BC Experience Levels

Level	Uphill ability
1 – Beginner	No previous experience in the use of skins, ski touring equipment splitboards and kick turns, with the help of your guide you will learn and develop these skills during the tour.
2 – Intermediate	Competent with the use of ski touring or splitboard equipment, skins and previous experience in performing kick turns.
3 – Experienced	Proficient in the use of ski touring or splitboard equipment and able to do solid reliable kick turns on steepening terrain.
4 – Advanced	Experienced ski tourer/splitboarder with solid ability in all backcountry techniques in steep terrain.

Backcountry Fitness Levels

Level	Fitness
1 – Average	You undertake 1 or 2 exercise activities a week, probably totalling 1 or 1.5 hours total. These might be walks/run/cycles or the equivalent in the gym.
2 – Good	Your weekly training volume is around 2 – 4 hours, including a longer session at the weekend. You’re getting out 3 times a week, and walking uphill with a rucksack on is manageable for a couple of hours and doesn’t leave you exhausted.
3 – Great	You are getting out every weekend and a couple of times during the week. At this level not running/cycling/hill walking every week is frustrating. You are happy with a 6 – 7 hour hill walk with a light backpack, a two hour run or a hilly 50km on the bike, and this doesn’t leave you exhausted for the next week! Weekly volume around 4 – 10 hours.
3 – Elite	You have been training regularly for several years, maybe for big objectives in the mountains or for competitive sports back home. Running a marathon in under 4 hours, or undertaking a 150 km cycle sportive would be a fun challenge. You are happy carrying a backpack in the hills for 7 hours or more, gaining more than 1500m height gain. Weekly volume is around 10 hours plus.

Level	Downhill ability
1 – Beginner	Confident on piste (black runs), but only just beginning to venture off-piste on slopes of red/blue steepness.
2 – Intermediate	Used to skiing/riding off-piste with a backpack and able to cope with difficult conditions by a combination of side-slipping, traverses and turning with snow-plough technique or following a previous ski-track). Able to cope with short sections of backcountry snow which are as steep as black piste runs.
3 – Experienced	Able to link turns continuously in powder snow and to control speed and follow a precise line in tight trees or confined spaces. Able to link turns on longer slopes up to 35° in good snow.
4 – Advanced	Able to ski/ride the fall-line in most conditions (powder snow, crust snow) and rarely falls. Confident on steep slopes up to 40°. Skiers can jump turn. Boarders can hold traverses on the heel edge