Zinal Early Season Short Off-Piste Adventure

Jumpstart your winter with an exhilarating early-season off-piste adventure in Zinal. Spend 4 days exploring the vast, untouched freeride terrain of this Swiss gem, guided by experts who know the Val d'Annivièrs like the back of their hand.

Zinal, tucked away in the beautiful Val d'Annivièrs, is renowned for its early-season snowfall, making it a prime location for our pre-Xmas warm ups. Off-piste skiing in the the Val d'Annivièrs region still remains one of Switzerland's best kept secrets, despite its 2 hour proximity from Geneva. Being a high altitude ski destination snow is reliable and the lift pass allows access to 5 ski resorts: Vercorin, Grimentz, Zinal, St-Luc and Chandolin; offering huge scope for thes adventure.

The Val d'Annivièrs consists of five idyllic and picturesque villages and is renowned for its variety of snow and the scope of its freeride domain. Each day our pursuit of the best snow starts from a different ski region in the valley allowing for something new everyday as we explore the whole length and breadth of the valley.

Your guides will lead you off the beaten path, helping you discover secret stashes and untracked runs while ensuring your safety and maximizing your time on the snow. This adventure is perfect for skiers ready to dive into the season and experience the thrill of exploring some of the finest off-piste terrain the Alps have to offer.

Special Offer: All participants booking this tour qualify for a £70 discount on another trip within the same season, which can be combined with your returning customer discounts. Only available on qualifying trips above £1500.

2024

The price includes:

• 4 full days of guiding
• 5 nights half-board accommodation (twin-rooms)

The price does not include:

• travel to Zinal
• local transfers
• lift pass
• lunches
• personal insurance
• equipment hire.

BOOK WITH CONFIDENCE

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ATOL
£2.50 per person of the cost of any air package is paid to the Civil Aviation Authority to provide ATOL Protection to you. This means the money paid for these arrangements is fully protected. Our ATOL number is ATOL 2911. For more information see our booking terms and conditions.
ABTOT
ABTOT provides protection for your booking as set out in Holiday Information.
Ski Club Winter Arrangements limited (trading as Mountain Tracks)
Registered in England No. 2099115. VAT No. GB 461 5692 34

We accept the following payment methods

This is an extensive list of the recommended clothing and equipment you will need if you are coming on one of our Off-Piste Adventure trips.  On all our weeks you’ll be staying in comfortable catered chalets or hotels. When skiing you need to carry just a day pack, which contains your safety equipment and any personal items or extra clothing layers you may need.

• Off-Piste Adventure - Clothing
  This season, we’ve partnered with Ortovox to provide us with the very best safety kit and clothing. Our guides will all be decked out in the latest Ortovox jackets and trousers and will keep warm, dry and comfortable thanks to their technical wool base- and mid-layers. Our guides couldn’t recommend their kit more highly.

   

