How to plan a ski tour
Plan a ski tour in this order: read the regional avalanche forecast for the day, choose terrain that matches what the forecast allows, estimate timing with the Munter method by adding distance in kilometres to vertical gain in hundreds of metres and dividing by three or four, set a turnaround clock time before you leave, and send the plan to somebody with a time to start calling.
A tour is planned in a fixed order, and the order is the point. Forecast first, then terrain, then timing, then the plan you leave behind. Reversing any of those steps produces a plan you will argue with later, at the exact moment you are least equipped to argue well.
Step one: the forecast, before the objective
Read the avalanche forecast for the range you intend to visit, published for the day you intend to go. Every forecast gives you three things worth extracting before you look at a map.
- The danger rating, by elevation band. Usually different below treeline, near treeline and in the alpine. The middle of the scale is where most accidents happen, because considerable danger looks manageable and is not.
- The avalanche problem or problems. Wind slab, storm slab, persistent slab, wet loose and so on. Each behaves differently, is triggered differently and requires different terrain choices.
- The aspect and elevation rose. A compass diagram shading where each problem lives. This is the single most actionable graphic in the forecast, and it converts directly into terrain you should not be on.
The forecast reading guide works through all four in detail, and the danger scale reference explains what each of the five levels means for terrain choice.
Step two: choose terrain the forecast allows
Work forwards from the forecast rather than backwards from the objective you wanted. If the problem is a persistent slab on north-east through east above treeline, the plan should exclude those aspects at that elevation entirely. Careful travel does not make a persistent slab acceptable, because the defining characteristic of that problem is that it is unpredictable and it fails with low probability and high consequence.
On a map, that means identifying:
- Every slope over thirty degrees on your route. Slab avalanches release mostly between thirty and forty-five degrees. The slope angle reference covers the bands.
- Everything above your route. Being on flat ground under a steep slope is one of the most common ways people are caught, including on foot and on snowshoes.
- Terrain traps. Gullies, creek beds, flat run-outs and trees, where a small slide becomes a deep burial or a trauma event.
- Your escape routes. Where you can retreat to if the weather closes or a partner is hurt, and whether that route also crosses avalanche terrain.
- Safe regrouping spots. Ridges, dense timber and other places out from under anything. Expose one person at a time in consequential terrain.
Step three: timing, with the Munter method
Add the horizontal distance in kilometres to the vertical gain in hundreds of metres. Divide the total by a rate, in units per hour, and the answer is time in hours.
| Rate | Who | Conditions |
|---|---|---|
| 6 | Fast, fit, light party | Firm broken skin track, no route finding |
| 4 | Fit party | Existing track, straightforward terrain |
| 3 | Average party | Some trail breaking, some route finding |
| 2 or less | Any party | Deep trail breaking, poor visibility, complex terrain |
Descents rarely dominate a plan, but transitions do add up: three to five minutes each, more with a splitboard, and a party of four takes longer than a party of two. Add time for food, regrouping, digging a pit if you plan to, and the inevitable navigation pause.
The touring time calculator does this arithmetic including the trail-breaking correction, and the pace chart gives honest vertical-per-hour figures for parties that are breaking trail, which is where most overruns come from.
Step four: set a turnaround time
Decide, before you leave the car, the clock time at which you go down regardless of where you are. Write it down. Tell the party.
The reason this works is that the quality of the decision to continue degrades exactly as the stakes rise. Late in a day you are tired, you have invested five hours, the summit is visible, the weather has probably deteriorated, and you are worse at judging all of it than you were at seven in the morning. A turnaround time takes that decision away from the tired version of you and gives it to the rested one.
Winter daylight is the constraint people underestimate most. Finishing in the dark is survivable with a headlamp and genuinely dangerous without one, which is why a headlamp lives in a touring pack all season rather than being packed for tours that plan to be late.
Step five: leave the plan with somebody
In writing, not verbally, and containing:
- The range, the trailhead and the route, with an alternative if you have one.
- The vehicle and where it will be parked.
- Who is in the party.
- The expected return time.
- The time at which they should start making calls. This is the part that makes it useful.
A satellite messenger changes this materially, because cell coverage in avalanche terrain ranges from patchy to absent. Two-way messaging means telling somebody you are running late rather than triggering a search, and it means a rescue request that is confirmed rather than hoped for. It is not avalanche safety equipment and it does nothing inside the first fifteen minutes, which remains the companion rescue window.
