Adventure Medicine on Skis, Skins & Crampons

Who should attend?

We invite medics of any grade, age and stage to this active, educational snowsports adventure where WMT does the organising. Non-medics welcomed too. Join solo and easily befriend like-minded ski buddies or attend in pairs/couples or groups of mates. We expect delegates will ski to a minimum intermediate level. Inform us when you register if you’ve booked with a friend and want to share a room.

Fees & how to book this course?

This course will not run in 2022. Due to the overwhelming interest in Mountain Medicine on Skis, we are devoting the resources we had allocated to this new course to offering a 3rd Mountain Medicine on Skis course 23-30 January at The Castle with the same teaching team.

Teaching team

A mountain savvy team delivers this course – French ski instructor and international mountain guide Luc Bellon contributes for 3 days and WMT’s directors Dr Duncan Gray and Barry Roberts will manage the course throughout.

Luc Bellon is an internationally qualified high mountain guide (IFMGA) and ski instructor with an extensive background in mountain rescue as a former mountain policeman with the PGHM. He has worked with WMT for over a decade and contributes to all Chamonix Medic courses.

Barry Roberts (WMT Commercial Director) has maintained a long love affair with mountain travel and has a huge amount of experience leading ski and climbing expeditions in Greenland and the Himalaya. Career highlights include climbing Everest and guiding the first winter ascent of the highest mountain in the Arctic (Gunnsbjornsfjeld in Greenland) from which he paraglided off. He has held the BASI Alpine Ski Instructor qualification.

WMT’s Medical Director Dr Duncan Gray is an A&E consultant and GP. His mountain expedition experience is vast. Highlights include trips to the Chinese Himalaya, a ski crossing of South Georgia, climbing Denali in Alaska and four Antarctic visits including providing medical cover for the first South Pole marathon. He holds the UK summer and winter Mountain Leader awards. He’s a very experienced skier who does a lot of ski touring at home in the Cairngorms. Duncan has also been the medic on many jungle and desert expeditions.

Read more about both directors here and Duncan in this Newsletter.

The Castle – central Chamonix chalet basecamp

We’ve teamed up with old friends at Nomadic Ski to run this course at The Castle chalet on a self-catered basis. This 4-story chalet has 10 twin bedrooms arranged in 3 apartment units – that means 3 kitchens, 3 dining rooms and 3 lounges with TVs and Wifi throughout. Enjoy the (strong>hot tub to sooth those aching thighs in the evenings. There are 9 bathrooms – so most bedrooms have en suite facilities. Dedicated ski room with boot heaters. See photos at this Castle Chalet web page. The top floor apartment has the biggest dining space that we’ll use for post-ski early evening tutorials. Guests will share a twin room. We strive for same-gender pairings but can’t guarantee this for those who don’t book early. Coming with a friend/partner or small group? Tell us the names when you book if you want to room share in the same apartment.

Please note: A maximum of 20 delegates can be accommodated but this number of places may be reduced without notice depending on uptake (to avoid the liability to pay for empty beds). So DON’T DITHER to book and be sure to book at the same time with any companions.

Catering options

Delegates have the freedom to organise their own catering. Cook together (in the apartment kitchen groups), make packed lunches or eat out. The chalet is a few minutes’ walk from the town centre, supermarkets, bars, boulangerie and dozens of eateries to suit any budget. We’ll likely organise a meal out together one night to enjoy a traditional fondue, but generally it’s not practical for a group of 20 to do this every night. Why not eat all together in the chalet one night or two and organise a Jacob’s join?! We expect this will be a very sociable course group but the chalet lounges and twin rooms provides space to spread out, chill out and rest up. We’ll try to group vegetarians/vegans in the same apartment so let us know your preferences.

Medical training – overview

The medical training is focussed on managing trauma in the wild and environmental medicine – high, hot, cold and freezing which are of particular relevance to the mountain traveller. The “hot and bothered” tutorial covers heat and tropical problems and is interesting and broadens the syllabus. The course handbook provided (200+ pages) covers the full range of wilderness medicine topics and is an excellent aide memoire for further study and reference (as is the pre-course reading bundle – under DOWNLOADS).

Medical Director Dr Duncan Gray’s après ski tutorials and outdoor teaching is infused with cases and examples from his vast, real-world austere medical experience from which he “cherry picks” to focus on the most interesting and useful information, emphasising what can be done by an expedition medic that is practical and achievable. Time and interest permitting, there is additional medical content we can cover, especially if we have a particularly bad weather day and skiing is curtailed.

Après ski tutorials will run 5-6.30pm:

Daily programme 23 – 30 January

Day 1 – Sunday 23 January – Chalet check in from 4pm, sort ski hire

Day 2 – Chamonix free skiing – Brevent & Flegere

Après ski: formal welcome then medical tutorial – Hypothermia – exploring the maxim “cotton kills in the hills” followed by Duncan’s illustrated career presentation – Lessons learned from 40 years of wilderness Medicine.

