WESTERN EUROPE - Clean Breaks: 500 New Ways to See the World - page 54

convenient place to stay near the ski area is the
Oberammergau Youth Hostel, which has a mix
of dormitories and family rooms, serves packed
lunches (on request) and hires out sledges, snow-
shoes and cross-country-skiing equipment.

underside of your skis give you traction to walk
uphill into the wild hinterland, then once you've
gained some height you strip them off and enjoy
the thrill of skiing deserted descents. Going off-
piste, though, is not without its dangers, which
is why the Ski Club of Great Britain organizes
guided ski-touring instruction holidays so
you can better understand off-piste mountain
conditions. You stay in mountain huts and
learn the different techniques needed to ski
on off-piste and glaciated terrain. Once you've
mastered these, you can join one of their guided
ski-touring safari holidays to regions including
the French and Swiss Alps and the Dolomites.
Then you can go it alone.

Need to know Take the train ( W www.bahn.de)
from Munich to Murnau (1hr), then change for the
train to Oberammergau (40min). Oberammergau
Youth Hostel: W www.oberammergau.
jugendherbege.de; T [phone];
E 17.70 per person B&B or E 25.10 full board. For
more information on the Oberammergau ski area
see W www.oberammergau.de (German only);
T [phone].

073 hut to hut across the Spanish
pyrenees
Sunset at 2000m is worth every ounce of effort,
especially when you have the satisfaction of
having walked all the way up there on snow-
shoes. On a trip with
Pyrenean Mountain Tours
you'll start on the French
side of the Pyrenees (from
the Valardies Valley), cross
over the border to the Refuge
de la Restanca at Encantats
Nature Park and then stay
in mountain huts for six
nights, walking through pine
forests and passing the many
frozen lakes of Cirque de
Colomers before circling back
to Valardies.

Need to know Trips are run in allocated groups
depending on your level of experience, from novice
to expert. For prices and trip dates of all ski-touring
trips see W www.skifreshtracks.com; T +44 (0)
208 410 202.

Ski-touring takes you to places
other skiers cannot reach

Need to know For itineraries,
costs and suggested
equipment see W www.
pyrenees.co.uk; T +44 (0)
1635 297 209.

074 Ski-touring in
the Swiss alps
Ski-touring gives you the
best of both worlds: synthetic
“skins” attached to the