Above: Closing a piste considered unsafe after overnight blizzards.

A safe and enjoyable skiing experience still relies on the human touch, as I discovered in the company of the pisteurs of the Grand Massif ski domaine in Haute-Savoie. While you’re still barely awake teams of accomplished skiers are out on their daily tours of inspection, checking every piste, replacing any safety nets or signage displaced by the previous night’s winds and blizzards, and checking for other hazards.

Least-visible, yet potentially the most lethal, are zones at risk from avalanches. Recognising problems hidden beneath fresh overnight accumulations requires skill and nerve, as does triggering controlled avalanches safely out of harm’s way before the real thing can occur. Habitual danger points are often equipped with remotely triggered gas-fuelled canon, but elsewhere it’s a case of laying explosive charges.

Apart from quarrymen and the military, the specially trained avalanche control teams are the only people licensed to handle explosives. Unlike their counterparts, however, the teams use conventional lit fuses; with so much electrical equipment around on the mountains (not to mention a constant risk of a sudden lightning strike) using electric cabling to trigger dynamite is not an option. Unsurprisingly, if a thrown charge somehow fails to ignite, you don’t just go and see why. There’s a safe minimum wait of 30min (one charge is on record as having exploded after 27min).

Above, L-R: Preparing the fuse; the lit charge is thrown; vital ear-protection during the detonation; mission accomplished, the team prepares to move on.

Time For A Break

Once the pistes are signed-off as safe the lifts can open for recreational skiers, but the pisteurs remain on call for emergency recoveries of anyone unfortunate enough to have a bad fall requiring medical treatment. The steel-thighed teams are soon on scene to transport the patient safely and swiftly down the mountain, skiing with a stretcher sled or hitched to a snowmobile.

The teams perform mountain recoveries of injured skiers and snowboarders in all weather conditions, using snowmobiles and pure skiing ability.

At the end of the day the inspection patrol begins again, only in reverse. As the final skiers are leaving the last lifts the pisteurs fan out behind them, re-skiing every piste to check for stragglers or anyone in difficulty. As before, each run is signed off by the pisteur responsible, ready for the piste-groomers to begin work.

Above: A relaxed moment for the pisteurs of the Grand Massif.

Part Two: A Matter of Grooming