Welcome to the top hiking course in Idre/Grövelsjöfjällen. Top Tour Course — Level 1 is aimed at those who want to develop basic skills and abilities for top touring on their own. During the course, we visit three different mountain areas, which means that you will also get some local knowledge of what Fjätervålen, Idre and Grövelsjöfjällen have to offer regarding ski touring.

It is pleasing to see that interest in summit tours is increasing and through our courses we want to help more people gain skills that lead to good peak touring days and where conscious decisions can be made to minimise the risks that exist in peak touring environments. We tour at a leisurely pace and have a focus on safety, technology and developing your skills. During the three days, you will learn, among other things.

• Trip planning based on your and your friends' goals and abilities, weather conditions, snow conditions, avalanche risks and time.
• Equipment, what is needed and why, as well as tips for adjusting, repairing, etc.
• Navigation with map, compass and apps in your phone.
• What is an avalanche? What is avalanche terrain and how can we minimize risks when traveling on the mountain
• How do we operate and use avalanche equipment before and during the trip and in the event that people fall into an avalanche.
• Knowledge of 3 hiking areas in the northern Dalafjällen

This is the course for those who want to have hiking as a lovely and fun activity, develop good routines to take it further on your own level together with family and friends.

Guide

Lars Svanerud Authorized Mountain Manager SFLO

Program

Each day is in different places and we do our best to facilitate carpooling. Participants will receive information about the exact meeting place via google maps in connection with the start of the course

Day 1

We meet this day in Fjätervålen where we start indoors with a short presentation, a review of equipment, basic planning and distribution of borrowed avalanche equipment (shovel, probe and tranciver). We then take the lift up, to be efficient, to continue the course on the west side of Fjätervålen where we have easily accessible top hiking terrain above and in the forest. We study the plan we have made and learn to know where we are and are going and to avoid the possible risks we have previously identified or observed during the trip. We end the day with a reflection of the day and make a plan for tomorrow

Day 2

We meet at Nipfjället's winter car park to travel on Nipfjället today. The nature of Nipfjället means that there can often be good snow on either side depending on the wind direction. Close to Nipfjället is also Städjan. Does the plan we made yesterday hold? We continue to develop skills that make us safer and more secure, refining our routines that are increasingly effective. We discuss avalanche risks and where we can identify terrain where possible avalanche risk may occur. We also talk about group dynamics and how this can affect our choices. We take turns trying to navigate the group to the places we planned to build knowledge, compassion and confidence. Today we spend some extra time on tips on navigating in difficult weather conditions. We finish with reflection and a plan for tomorrow

Day 3

Time to move west to the Norwegian mountains of Grövelsjöfjällen. There are several possibilities here and we choose the place that is best for the day. Your skills have now developed to a level where you master your equipment, you have some understanding of how avalanches can occur and in what terrain this can occur. Does the plan we made yesterday hold?

Here the mountains are a bit bigger and the road choices more. An excellent opportunity to discuss the pros and cons of different road choices up and down respectively. We give everyone in the group the opportunity to practice what they feel they need most.

Prior knowledge

For participation, you do not need any previous knowledge of summit touring. We avoid steep skiing and if you normally feel comfortable riding on pistes with red markings then you can do this. Skiing off-piste can be a challenge depending on the snow quality and the guide teaches the best technique, we make sure we have time for everyone to ski down safely.