Ski Touring with an old Aussie Bloke

1/ Ski Touring out from Livigno this morning.

Each morning of the La Skieda Telemark Festival, there is an excursion led by professional guides to one of the surrounding peaks or valleys. With the bright sunshine and the hope that there was still some powder to be found on the north facing aspects, we organised to go out for a ski tour with John Falkiner. John, originally from Geelong, Melbourne, now lives in Verbier, Switzerland.


John is most famous for the stunt skiing in James Bond films but his involvement in the ski industry over the last 30 years is legendery. He knows a lot of the guides in Wanaka, but the funniest coincidence is that Graeme remembers taking a ski lesson from him way back in the 70's at Mt Buller! Graeme wore his Mt Buller beanie and giggle sun-hat (donated by his patroller brother) today especially for John!

2/ Graeme putting in some nice turns!

I was very relieved that our tri-lingual group (3 English speakers, one Italian and 2 French) were intermediate skiers and we were going to take an easier line down the mountain. I had elected to use the "misery sticks" (telemark skis), figuring that, after all, it was a telemark festival and it would've been rude to turn up for the tour with alpine gear!! A bit like arriving at an AA meeting with a bottle of wine!

As expected, John had a good eye for the easiest skin line and where to find the best snow. But I can't say I excelled in the telemark department, I think I managed 3 telemark turns for the whole morning! But the snow was too good to waste with ugly tele-turns and in the end I just wanted to put in a nice set of parallel turns. This telemark skiing thing is going to take some serious persistence and leg endurance on my part!

3/ John & my tracks! Hardly "figure of 8" are they?

Graeme was easily the best skier of the group. The french and italian women were very tentative. This excursion was obviously one of their first ventures skiing off-piste or away from the comfort of the resort. As a consequence, there were many stops and breaks in the journey while skis were collected, sunglasses cleared of snow and confidence restored. As a credit to our guide, we all managed to make it down in one piece!! But there was no pressure. We assured John that we were more than happy with the pace. We enjoy just getting out in the mountains and the weather was glorious!

4/ John Falkiner -"Probably wondering why he had been stuck
with a bunch of beginners this morning!!?"

Joining us on the tour, was Andy, from Edinburgh who was learning to telemark. John and his partner, Kathy, have been to the last three La Skieda festivals and we can see why they keep coming back. Where else do you get free ski guiding and lessons everyday from some of the top professionals in the business?

There was some serious incentive to get down the hill. Below us in the valley, a fantastic La Skieda luncheon awaited us!