If You’re Not Falling, You’re Not Learning
“If you’re not falling, you’re not learning!” my guide Jose hollers from down the mountain.
Jose’s pep talk is designed to help build confidence, but it sparked a thought, ‘Perhaps it is time to risk it, just a little?’. It is a foot of soft snow beneath me afterall.
Leaving the Groomers Behind
Playing it safe is a good survival plan for anyone into winter sports. The number of ACL’s or pelvis’s broken, even on beginner slopes each year is enough to make a travel insurer weep. However having pottered about on pistes and perhaps dabbled in a little off-piste for the majority of my decade on a snowboard, it was high time I endeavoured to be a little more adventurous.
Three hours into a beginner’s course in off-piste splitboarding and Jose’s encouragement was helping myself and the six-strong group of fledgling freeriders traverse an expanse of mountain a mile from St Anton’s carefully groomed slopes. It may not have been the kind of backcountry that you see on extreme sports films, but it was further than any of us had ventured before.
Guided by the Best in the Business
Jose had sought out this corner of St Anton as one of the few places which promised deep powdery snow. Or any powdery snow to be more succinct. In terms of snowfall February 2025 hadn’t been kind to Austria and St Anton hadn’t seen fresh snowfall in almost two weeks. Hence why a guide was essential. At this moment however it was my turn to try turning, curving and making fresh tracks. It inevitably included falling.
Learning the Ropes of Splitboarding
Learning to off-piste isn’t as simple as just finding the first untracked hill and throwing yourself down it. Working out the snow conditions, whether you’ll slip, slide or glide smoothly along is as important as acquiring the skills to do it safely. Avalanche safety is vital.
In fact, the knowledge needed to simply navigate a morning is enough to put you off the whole escapade. That was until I heard of the Arc’teryx Freeride Academy.
Held in February each year, the Arc’teryx Academy is a weekend jam-packed with day-long sessions designed to help competent skiers or snowboarders take that next step and try their hand ar freeriding. The weekend of sessions also allow advanced skiers to hone their skills by joining freeride athletes. The key is safety. Each participant is required to have an avalanche transceiver, an avalanche kit and be willing to listen to a full safety briefing before every session.
I opted to try two day-long sessions; one to learn the ropes of splitboarding as it would take me away from my comfort zone, and a second looking into the fundamentals of freeride snowboarding. For someone who had never splitboarded, the very notion of taking the snowboard apart seemed like an alien idea.
In practical terms it was fairly easily done. Some practice and it comes apart with relative ease. The other issue was whether the re-combined snowboard would work as well as any other. Here again, not a problem.
A Deeper Understanding of the Mountain
With the mechanical practice out of the way and the avalanche check done Jose guided us down the mountain, showing us the fundamentals of how to put skins onto your split board.
It’s only once you stop you realise how far from the previous on-piste world you are. Just dead silence, snow and sun. We shared a simple lunch on an abandoned farm in the midst of absolutely nowhere and by the end of the afternoon the group, who hailed from Germany, England, Spain and Austria had built a sort of camaraderie which comes from being beyond the zone where you can be saved, at least easily.
I passed cross-country skiers as I hike uphill, pretending I am now one of them; an interloper from the snowboard world in backcountry for the first time. I may only have been a mile or so from the piste but it felt like the world. Once done Jose gave each person a chance to recap what they’d learnt in the day, and then helped us all find a beer.
The Freeride Village Vibe
The Arc’teryx Academy is a clever concept. Occupying the square close to the Galzigbahn Arc’teryx builds a little mini festival over the course of the four days, complete with bar, food, entertainment and winter sports brands that is open to everyone. It acts as a centrepoint for people who have signed up to clinics, and allows people who may already be in St Anton to dip into the adventurous side of winter sports.
The point is to let people try something new without being intimidated. It has women-only sessions and clinics for beginners, intermediate and advanced. A number of women who had never tried the off-piste before signing up, many only the evening before the clinic and had travelled to St Anton to simply try something new. One drove from Germany the day before just to try the session out.
Figures supplied by Arc’teryx stated that a total of 332 individuals from 25 nationalities booked onto 488 clinics, 47% of those were women. The sense of inclusivity cannot be over-rated.
Confidence, Camaraderie and the Call for More
A short rest followed by an early morning breakfast and I was back for more. This time freeriding fundamentals. My Austrian guide Ute Heppke, 47, started skiing when she was three. She was on a snowboard by the age of 16. Growing up in St Christoph next door to St Anton, she knows the slopes better than most.
Ute’s plan for our five-strong group was to guide us through freeride fundamentals. The essence of the clinic is to give people confidence and a basis to learn from.
“There’s a lot to it, knowing where you are, where the terrain is, looking at the avalanche report,” she says.
Technique is also, understandably, important. Bending the knees at the right time to catch the right turn, and avoid a fall.
“Snowboarding is easier for you to find balance off-piste than with skiing, but especially in the deep nice powder, you are doing the opposite to what you are doing on the piste,” Ute adds. “You really try to stretch into the turns, get the tension in your body, and once the snow starts to compress a bit more you can get slower, smaller and then stretch again.”
As we make our way from St Anton through Stuben, on to Zurs Ute takes a deep interest in the snow. We stop on several occasions to study the snowfall on the mountain, with Ute explaining how the wind-swept ripples on the surface can indicate if the snow is icy or good quality for off-piste.
Finally coming across an untracked hill, a few more hints and tips and the soft powdery slope gives everyone an opportunity to let fly, twisting, turning, falling, learning, laughing and thoroughly enjoying the entire experience. For someone who’d spent a decade on the carefully groomed piste it’s a whole new world of fun.
The freeride fundamental’s clinic, and by extension the Arc’teryx Academy is, in short, a gateway drug to more. The question is where to find the next adrenaline hit.