Simon Akam – training with locals in ski mountaineering in the Alps
Simon Akam is currently working on a book on ski mountaineering, titled Snowlines, to be published in the UK by HarperCollins and in the US by Grove Atlantic. After a close escape in an avalanche and a rockfall on Mount Elbrus in Russia in 2017 he decided if he was to keep going to the mountains he wanted to so properly, with the right training and an ability to operate independently. For the first part of the project (supported in part by an ASC grant) he spent January to April 2023 in the Alps, training first in ski technique in the Val d’Anniviers, and secondly learning avalanche safety and ski mountaineering skills with a German-speaking Swiss mountaineering school. He did all the training in the local languages. He will discuss the experience of immersing himself in the local Alpine culture, and differences between British and continental European approaches to ski mountaineering. During this time in the Alps he also wrote a weekly column for the Globe and Mail, the major Canadian newspaper, which is available here.
Register for Simon’s Zoom lecture here.
Put the date in your diary. You will receive reminders with the zoom link before the lecture.