Hands up I've been riding for quite a while now and I haven't been on any avalanche safety course. Mountains are scenic and serene... on blue bird days, but can quickly become scary places when white out descends and surrounds you.
So for the next season I thought about booking onto an avalanche safety course:
Hmm a £1695 little bit out of my price range!
So I decided to hit google up:
So the course was founded in 2015 by freeride ski pioneer Dominique Perret, and endorsed by our very own snowboarding legend Ed Leigh. Nice! Plus it transpires that the 2 day course is only 229 CHF plus the day rate of the instructor. Excellent!
Here’s a flyer from the ITSA organisation
229 CHF - ITSA course fees (per person)
500 CHF - 2 days ski instructor (per person)
100 GBP - swiss snowbooard social accommodation
£669.45 grand total for 2 people on the course.
If we have four people on the course, the day rate per person for the ski instructor falls down to 165 CHF /day (vs 250 CHF):
Making the total course price:
£536.43
This amounts to a whopping 68% saving over the listed 7 days price. Stay for only 3 days it becomes even cheaper... but why not stick around, your are going to be in the neighbourhood.
Yes airbags are all well and good, and they serve their place. But I'd rather avoid the need to put my life in the hands of a expensive bit of kit unless I really needed it. And remember they inflate all the time. So you become "that guy, who got of the bus and accidentally set off an air bag"
Ouch costly ;)