  • A good quality pair of ski trousers. They must be made from a waterproof and breathable fabric like Gore-Tex or similar. It’s useful to have some venting zips on the legs either inside or outside thigh or full-length side-zips. Integral snow gaiters and some pockets for handy items are good features.
  • An outer shell jacket made of waterproof and breathable material like Gore-Tex or similar with a built-in hood. We advocate the ‘layering principle’ and so a shell is recommended rather than an insulated jacket.
  • Comfortable underwear with good wicking properties. Very popular at the moment are the wool based layers from companies such as Ortovox. They are comfy, breathable, warm when needed and can be worn for days without your friends catching a whiff!
  • Several thin (rather than fewer thick) layers between your skin and the outer shell - an approach that gives better heat retention and good flexibility. These tops are known as ‘mid layers’.
  • Insulation layer like a down or Primaloft jacket is a good item to have ready to wear in the event of cold weather, it can live in your rucksack as a spare layer and can come in very handy for sudden changes in the weather.
  • Roll neck rather than a scarf. We use and recommend the ‘Buff¹ ¬ a light, stretchable tube. Excellent despite the name! They do both a fleece/cotton version for warmth or just a cotton one (to keep the sun off).
  • Headwear to include warm hat and sun-cap or wide-brim hat for extra protection from the sun. Mountain Tracks fully supports the wearing of helmets for skiing, although not mandatory for any of our trips we do recommend them.
  • Good quality, ski gloves or mitts if you suffer from cold hands and 1 thinner pair of gloves made from a softshell or fleece material if the weather is warm. These are particularly useful if you do any ski touring or hiking on the trip as thick gloves quickly become too hot.
  • Silk inner gloves can be useful if the weather is cold and you suffer from cold hands.
  • Technical Socks - Investing in good quality ski socks will improve fit, warmth and feel when skiing for long periods. Bring along a few pairs.
• Off-Piste Adventure - Ski Equipment
  We continue to see big changes in ski, boot and binding design and technology, which make off-piste skiing and ski touring much more accessible. For our Adventure courses, we prefer you to ski with” freeride” skis, ski-touring boots and ski-touring bindings. If you have your own skis but they do not have ski touring bindings but are suitable for off-piste then you are welcome to bring them with you. Downhill boots are also acceptable but please bear in mind that you will do some touring on ALL our Off-Piste Adventure courses so you made need to hire suitable skis and boots in a resort.
  
  Skis

  This winter our lead guides are using Elan skis. Praised by magazine testers and professional skiers alike for its unique blend of lightweight performance, the Ripstick 96 is proven to be the ultimate freeride ski in all snow conditions. The Ripstick 106 is the ultimate freeride ski for any terrain. From the boundary line to the base lodge, peak to the parking lot, and trailhead to tailgate this ski excels in all conditions. The new Ripstick Tour 94 is designed on a wider platform, enabling the skier to float better, ski faster, and turn easier in backcountry conditions.

  It is built to blend high performance at a low weight, for the perfect mix of freeride downhill performance and efficient ascending capability. With Ripstick Tour 94, the confidence to conquer long ascents and charge challenging descents is the name of the game.

  There are many ‘all-mountain/freeride’ skis to choose from and we also recommend skis from Salomon, Dynastar, Movement, Black Crows, Trab Skis, Scott and Volkl.  Look for a ski that is the right size for your height, typically the tip of the ski should be somewhere around your nose height.  As for the width of the ski or “side cut” a mid-fat ski – 90-110mm under the foot is a good place to start; this offers plenty of flotation off piste while remaining suitable for day tours and they should also handle reasonably well on piste and mixed terrain.

  Elan Skis: www.elanskis.com

  Dynastar Skis:  www.dynastar.com

  Movement Skis: www.movementskis.com                                       

  Black Crows Skis: www.blackcrows-skis.com/

  Trab Skis: www.skitrab.com/en-us/

  Scott Skis: http://www.scott-sports.com

  Volkl Skis: http://www.voelkl.com

  There are plenty of other great skis to choose from so if you’re planning on buying skis for ski touring or general skiing and have any questions do not hesitate to call us, or Lockwoods, to discuss the options available.

  If you are planning on buying skis for ski touring and general skiing and have any questions do not hesitate to call us to discuss the options available to you.

  
  Boots
  For our Off-Piste Adventure courses its best to have a pair of ski touring boots – they have great skiing performance and with the Vibram soles, they are much safer for scrambling around on rocky or icy ground. However standard downhill ski boots are also acceptable. We do not recommend you come on a trip with brand-new boots.
  
  If you are going to be getting into off-piste and ski touring, then rather than having a pair of downhill boots and a pair of ski touring boots, we strongly suggest that you opt for a good pair of ski touring boots. With advances made in plastics, mouldings and materials in recent years you can now get a ‘hybrid’ touring boot that offers as much downhill performance and stiffness but they come with a walk mode and good flexibility for the uphill too. Many boots fall into the category "hike & ride" so a 3 or 4-buckle boot, walk mode, Vibram/grippy sole and possible Pin binding compatible.
  It just makes more sense - not only are they much more comfortable to walk in compared to ordinary ski boots, but they are also great to ski in too.

