacker is published by Pesda Press priced £19.99. It is available on Amazon. (I gain a small commission for sales through Amazon and this helps meet keep this website running.)