Planning and communication kit
Black Diamond Spot 400-R Rechargeable Headlamp
- Output:
- 400 lumens
- Power:
- Rechargeable
- Rating:
- Weather resistant
Any tour that starts before dawn or runs longer than planned needs a headlamp, and "longer than planned" describes most tours. Four hundred lumens is enough to skin and enough to ski out carefully.
Best for: Every touring pack, all season.
What it costs you: Lithium cells lose capacity in deep cold. Carry it in an inside pocket on the coldest days.
Garmin inReach Mini 2 Satellite Communicator
- Network:
- Iridium satellite
- SOS:
- Two-way with response centre
- Subscription:
- Required
Cell coverage in avalanche terrain ranges from patchy to absent. Two-way satellite messaging means a rescue request that is confirmed rather than hoped for, and it means telling someone you are running late instead of triggering a search.
Best for: Any tour beyond cell coverage, which is most of them.
What it costs you: Needs an active subscription and does nothing for the first fifteen minutes, which is the window that decides an avalanche burial. Companion rescue is still the plan.
Thermos The Rock Vacuum Insulated 1 Litre Bottle
- Volume:
- 1 litre
- Insulation:
- Vacuum stainless
- Use:
- Hot drinks
Water freezes in a hydration hose in an hour below about 20 F, and a dehydrated skier makes worse decisions. A vacuum flask of something hot solves hydration and morale in one item.
Best for: Cold-weather touring and long resort days.
What it costs you: Heavy for the volume. On a warm spring tour a plain bottle is lighter and enough.
Adventure Medical Kits Ultralight Watertight .5
- Size:
- Two person
- Case:
- Watertight
- Use:
- Day tours
A watertight case matters because a soaked kit is a useless kit, and a wet dressing is worse than none. Pair it with a repair kit: a broken binding screw or a torn skin glue can end a tour just as fast as an injury.
Best for: Every touring pack.
What it costs you: A kit is not training. Wilderness first aid is a course, same as avalanche education.
Specifications are the manufacturer's published figures, not measurements we took. Sizes, prices and stock change constantly, so confirm on the retailer page before buying. We earn commissions from Backcountry and from qualifying Amazon purchases, and every link on this page is one or the other. Where a Backcountry button reads "shop the category" it opens a search for that category rather than that exact model, so it finds comparable gear alongside it.
The morning of: the trailhead check
- Re-read the forecast. It is published fresh. Yesterday's forecast is a historical document, and overnight wind and new snow change everything.
- Transceiver check, every single time. One person to receive, everybody else to transmit, walk past at a distance, then swap. This catches the device left off, the flat battery and the one in a pack rather than on a body.
- Check everybody has a probe and a shovel. Out loud, physically, not assumed.
- Agree the plan and the turnaround. Including who is comfortable with what, and the explicit agreement that anybody can call it off without justification.
- Agree communication. Who is in front, where you regroup, and what the signal is to stop.
The transceiver guide covers the trailhead check in detail and the search technique it exists to support.
Transceivers, one per person
BCA Tracker S Avalanche Transceiver
- Antennas:
- Three
- Range:
- About 50 m
- Interface:
- Real-time display
Three antennas, a real-time display, and almost nothing to get wrong under stress. Beacon searching is a skill performed at the worst moment of your life, and the beacon that helps most is the one whose interface never surprises you.
Best for: A first beacon, and the sensible default for a recreational tourer.
What it costs you: Fewer marking and group-check features than the top models. Practise more instead of buying more.
Black Diamond Recon X Avalanche Transceiver
- Antennas:
- Three
- Marking:
- Multiple burial
- Updates:
- Bluetooth firmware
Multiple-burial marking matters in exactly one scenario and it is the scenario that kills groups: two people buried and a searcher unable to separate the signals. Bluetooth firmware updates keep the unit current instead of obsolete.
Best for: A tourer who travels in larger groups and practises multiple burials.
What it costs you: More interface to learn. An unpractised searcher on a complicated beacon is slower than a practised one on a simple beacon.
BCA Tracker 3 Avalanche Transceiver
- Antennas:
- Three
- Profile:
- Slim
- Signal suppression:
- Yes
The slim body genuinely changes whether you wear it on your body rather than stuffing it in a pack, and a beacon in a pack that is torn off you in a slide is a beacon that is not on you.
Best for: Anyone who has been tempted to leave a bulkier beacon in a pocket.
What it costs you: Costs more than the Tracker S for a difference most users will not exploit.
BCA T4 Turbo Avalanche Beacon Rescue Package
- Includes:
- Transceiver, probe, shovel
- Antennas:
- Three
- Use:
- Complete kit
All three items from one maker, sized to work together, with no chance of buying a beacon and then discovering the probe you already own is 200 cm. Buying the kit is how most people should buy this.