  Our guides are using ROXA boots. They recommend R3 ski boots, the lightest high-performance alpine ski boot in its class. The 110 TI is geared for big mountain chargers who may use “Tech” and/or Alpine bindings and often hike or skin to find their lines. The RX Tours is targeted toward skiers who prefer to blaze their own trail and leave the lift lines behind.

  Scarpa has led the way in touring boots for many years but they have been joined by other manufactures like Dynafit, Salomon, Scott, Black Diamond, Dalbello and K2; all producing their own versions of a ski touring boots.

  • ROXA R3 and RX Tour ski boots provide a range of models suitable for all sorts of terrain and snow conditions. It is a family-owned company located in Italy, focused on advanced materials, and ultralight compounds and one of the first companies to use CAD Design software to design and 3D print prototypes.
  • Scarpa’s Freedom boots are their Hybrid offerings, great ski performance, a walk mode and vibram sole.  Their Maestrale (men’s) and Gea (women’s) boots are also highly recommended.
  • The Scott Celeste and Cosmos boots have stood the test of time and are good all round choices.
  • Salomon’s Quest Max series offer boots with a walk mode in various flex’s with good downhill performance.
  • Dynafit offer the Mercury or Vulcan boots plus a range of lightweight options like the TLT6.

  The best of the rest are:

  Fischer - Transalp

  Black Diamond – Quadrant and Factor

  K2 – Pinnacle boot

  Dalbello – Lupo or Sherpa

  Langue – XT series offer a ski boot with a walk mode in various flex options

   

  
  Boot Liners
  These days many manufacturers offer ‘thermo-fit’ liners as standard equipment. You may also want to consider a custom liner. Heated and moulded to your foot and boot for a perfect fit, they can make all the difference especially if you have trouble finding really comfortable
  ‘off-the-shelf¹ boots. Zipfit liners are a great option for anyone seeking total customisation in fit and comfort. They will replace the original liner.
  
  Custom Footbeds
  Essential kit – to provide additional comfort and ski control. If you want to get footbeds made or a pair of new boots fitted then we suggest you visit somewhere like Profeet for a professional fitting. Don’t forget if you have footbeds in your downhill boots but need to rent touring boots then you can bring the footbeds with you and put them in the hire boots.
  
  Bindings
  We prefer you to have ski touring bindings on your skis for our adventure courses but if you have downhill bindings mounted on your skis then this is perfectly acceptable. The new touring bindings are every bit as safe for downhill as alpine bindings, yet you have the additional advantage of being able to walk uphill with them to access the real off-piste. Fritschi Diamir and Marker both have great bindings which can be used with ski touring boots and downhill boots. Many more people are seeing the advantage of the “pin” binding system now offered by a number of manufacturers; they are light and offer ever-improving security despite their minimalist looks!

  Although Pin bindings have been around since the Dynafit Low Tech bindings over 30 years ago. Since their patent expired the technology has advanced substantially. Elan, with its AMBITION 12 AT is a world-class alpine touring binding with innovative climbing technology, natural ski flex and proven downhill performance. The binding features the AT Toe, which can be easily adjusted to alpine (ISO 5355) and touring boot norms (ISO 9523), plus a 65 mm wide mechanical Anti Friction Gliding Element to provide constant release values. Our lead guides are using the Elan bindings this winter, so if you’d like to know more about them give Elan Skis a ring.

• Off-Piste Adventure - Technical Equipment

  Although our Off-Piste Adventure courses rely heavily on the lift systems in resorts, access to and egress from runs sometimes involve climbing and walking a short way and you may undertake 1 or 2 day ski tours, for this reason its best to have skis with ski touring bindings, skins and ski touring boots.

