Читать книгу Alpine Ski Mountaineering Vol 2 - Central and Eastern Alps. Ski tours in Austria, Switzerland and Italy онлайн

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Start Times

These vary throughout the season for the same route and will depend on a mixture of things: touring objective, party fitness, snow, weather conditions and, of course, the whim of the hut guardian. Most Alpine huts have a set breakfast period during the ski-touring season. Find this out from the guardian on arrival at the hut and plan accordingly. If you want to leave early let the guardian know. If you are lucky he might put a flask and some food out for you. On popular tours like the Haute Route you will invariably be involved in a massed start in the morning, which is all but impossible to avoid. Once underway in the morning groups quickly disperse, invariably coming together at bottlenecks such as steep climbs or abseil descents. If you want to get away quickly in the morning you need to get packed and organised the night before and get down to breakfast quickly!

Route-Finding and Navigation

It goes without saying that a 1:25,000 scale map, compass and altimeter, and the ability to use them, are essential for accurate navigation when ski touring. More and more skiers are using a Global Positioning System (GPS), and many maps provide a useful table of GPS co-ordinates to help plot waymarks quickly. Of course all maps have a grid system. Whatever tools you have, make sure you are skilful in using them. It is also advisable to spend time studying the map – mental rehearsal combined with map memory is a great benefit once skiing.