You’ll need to be a competent skier or snowboarder, with strong downhill skiing or riding skills. Style isn’t as important as the ability to travel through a variety of terrain and snow conditions efficiently and in control. Furthermore, downhill travel doesn’t always have to be smooth or fast, but reliably strong, steady, and in control. There are no shortcuts to time spent lapping the ski field lifts and traveling on off-piste terrain in all snow types of conditions to prepare yourself for the ski mountaineering season.

You’ll need to have a good understanding of basic mountaineering skills. This includes snowcraft and the use of crampons and ice axe, rope handling, pitching and abseiling, and building timely and reliable anchors. In addition the more nuanced skills of trip planning, terrain analysis, route finding, navigation, and glacier travel.

Movement and ropework skills picked up from rock climbing or summer mountaineering are easily transferable to ski mountaineering.

Avalanche safety is an essential skill for ski mountaineering. You’ll need to know how to recognise and assess avalanche conditions and make good decisions on travel. Additionally, all of your team members will need to be well practised with search and rescue techniques. In the event of a member of your party being involved in an avalanche, the chance of survival depends on the actions of their team members. This includes the use of avalanche transceivers, shovels, and probes.

Learning to manage avalanche risk is a lifelong pursuit. It pays to continually update your knowledge and maintain currency. You can practice with your friends before and during the season or undertake professionally run avalanche skills courses or a refresher course to stay abreast of the latest techniques.

Ski mountaineering requires a moderate to high level of fitness for both uphill and downhill travel. During the season, you can maintain your fitness by both skiing and riding within the ski field and touring in the backcountry. Your gains are made pre-season and a regime of cross-training, such as running and mountain biking, as well as strengthening and injury prevention exercises.

There is a lot of advice out there on formulating a specific training plan for your objectives. This one is up to you.

All mountain activities include an element of risk. It’s important to have a good understanding of emergency procedures to deal with common issues from equipment failure to avalanche involvement and crevasse fall.

You’ll need to be familiar with everything from equipment repair and maintenance in the field through to avalanche search and rescue and crevasse rescue. You and your team members must be prepared for companion rescue, administer basic first aid, and manage injuries in remote settings. In the high mountains, weather and conditions can mean that outside assistance might not be readily available.

The ski mountaineering skills discussed here can be introduced on a series of local courses throughout the winter. This prepares you for the spring season. Alternatively, Wānaka Mountain Guides’ dedicated Ski Mountaineering Course runs during September and October. This course caters to aspiring ski or splitboard mountaineers.