Fit 1
You usually do 1-2 hours of aerobic exercise/sport per week. Walking: you’ll cover 5 kilometers 700 meters vertical gap trail in 3 hours. Skiing: you are happy piste skiing all day with just the odd break for food and drink, but would struggle to ski off piste all day without finishing up very tired for the following day.
Fit 2
You usually do 2-3 hours aerobic exercise/sport per week. Walking: you’ll cover 7 kilometers 1000 meters vertical gap trail in 4 hours. Cycling: you’ll cycle 2-3 hours without being exhausted. Skiing: you are capable of off piste skiing all day with out finishing up exhausted
Fit 3
You usually do 3-4 hours of aerobic exercise/sport per week. Walking: you’ll be happy doing a 5-6 hours hill walk. Cycling: 3-4hours, 50 miles ride without being totally exhausted. Skiing: you can tackle a 1200 skin up tour
Fit 4
You usually do 4+ hours of aerobic exercise/sport per week. Walking: 20+ mile hill walk on a weekend would hold no fears. Cycling: A 70+ mile cycle ride. Skiing: you can tackle a 1400 skin up tour
Fit 5
You usually do 5-6+ hours training for competitive sport per week. Doing a 100 ml bike ride or about a 3hr marathon is duable for you. Skiing: you could skin all day if necessary (ie 1400m+ days).
Description of Technical Levels
Tech 1
Your off-piste ski level is: Intro and your on-piste ski level is advanced. You cruise reds, black runs are challenging but fun and you have ventured off-piste between the runs with varying degrees of success (ie deep snow is still something of a mystery…)
Likely to say: ‘I’d love to learn how to ski well off-piste and/or try ski touring’
Tech 2
Your off-piste ski level is: Improving. You enjoy skiing black runs and the kind of tracked out off piste terrain found around many ski resorts, but you haven’t skied too much in properly deep snow without a base to it yet.
Likely to say: ‘I’d like to ski well in powder/link lots of short radius turns/go ski touring’
Tech 3
Your off-piste ski level is: Confirmed. You can put down a reasonable set of tracks in powder, but difficult snow types – eg heavy wet snow, crusts, poor visibility or 40dg slopes – can all cause problems (though you can cope with them safely, if not elegantly!)
Likely to say: ‘I’d like to handle difficult snow/steep slopes more confidently in better style’
Tech 4
Your off-piste ski level is: Advanced. You can put turns in through heavier snow and on icy 40dg slopes, but difficult breakable crusts and skiing a fresh track off piste in zero visibility are still somewhat challenging!
Likely to say: I’ve been skiing ten/twenty years –
Tech 5
Your off-piste ski level is: Expert. You can ski all snow types including crusts in control and are happy on slopes of 45dg or when putting in a fresh track in zero visibility.
Likely to say: ‘Bring it on…’