That wonderful sinking feeling

Deep powder — fluffy, cloudy, magically light. Floating through it. Sheer perfection. Oops! Now it's all around you, in your ears and nose, under your goggles, creeping a chill up your back. Get up, dust off, sink back in above the waist. Where's that ski? Use the other one as a probe, stabbing it irritably up and down. Find and reunite, panting with the effort of getting the snow off the boots and clicking back into the bindings.

Why can I not glide like they do in all those wonderful videos you see in the resort bars, you ask yourself. There must be another way ... and there is. You need to rent a free-ride guru, not a spiritual therapist, just someone who can get you off that annoying "intermediate plateau" onto sunnier uplands, where falls resulting from technical error are mercifully rare and you can enjoy that sinking feeling as you power through the powder. Learning the basics on carving skis is now so fasttrack that technique often gets lost in the rush to cruise as many pistes as possible. But as soon as tougher snow gets in the way, the shortfall kicks in. The fix is neither difficult nor boring, but if you want to enjoy powder, it has to be done.

On a chilly morning in Verbier, Warren Smith was on our case. He set up his Free-Ride Academy in 1994 to fill the gap between ski school, which teaches the basics, and mountain guiding, which puts "back-country" adventure ahead of tuition. Nicky and I watched as he demonstrated the zerospeed pivot turn. This is the key to fluent free riding, the magic ingredient you need to control your speed to float through powder fields, shimmy down couloirs or, if you must, jump off cliffs.

Warren made it look fairly easy, but it isn't. "Wake up your thighs," he said firmly as we struggled to rotate while standing still. The idea is that you use your thighs to drive your skis round in parallel tracks, rather than swivelling your ankles to implement the turn.

The result is stronger and more stable, especially if you can factor in the "holistic ankle flex", which acts as a shock absorber when the going gets tough on uneven terrain masked by deep snow. This is not too difficult in soft boots, but impossible in stiff boy-racer models.

After a couple of hours of hard graft, accompanied by longing looks at virgin snowfields, Warren relented and headed for the Vallon d'Arbi, a classic off-piste descent to La Tzoumaz. With open, even pitches, not too steep and very achievable, it's good news for anyone trying to up the ante without scaring themselves stupid. Even in perfect conditions in high season, we had it to ourselves.

With little experience of skiing powder, Nicky followed Warren, anxiously at first, but then with rapidly gathering confidence. Mission accomplished, we signed up for the next day.

In a raging storm, we put in our warmup hours on the zero pivot turn. Today the buzz word was dynamism, as in much more of it. Warren pays meticulous attention to detail and we still fell far short of his expectations. Clearly you can't learn to free-ride in a day. Then again there are only so many days when you can ski down to Le Chable at 821m in the valley below. This run requires a lot of snow to cover gnarly terrain near the top and the flat meadows at the bottom - I was one of many Verbier regulars who had found the right conditions to ski it.

Not anymore. As the blizzard relented and the fog cleared, we launched ourselves with enthusiasm, circumnavigating rocks and trees, bouncing off hummocks and driving through crud. Where the Vallon d'Arbi had been predictable, the Le Chable descent was a tale of the unexpected, with stream crossings and unmarked hazards, a true free-ride test. Did we pass it? Well, we got down unscathed and went to Chez Dany for a long late lunch in a mood of euphoria. Learning to ski powder doesn't get much better than that.

WAY TO GO

Minty Clinch stayed with Flexiski (O870 900 3278, www.flexiski.com). Chalet Bouvreuil, seven nights from £780, four nights from £645 (January), fully-catered with flights and transfers. Warren Smith Ski Academy (01525 374757, www.warrensmith-skiacademy.com): five day courses, Sunday-Friday (Wednesdays off), £279pp, a maximum of eight people.

TOP 5 POWDER SPECIALISTS

St Anton: Piste to Powder Mountain Guided Adventures (0043 664 17 46 282, www.skimountaineering.com), owned and run by Newcastle-born Graham Austick.

Davos/Klosters: White Heat (020 7193 4793, www.whiteheatski.biz) — clinics throughout eastern Switzerland with David Sincock and David Pollard.

Zermatt: Stoked The Ski School (00 41 279 67 70 20, www.stoked.ch) — British school with progressive instruction by Henry Meredith Hardy and his team.

Val d'Isère: Top Ski (00 33 479 06 14 80, www.topskival.com) — pioneering off piste school run by Pat Zimmer, now celebrating its 30th anniversary. The Development Centre (00 33 615 55 31 56) — Colin Tennant heads an international team.

Verbier: Powder Extreme (020 8675 5407, www.powder-extreme.com) — Scottish- Canadian owners offer two-day clinics and off-piste courses.

SNOW REPORT
by Felix Milns

Anxious Christmas skiers will be pleased to hear that the snow has finally arrived in much of Europe after one of the most barren Decembers on record. Last week temperatures finally fell, the artificial snow machines were turned on and snow fell in earnest over the weekend. Switzerland did best, with more than 85cm at both Saas Fee and Zermatt, with many resorts now open. Verbier is one of the best, with four main lifts open and 70cm of snow at the top. Italy also saw bumper snowfalls with Champoluc, Madonna, Selva, Sauze d'Oulx and Sestriere opening with around 30cm of fresh snow at resort level. Austria's Hintertux glacier saw 80cm while St Anton received 50cm at the top. Much of Austria got snow at resort level including Ischgl, Lech and Zurs. In France, Méribel and La Plagne opened after 30cm of resort level powder and good conditions are reported on the high areas of Alpe d'Huez, Val d'Isère, Tignes and Val Thorens. Courchevel and Les Arcs are among many French resorts planning to open this weekend. Andorra also opened but with very thin, mostly man-made, snow cover. For guaranteed great snow head for western Canada. The mountain skies are clearing this week, bringing exactly the cold, crisp conditions the resorts need to both make artificial snow and maintain the fresh. For something more unusual, Gulmarg, in Himalayan Kashmir, has had bumper early season snowfalls — to be enjoyed in quiet solitude from the highest cable car in the world. Let skiing commence.

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