Day 3 – Courmayeur, Italy ski safari, lunch and ski coaching (more detail below)

Après ski tutorial: Managing the trauma patient in a cold, hostile environment (preparation for glacier day medical scenario training) including “Duncan’s donut” approach to outdoor incident management and why just doing your ABCs in isolation could make it all go wrong.

Day 4 – Glacier expedition (more detail below)

Après glacier tutorial: Medical management of the avalanche victim – ICAR algorithm. Human dynamics in the outdoors – ski touring heuristics & case exercise.

Day 5 – Ski touring & backcountry snow safety training

Après ski tutorial: Frostbite – exploring why “delay equals digits, faffing is fingers and time is toes”

Day 6 – Chamonix free skiing – Grands Montets

Après ski tutorial: Altitude medicine – 3 syndromes, medicines and group management strategies. Portable altitude chamber demonstration. Case: Barry – Everest My Way illustrated presentation.

Day 7 – Chamonix free skiing – Les Houches

Après ski tutorial: Hot and bothered – heat related illnesses, fever case and malaria in the tropics including malaria rapid test kits and applying a snake bite bandage.

Day 8 – Sunday 30 January – depart (chalet check out by 10am)

Courmayeur, Italy ski safari with lunch and 2 ski instructors

Courmayeur, on the other side of Mont Blanc, is a 20-minute tunnel drive away. The 42km of runs between 1205-2755m vary between high, open slopes to long, narrower runs that snake below the treeline. Beautiful. Cafes abound for molten hot chocolate drink stops. Courmayeur is an intermediate ski domain (39% blue runs and 51% red runs so not a beginner resort). The mountain views are stunning and the slopes are cruisy, fun and uncrowded (especially mid-week in January). For advanced skiers (who are avalanche equipped), “side-piste” powder often goes untracked for days. Lunch (a pasta and pizza feast) will be held at the lively Rifugio Maison Vieille. Our French colleague Luc Bellon (mountain guide and international ski instructor) plus an additional ski instructor joins us today to provide ski instruction and guiding. (This arrangement informs how we’ll organise the ski touring groups for later in the week). Watch this drone video over the restaurant and Courmayeur ski fields.

Ski touring & backcountry snow safety

WMT has enjoyed introducing many skiers of variable standards to ski touring. This is an immersive day – more than a taster. You’ll learn how to skin up and kick turn, practice avalanche transceiver searching and learn about the medical management of the avalanched victim. Time permitting, we’ll discuss or build emergency snow shelters. Then at the top, we peel the skins off, lock our heels and carry on downhill skiing (on and off piste depending on the group skill level).

Ski touring (in French – ski randonnée) involves “earning your turns” and sliding UP the mountain side, then skiing down. Specialised bindings on light skis are paired with lighter and softer touring ski boots. These bindings release at the heel and articulate at the toe. Skins (sticky “carpet-like” strips) are affixed to the ski base. Now we can push our feet forward, sliding the ski up. The skin gives traction so you don’t slide back. A red run ski standard is required though you don’t have to be an accomplished off piste skier. The cost of renting touring skis and boots is INCLUDED as is the loan of an avalanche transceiver, shovel and probe for the day. You’ll still need to purchase a ski pass for the day.

The glacier expedition & outdoor medical tutorial

The Mer de Glace glacier (on the Vallee Blanche ski route) is readily accessible by the Montenver mountain railway and a short cable car ride (or cliff face ladders). At 2000m, the glacier is a vast and daunting teaching space where you’ll learn how to walk in crampons, ice climb and belay each other on the crevasse walls and learn some rope and rescue techniques. A practical medical tutorial is included to cover trauma management in a cold, hostile setting (there’s nothing simulated about the environment!). Specialised personal equipment is included (crampons, mountain boots and a climbing harness). Wear your ski clothes and ski helmet. Train/gondola tickets included. The train station is a short walk from the chalet.

In-resort ski station shuttles

Daily transportation to and from a specific ski station at set times is included. This service provides convenience and structure to each free skiing day and will optimise your snowsports time. Vans will depart the chalet at agreeable set times and make one afternoon pick up at a set time. Of course, delegates might want to ski at a different station on the day or travel at different times and they can avail of the regular (free) ski buses within easy walking distance of the chalet. To be clear, we are not offering an on-demand taxi service with multiple drop off locations and collection points and times each day.