  • Ski Skins – these are skins which, now made of artificial fabric, stick to the bottom of your skis and allow you to walk up hill. They must be cut to fit your skis exactly, so if you are bringing your own skis you must provide your own skins.
  • Ski Crampons (aka Couteaux) - most ski touring bindings have ski crampons specifically designed for the binding. We always carry these just in case. Again if you are bringing your own skis and touring bindings you must provide your own ski crampons.
  • When skiing on glaciated terrain you will need a harness and occasionally boot crampons and possibly an ice axe. Your can guide can supply you with these items if you do not have your own.
• Off-Piste Adventure - Safety Equipment

  The “Safety Trilogy” - applicable for all our off-piste courses and ski tours.

  Avalanche Transceiver/Beacon 
  Snow shovel
  Avalanche probe

  We recommend simple and intuitive ORTOVOX AVALANCHE RESCUE KIT 3+.

  Avalanche airbags/rucksacks – if you wish to ski with one of these on our courses you are welcome to do so, they are not mandatory but we always support the use of available safety items.
  You can hire avalanche rucksacks in a lot of resorts, makes are usually Snowpulse/Mammut, ABS or Ortovox AVABAG. Prices vary from shop to shop and resort to resort but a guide line price would be from €20-30 per day or around €100-120 for 6/7 days.

  Remember it is not enough just to carry this equipment; you have to know how to use it.
  How about joining one of our specialist avalanche courses – check out https://mountaintracks.co.uk/discipline/winter-mountaincraft

• Off-Piste Adventure - Accessories
  • Good pair of goggles – essential. Useful to have 2 pairs on powder days in case of head plants! A pair with a lens for low light is essential in the event of snow and poor visibility
  • Good quality sunglasses – UV factor category 4 recommended
  • 20-30 liter rucksack is usually suitable for most off piste skiing. Key features are a method of attaching your skis in either a A-frame (one either side) or both together on a diagonal ski carriage; easy access into the main compartment without having to empty the sack to get something at the bottom; separate pocket for avalanche shovel, handle and probe; small top pocket for items like wallet, sunglasses/goggles etc; an ice axe loop and possibly a built in rain cover and a secure method of attaching/stowing a ski helmet (if you use one). It’s essential that the pack has a good hip/waist belt and adjustable shoulder straps.
  Avalanche airbag rucksacks can be used but please remember that they are heavy, adding somewhere between 5-8kg just for an empty pack with cylinder in; so unless you are sure you can carry it and fit all you need in, we do not recommend you use one.
  • 1-1.5 Liter water bottle – we don’t recommend hydration-systems (e.g. Camelbaks) as these often freeze in winter
  • Suncream and lip salve (factor 30 or higher recommended.)

• Insurance

  It is a condition of booking that you are insured for your chosen activity and the cover must include medical expenses, personal accident, personal liability, third party risks and rescue (including helicopter rescue). You are strongly advised also to take out cover against cancellation and curtailment.

  For UK residents Ski Club Travel Insurance may be a suitable option.

  For more details and to purchase a policy online visit http://www.skiclubinsurance.co.uk/
  If you need assistance arranging your personal insurance please let us know.
   

• Getting to Zinal

  The most convenient airports are Geneva or Zurich airport, from where you can take the train to Sierre (Geneva 2 hrs, Zurich 2.5 hrs).

  At Sierre catch the yellow Post Bus to Zinal (you may need to change in Vissoie). Ask the driver for Mottec (as it’s a request stop) and the bus stops right outside the Auberge Edelweiss. This is the large balconied house alongside the road.

  
  Train and bus timetables can be found at www.sbb.ch/en

  Alternatively, you can hire a car at the airport: Driving is approximately 2 hrs from Geneva and 2.5 hrs from Zurich.

  You should arrange to arrive in Zinal by late afternoon on Day 1 and we recommend that you arrange your return/onward flight for mid to late afternoon to give yourself plenty of time to get to the airport without having to rush!

   

• Swiss Travel Pass

  If you are arriving into resort by train and plan to explore Switzerland before or after your trip, a Swiss Travel Pass could save you money. The Pass provides half-price fares on cable cars and funiculars in many resorts, and unlimited travel on train, bus and boat. Please find further information here.

  If you only plan to book return train transfers from the airport for the Mountain Tracks tour, it is not worth buying the Pass. 

