The Training and Safety Skills You Need to Move into Freeride

Why is off-piste different?

On marked pistes there is avalanche control and ski patrol; off-piste there is none of this, and the risk is entirely yours. We explain the difference, and avalanche incidents in Turkey, in our guide to avalanche risk in off-piste skiing. We explain what freeride is, and that it has been an FIS discipline since 2024, in our guide to riding styles.

1. Technical prerequisites

Before going off-piste, you should be able to do the following comfortably:

• Control your speed on black runs and steep sections with short, closed turns.
• Adapt your technique to icy, tracked-out and wet snow.
• Link turns in powder and get up when you fall.
• Get down safely by side-slipping or traversing when needed.

To assess yourself, look at the final stages of our ski skills checklist and snowboard skills checklist guides. For technique, read our guides to powder technique, skiing steep runs and steep runs and variable snow on a snowboard.

The Freeride World Tour's judging rules measure these skills too: line choice, control, technique, fluidity and airs. Within technique, managing the loose snow that slides down the slope as you ride (sluff) counts as a “very important” element.

2. Avalanche training

Avalanche knowledge is not gained from an app or an article but from a course taught in the field. Example course levels:

Avalanche Canada's free online introductory course, Avy Savvy, is a good starting point for preparing the basic concepts, but it does not replace a field course. Canada's terrain classification system divides slopes into three groups, simple, challenging and complex, and helps with decision-making together with the day's danger level. The Swiss SLF, the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research, also updated the calculations of a widely used risk assessment method in 2022.

What you learn on a course: Avalanche types and how they form, reading the avalanche bulletin, choosing terrain, decision-making within a group and companion rescue. We cover the basics in our guides How do avalanches form? and How to read an avalanche bulletin. According to the European Avalanche Warning Services (EAWS), about half of avalanche deaths happen at level 3 (considerable), the middle of the five-level scale.

3. Equipment and companion rescue

The essential trio: Avalanche transceiver, probe and shovel. Every member of the group should carry them, transceivers should be switched on, and everyone should know how to use them. We explain how to use the equipment in our guide to avalanche risk in off-piste skiing.

Why does time matter so much?

The conclusion of the 2011 study by Haegeli and colleagues comparing the two countries is clear: a buried person should be dug out ideally within 10 minutes. According to Swiss data from Brugger and colleagues, the chance of survival for those completely buried is 91% at 18 minutes and 34% at 35 minutes; the death rate is 52% for complete burial and 4% for partial burial. An outside rescue team usually cannot arrive within this time; that is why rescue is the job of the friends with you.

Avalanche airbag: In the 2014 study by Haegeli and colleagues using data from seven countries, inflated airbags cut the risk of complete burial from 47% to 20% and lowered the adjusted death rate from 22% to 11%. But 20% of airbags did not inflate, and 60% of those cases were down to user error. An airbag reduces the risk but does not eliminate it; it does not replace the essential trio.

4. Start with a mountain guide

Having your first off-piste experiences with a certified mountain guide is both a safe and an instructive way to start. According to the International Federation of Mountain Guides Associations (IFMGA/UIAGM), the core competences of a mountain guide are risk management, guiding, communication and teaching. You can verify IFMGA-certified guides on the federation's online search page.

The situation in Turkey

Turkey does not publish a daily avalanche bulletin with levels 1–5 as in Europe. The “Doğada Arama Kurtarma” (Search and Rescue in Nature) training of AFAD, Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority, also covers avalanche rescue, but this training is aimed at staff, AFAD volunteers and non-governmental organisations. We could not find a regular avalanche course open to the public. If you are thinking of going off-piste, the soundest way is to take an internationally recognised avalanche course abroad and to have your first experiences with a certified guide.

Summary: are you ready for freeride?

1. Do you ski comfortably and under control on steep terrain and in variable snow?
2. Have you completed an avalanche course taught in the field?
3. Do you and everyone in your group carry a transceiver, probe and shovel and know how to use them?
4. Have you read the day's avalanche bulletin?
5. Do you have a certified guide for your first experience?

If you cannot answer “yes” to all of these questions, head for the soft snow at the edge of the piste, not off-piste.

A full winter on the pistes

Preparing for freeride can take years; until then, everything the marked pistes offer is more than enough to fill an activity holiday. Doğadayız winter packages include accommodation, ski pass and equipment; lessons with an instructor are part of the basic course packages. Talking about avalanche safety in the evening and setting training goals for next season together can also be part of a social adventure holiday. For programmes, see our winter activity holidays page.