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All the hazards of winter fellwalking can also apply to ski-touring. Exposure and exhaustion can be a more serious problem for someone who is over-ambitious in their choice of tour and spends a lot of time getting up from falls in soft (and maybe wet) snow. In deep snow, progress without skis may be strenuous and exhausting and in such conditions it is worth carrying a spare ski-tip and bits and pieces to repair a binding (steel wire, screwdriver, spare parts, five-minute epoxy). If a binding rips out, it is frequently possible to attach it a few centimetres forward or behind its original position to enable a tour to be completed if the alternative is benightment. A party should always carry spare food, headtorch, extra clothing and a survival bag when venturing far from roads or marked paths.
Navigation can be a particular problem, as even on a clear day, spindrift may reduce visibility near ground level. It is an acquired skill to estimate distance and time on skis, when counting paces may not work, particularly on descents. If turns are required to control speed, skiing on a bearing may be difficult. Even ten minutes from your car, once out of sight of the road, the high fells can present an arctic wilderness-like view with few nearby landmarks. Since I started skiing, the availability of cheap consumer-grade GPS receivers has made it possible to find out where you are in even the most extreme conditions, but getting to where you want to be still requires competance with map and compass. GPS relies on working batteries, whose life will be curtailed in cold conditions, leaving the user who was relying exclusively on high-tech literally "out in the cold".
Avalanches are not a significant hazard in the area under consideration, though small ones do occur from time to time, usually on slopes that nordic skiers would naturally avoid anyway. The best online reference for UK avalanches is the Scottish Avalanche Info server's About Avalanches page.
Slips on steep icy slopes can be difficult to control if the skis don't stay parallel and below you. Convex slopes which may be icy at the top and much steeper lower down can accentuate this risk. It may be worth the extra effort to climb a little higher onto safer ground rather than crossing such a slope on or below the break of slope. If there is a risk of slab avalanche, then this is also the point where it is most likely to start.
In a few areas, there are old mine shafts which can be corniced over and quite invisible in heavy snow cover. The areas where these occur are marked on the 1:25000 OS maps, and are best avoided. A cross-country skier was killed when the stone edge to such a shaft collapsed as he skied over it on Cross Fell a few years ago so the hazard is real. It is as well to avoid skiing anywhere with old shafts if the visibility is poor. Skiing roped up (guaranteed to make for slow and frustrating progress) as for glacier travel doesn't really address this hazard, as collapsing stonework is as much of the danger as the actual fall. Where possible, sticking to paths will avoid this hazard, but paths can be invisible in deep snow, and some shafts are quite close to well-used rights of way.
If there are good skiing conditions on the fells, then driving conditions may be less than ideal, with many of the moorland roads blocked by drifts. Apart from the obvious hazard of skidding off the road or sliding into collisions, it is also worth remembering that many of the roads are subject to deep drifting, which may cut off your retreat. Escape from the high roads will be downhill, which is generally a more dangerous direction to drive, as braking will initiate a skid. The Buttertubs pass, to pick one example, regularly drifts over many feet deep, often burying abandoned cars. It can be an expensive business if your vehicle is discovered in its snowy grave by a snowplough or excavator, so if you have to abandon a vehicle, ensure that the authorities are aware of it. For the same reason, make sure any parked vehicle is well off the road - a shovel is often essential to dig out a parking place whilst still leaving the road clear for snowploughs and other road users. Consider marking it with a tall, brightly coloured wands and carrying a snow shovel in your pack if drifting is likely while you are away from the car.
A hazard of having website is that someone may feel they have some sort of claim to compensation if information turns out to be incorrect. But information from the internet is often worth just what you pay for it. The fact that the tours in this guide have been done, or appear to be possible is no guarantee that they will be in similar condition on another occasion. Any advice given here is provided in good faith from my own experience, but you need to assess it and determine whether it is relevant to you. If in doubt, ensure you gain experience with reliable companions. Take instruction in ski techniques, and learn the skills at a monitored location such as a downhill ski resort.
One last hazard of having a website is that the BBC may approach you as an "expert" ! Any of you watching BBC 1's "Countryfile" programme of February 16th 2003 can judge for yourself - I am just a wilderness sport enthusiast hoping to show a few people why I enjoy this sort of thing, but I make no guarantees that it will be the perfect activity for you !
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