Teaching skiing skills lies outside the scope of this guide - see the bibliography for suggested reading. However, it is appropriate to comment on which skills are needed for the tours described here. Nordic skiing skills are much easier to learn at the beginning level than alpine downhill techniques (hence the American langlauf slogan "If you can walk, you can ski"). Some of the tours on very gentle terrain on the valley bottoms are quite suitable for those who have never skied before. It is well worth getting used to the equipment in gentle non-threatening surroundings, rather than jumping in at the deep end and risking a demoralising experience. This applies also to those who have skied downhill but not used nordic kit before. Alpine skiing experience does help when learning downhill techniques on nordic skis, but the skills do not transfer directly as the free heel of the nordic equipment requires a somewhat different approach which is much easier to assimilate after a few short tours on very gentle terrain.

The majority of the tours in these pages can be tackled with just the very basic skills of diagonal stride and snowplough turn. Kick turns are much easier on nordic skis than alpine, so descents which look too unnerving for a snowplough descent can be tackled by linking long gentle traverses with a few kick turns. This also gives the advantage of more downhill mileage as reward for your climb !

Many of the tours in these pages involve descents which require some form of speed control (snowplough braking, or linked turns). A few tours involve short steep descents or descents of walled tracks where you don't have the width to engage in linked gentle traverses. It is as well to build your confidence on the easier tours on gentle open slopes before tackling the more awkward obstacles, although, if short, these can often be dealt with by sidestepping or just removing the skis for a short way. It is as well to go well-dressed for falls in the snow and in a large enough party to maintain a jolly sense of humour. Repeatedly getting up from a fall in soft snow can be extremely tiring, especially if carrying a sack, so always choose short tours or ones with easy escape routes if pushing up your standard of difficulty.

For the longest tours, individual difficulties may not be great, but a long day spent controlling your speed with only snowplough turns can be exhausting, so a few more turns in your armoury are well worth having. Skiers with alpine experience will find that it is surprisingly easy to do stem or even parallel turns on skinny planks, once you developed the necessary front/back balance. Long open slopes favour long-radius carved turns and the elegant telemark turn works well in soft snow and uneven terrain. Its well worth spending a few days with professional instruction at a ski area with uplift to learn these more advanced turns. Even the longest tours can be tackled with just the basic skills, if you are fit enough, but will be much more rewarding as more downhill techniques are learnt.

All the tours described are suitable for nordic skiing at some level, and many involve gentle rolling terrain which is unsuitable for alpine ski-mountaineering techniques, since you would be forever putting skins on or taking them off. However, there are steep slopes in the area, and places where easy alpine ski tours could be undertaken. Often, a mixed tour can be fun, with the alpine skiers tackling steeper descents or narrow stream gullies while the nordic participants stick to easier open slopes down to the same point.

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