Off-piste ski expert launches new guide book in Kingussie
What will the new year mean for skiing on the hill? Who knows?
But we can at least confirm the new season arrives with a new guide.
Today (Thursday) sees the launch of “Off-Piste Performance” by Kingussie-based expert Alison Thacker.
Whether it’s your first time off-piste or you are an experienced skier, her new book is aimed at helping skills, fine tune performance and take skiers to the next level.
She told the Strathy: “From essential skills to more complex movements, my manual provides tactics for all types of snow and terrain encountered off-piste. This, combined with drills to practice both on and off-piste, will help skiers achieve optimal performance.”
Her crystal clear descriptions are clearly illustrated with stunning colour photos and picture sequences and, appropriately, will come into the world between 6pm and 8pm tonight at top mountain photographer Ed Smith’s Eleven41 Gallery on the High Street in the Badenoch capital.
Thacker started skiing aged two and trained as a child and teenager with the Gordon Skiers, representing both Scotland and Great Britain internationally.
At 20 she gained the highest level of BASI ski instructor award, at the time one of the youngest people to do so.
After achieving a First-Class Honours degree in Outdoor Studies at Ambleside, she moved to Chamonix in the French Alps where she lived and worked for 15 years as a ski instructor in winter and a walking leader in summer.
During this period, she started running popular off-piste ski courses, later founding the specialist ski training and guiding business Off-Piste Performance, as well as a company delivering Duke of Edinburgh training and assessment expeditions for schools.
She still runs both businesses successfully from home in Kingussie, where she lives with her husband James, an IFMGA Mountain Guide, and their daughter Abigail.
More details at https://www.pesdapress.com/index.php/product/off-piste-performance/