Best for: A first complete avalanche kit, bought all at once as it should be.
What it costs you: The bundled shovel and probe are competent rather than best in class. And the kit is not the expensive part of getting into the backcountry: the course is, and the course comes first.
Specifications are the manufacturer's published figures, not measurements we took. Sizes, prices and stock change constantly, so confirm on the retailer page before buying. We earn commissions from Backcountry and from qualifying Amazon purchases, and every link on this page is one or the other. Where a Backcountry button reads "shop the category" it opens a search for that category rather than that exact model, so it finds comparable gear alongside it.
During the day: what changes a plan
A plan is a hypothesis, and the day tests it. The observations worth acting on are the obvious ones, which is why they are worth listing rather than trusting to memory: recent avalanche activity on similar aspects and elevations, whumpfing or shooting cracks, rapid loading from new snow or wind, and rapid warming, particularly the first strong sun of the season on a slope.
Any of those means the plan is wrong rather than that the plan needs adjusting bravely. Retreat to simpler terrain is always available and it is the single most under-used option in backcountry travel.
Where this fits
Planning is the part of touring that actually determines the outcome, which is why it sits ahead of equipment in every honest account of the sport. Start with the avalanche safety basics, take a course, learn to read the forecast, practise companion rescue, and learn to skin efficiently so that your timing estimates are honest. The touring ladder prices the equipment once all of that is in place.
Frequently asked questions
What is the first step in planning a ski tour?
Read the regional avalanche forecast for the range you are going to, on the day you are going, before you choose the objective. That order matters: a plan made first and checked against the forecast afterwards is a plan you will be tempted to argue with. The forecast gives you a danger rating by elevation band, one or more named avalanche problems, and an aspect and elevation rose showing where those problems live. Those three things tell you what terrain is available today, and only then does it make sense to pick a route through the terrain that is available.
How do I estimate how long a tour will take?
The Munter method is the standard approach and it is simple enough to do in your head. Add the horizontal distance in kilometres to the vertical gain in hundreds of metres, then divide by a rate: four for a fit party on a broken track, three for average, and considerably less when breaking trail. The result is hours. Descents are quick and rarely dominate a plan. Add time for transitions, which are three to five minutes each and more with a splitboard, and add time for regrouping, food and route finding. Most parties are slower than their estimate, not faster.
What is a turnaround time and why does it matter?
A turnaround time is a clock time, decided before you leave, at which you go down regardless of how close the summit is. It exists because the decision to continue gets systematically worse the more you have invested in a day: you are tired, you are close, the weather has probably changed, and you are the least equipped to judge it that you have been all day. Setting the time in advance moves the decision to a moment when you are rested and objective. The other half is telling somebody the plan and the turnaround time so there is a check outside your own judgement.
What should I leave with somebody at home?
Where you are going, which trailhead you are parking at, what vehicle you are in, who is with you, what time you expect to be back, and at what time they should start calling. That last detail is what makes it useful, because a plan without a trigger is a plan nobody acts on. Send it in writing rather than saying it. If you carry a satellite messenger, share the tracking link, and use it to send a message when your plans change, because a late party that has not communicated triggers a search and a searching party is exposed to the same hazards you are.
How do I choose an objective for the conditions?
Work from the forecast to the terrain rather than the other way around. If the problem is a persistent slab on north-east through east aspects above treeline, the plan should not include those aspects at that elevation, and no amount of careful travel makes them acceptable. Simple terrain, meaning slopes under about thirty degrees with nothing steeper above them, is available on most days. Complex terrain is available on some. Having two or three objectives of different commitment prepared in advance means you can choose one that matches the day rather than trying to fit the day to a single plan.
Does a plan replace an avalanche course?
No, and nothing does. Planning is a skill taught inside an avalanche course, and it depends on being able to interpret a forecast, recognise avalanche terrain on a map and in the field, and understand what the named avalanche problems actually behave like. A recognised course, an AIARE 1 in the United States or a Canadian AST 1 or an equivalent, is the entry requirement for travel in avalanche terrain. Everything on this page assumes you have taken one and is a checklist rather than an education.
How we choose: we compare published manufacturer specifications, published certification standards and verified owner reviews across retailers. We do not test equipment in person, and every figure quoted here is the manufacturer's published number unless we say otherwise. This is researched buying guidance and not professional instruction: binding release values are set by a certified technician on a calibrated jig, and avalanche terrain requires formal training and a current regional forecast that no article can replace.