• ETIAS & EES

  ETIAS (European Travel Information and Authorisation System) 

  1. What is ETIAS?

     • Starting in the first half of 2025, travellers from over 60 visa-exempt countries will be required to have an ETIAS travel authorisation to enter most European countries within the Schengen Area.
     • ETIAS enhances security by checking the details of travellers before they arrive.
     • It is similar to systems like the ESTA (USA) and eTA (Canada).

  2. Who Needs ETIAS?

     • Travellers with British passports or passports from other visa-exempt countries must complete the ETIAS process.
     • Holders of EU or Schengen Area passports or valid EU/Schengen Area visas are exempt.

  3. Application Details:

     • ETIAS costs a 7EUR processing fee, waived for those under 18 or over 70.
     • Validity: Three years from application, tied to your passport’s validity.
     • New passport = new ETIAS.

  4. Application Form Questions:

     • Basic personal details (e.g., passport info, name, address, citizenship, gender).
     • Additional questions during the process (e.g., criminal history, past travel, health).

  5. Application Fee:

     • 7EUR euros.
     • Electronic payment via debit/credit card.

  6. Approval:

     • Most applicants receive approval within minutes.
     • Valid ETIAS visa waiver for three consecutive years.

  Remember to apply for ETIAS approval to explore your favourite European destinations! More details will be confirmed by ETIAS authorities. You can find additional information at the following links:

  • ETIAS Official Website 

   

   

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  EES (Entry/Exit System)

  The Entry/Exit System (EES) is an automated IT system developed by the European Agency for the operational management of large-scale IT systems. Its primary purpose is to register travellers from third countries each time they cross an EU external border. Here are the key points:

  1. What is EES?

     • The EES is an automated IT system designed for registering non-EU nationals travelling for a short stay.
     • It records and stores the date, time, and place of entry and exit when these travellers cross the external borders of European countries using the EES.
     • The system calculates the duration of the authorized stay and generates alerts to EU Member States when the authorized stay expires.

  2. Who Is Affected?

     • The EES applies to non-EU nationals travelling for a short stay (up to 90 days within any 180 days) to European countries using the EES.
     • Exemptions apply; for example, holders of EU or Schengen Area passports or valid visas are exempt from EES registration.

  3. Advantages of EES:

     • Saves time by replacing manual passport stamping.
     • Automates border control procedures for more efficient travel.
     • It helps identify travellers who overstay or use fake identities or passports.
     • Contributes to preventing, detecting, and investigating serious criminal offences.

  • EES Official Website

   Remember, additional information about the EES system will be confirmed by authorities, including application acceptance details. For further resources, check out the ETIAS and the official EES website. 
  
    

• Off-Piste Adventure - Guides and Group Sizes

  Our Off-Piste Adventure courses are run by our team of IFMGA Mountain Guides.

  The guide to skier ratio is 1:6 maximum, our advanced weeks typically run on a 1:4 ratio with expert trips either 1:2 or 1:1 we can run with a maximum of 2 groups on the same week.

• Trip level & Stamina requirements

  To ensure a safe and enjoyable experience for everyone, all participants must meet the specified skill and stamina levels required for each trip, as outlined on the trip’s page at the time of booking.

  Please keep the following in mind:

  1. Trip Requirements: Before booking your trip, please review and confirm that you meet the necessary skill and stamina levels. These requirements are in place to ensure the safety and enjoyment of all participants.

  2. Guides' Discretion: Our guides and instructors are dedicated to maintaining the highest safety standards. They have the authority to exclude any participant who does not meet the required skill or stamina levels or whose participation could compromise the group's safety. This decision will be made with the utmost consideration.

  3. Responsibility for Costs: Should you be unable to continue with the trip due to inadequate skill or stamina, any additional expenses incurred will be your responsibility.

  We appreciate your understanding and cooperation. Our goal is to provide a memorable and safe adventure for everyone. If you have any questions or concerns about the requirements, please do not hesitate to contact us.

  For further information please refer to the Terms & Conditions.