Free skiing days – how this works

For 3 days you can free ski – meaning no formal instruction or guiding is provided – but daily van transportation is (see above – In-resort ski station shuttles). Because the skiing is spread out and there are discrete stations, the slopes and lifts are easy to navigate. There are no complicated ski lift connections to work out or risks of getting stuck on the wrong side of a mountain and unable to get back to where you’re being picked up! We will give you plenty of local advice and help organise ski groups of a similar level and ambition. WMT’s instructors (Barry and Duncan) would be delighted to slide around with you to get you oriented, especially in the early days so that singles attending feel welcomed and supported. Barry has lived in Chamonix for 20+ years and knows how to optimise the ski experience for any level, in any weather. There may be advanced skiers tooled up for off piste skiing who should feel free to pursue their personal aims. Others will be satisfied with skiing moderate terrain with plenty of coffee stops and a hot lunch. There is no intention that you will ski together in a group of 20, nor will you need to ski alone. It’s not a boot camp either. It’s your “working” holiday. The teaching team will have run the Mountain Medicine on Skis course in Chamonix the week before so we’ll be dialled in to the snow conditions.

Ski stations & ski passes

Chamonix is nestled low down at 1030m in the valley so it’s not a ski-in, ski-out venue. There are 5 ski stations that have their own unique charms but they are spread out. Hence, having in-resort transportation provided is really a bonus. The ski station Brevent looms above town and it is linked to Flegere. These slopes face Mont Blanc and are in the sun! Next up the valley is Grands Montets with north facing terrain and long, sometimes steep red and black runs and acres of off piste potential. At the head of the valley is Le Tour/Balme that straddles a ridge with lovely long cruisy blue and red runs down to the car parks on the south and north (Vallorcine village) side. A new telecabine at Le Tour will be ready this Christmas. In the other direction, down the valley from Chamonix, is Les Houches that has long, sheltered runs in the trees. Nice. This is the place to go in poor weather, but it is not included in the cheapest Chamonix ski pass – Le Pass (even though a Les Houches day pass is cheaper). For maximum flexibility and cost effectiveness, we suggest that ski passes are purchased each day on arrival at the ski station, including in Courmayeur. This is quick and easy. A daily ski costs costs 58.50 euros.

Ski hire

Ski and boot hire – bring your own kit or rent from our local partners who will deliver your kit to the chalet. They won’t expect you to return your skis on non-ski days (or charge you for the days you don’t use them when ski touring and on the glacier).

Flights & airport transfers

Fly into Geneva. Search SKYSCANNER for options. Click this link for airport transfers. The journey takes about 1.5hrs. Chalet entry is from 4pm and departure is by 10am so book your travel to suit these timings. Door to door transfers are best with heavy luggage.

Covid & travel insurance

You must be double vaccinated to join this course and for entry into France (and Geneva). We will monitor the French requirements regarding covid passes in France and keep delegates informed. Visit the FCDO website for their current advice. Your travel insurance must include cover for cancellation if covid illness prevents you from travelling. We recommend SNOWCARD and their Max Adventure product which covers glacier trekking, ski touring (and off piste skiing without a guide if that’s what you’ll be doing in free skiing time). See this Snowcard covid information page.

Programme flexibility & weather

Delegates must accept that WMT may change or move elements of this programme around to accommodate severe weather, road closures, avalanche risks, lift closures, Mont Blanc tunnel closures or any other factors outside our control or that we deem prudent and safe. We will always do our best to offer alternative and comparable services and activities that fulfill the overal aim of delivering an enjoyable, safe and educational mountain sports course.

CPD

Delegates may be able to claim CPD for this event. Please see this page.

Fee & payment schedule, terms & conditions

The full course fee is £1295. A deposit of £645 is required to book a place. The balance of £650 is due 60 days before the course. Please be sure to read WMT’s Terms & Conditions before you make any payment.See the section above How to Book This Course to register

What’s included – not included in the fee

Includes:

• 7 night’s twin room, shared chalet accommodation (with towels, hot tub, kitchen facilities)
• WMT’s attention to organisational detail
• 2 WMT instructors/hosts to teach/support/accompany you throughout (though not accommodated with delegates)
• Medical tuition and evening tutorials/presentations as outlined above
• Return transportation to Courmayeur with set lunch (but not drinks/alcohol) and ski guiding/tuition
• One day glacier expedition; guiding, train/telecabine ticket and specialised equipment – crampons, boots, harness) (you don’t need a ski pass for this day)
• One day ski touring; guiding, ski touring boots and ski hire, avalanche kit use (transceiver, shovel, probe)
• Daily return transportation to ski (not required or provided on glacier day)
• Extensive 200+ page WMT Medic A5 handbook
• Pre-course reading bundle
• Detailed dossier to help you prepare
• Whatsapp group link to communicate with other attendees
• WMT attendance certificate

Not included:

• Ski passes (you’ll need 5 days)
• Ski equipment hire (except ski touring kit which we provide for one day)
• Flights and Geneva airport transfers, travel insurance
• Food, except a set lunch in Courmayeur, or any alcohol or drinks
• Daily chalet cleaning / bed making
• Anything else not expressly mentioned