Off-Piste Guidelines

All Policies cover off-piste snowboarding, however there are certain guidelines :

You should ensure that you check with the local piste authorities before you venture off-piste that you are entering designated off-piste areas, on no account should you be going off-piste in prohibited areas.

Always snowboard in off piste areas with one other person, never by yourself .

Always snowboard off-piste within your own ability.

Try and ensure you have relevant Safety products with you such as shovels, probes, transceivers, first aid kits etc .

Off-piste riding is on the increase, and understandably so: getting away from the crowds among high mountain scenery and making first tracks in fresh powder snow are magical experiences. It can never be completely safe - you go off-piste completely at your own risk but your chances of survival are greatly increased if you are properly guided and equipped.

Shovels play an important role during the time of Avalanche, the shovels are used to dig the victim out of the snow. In recent reports it has shiown that 15% of avalche victims are alive under the burial. So a better shovel will help a victim to survice.

There is a good range of avalanche safety equipment on the market these days. If you do decide to go off-piste (or "out of bounds" as they say in the States), you should be equipped with, and have been trained how to use, an avalanche transceiver (often referred to as a "peeps", because one of the major brands is the Austrian Pieps). This is a combined transmitter and receiver.

PIEPS DSP

Features

1. Tripple Antenna Reciever with Digital technology

2. Multiple Burial Search in short span.

3. Designed for Proffessional

Avalanche AirBags

Avalanche AirBags is one of the major equipment for skiiers and snowboarders. AirBags act as a complete safety equipment for skiiers, it helps them to protect from avalanche. Snowpulse AirBags are one of the best AirBags in the market. This AirBag is attached with a Avalanche Airbag system which inflates during the time of avalache and protects the users head and chest trauma. The Airbags and Backpacks contains good storage capacity to keep other storage equipments like shovels, probes, transcieveres,etc.

While riding, everyone in a group has their peeps set on "transmit" if there is an avalanche, those not buried by it turn their peeps to "receive" - they can then receive the signals sent out by their buried companions and by gradually reducing the sensitivity of the receiver track them down under the snow. But you need to be very well trained in transceiver use to do this quickly and effectively. New digital transceivers are on sale which are meant to be easier and quicker to use than old-style ones.

Other essential equipment includes avalanche probes and a collapsible shovel - to locate buried people and dig them out. It is also sensible to take a whistle, flares, a length of rope and a survival bag as well.

Most specialist snowboard shops sell most of the above individually or as part of an off-piste pack.