Recovery Techniques for Ski Touring

Why Recovery Matters

Ski touring is a high-volume, high-intensity, weight-bearing sport. Early in the season, while your body is still adapting, you’ll accumulate a lot of fatigue and muscle soreness. Prioritizing rest, mobility, and fueling ensures that you will recover faster, stay injury-resistant and can ski harder later in the season.

Passive Recovery

Passive recovery focuses on rest and regeneration without additional physical load. Quality sleep, full days off from training and intentional rest allow your nervous system and muscles to fully recover from the demands of ski touring. Especially during high-volume weeks or deep into the winter season, these periods are essential for absorbing training, reducing accumulated fatigue and preventing burnout or injury. 

Active Recovery

Low-intensity, low-impact activities like cycling or walking help increase blood flow and promote recovery without adding significant strain to the body. This light movement supports tissue repair, reduces residual soreness and allows you to stay active while managing fatigue. An example of an active recovery day could be a 60 min bike ride or walk over flat terrain keeping the intensity as low as possible. 

Mobility, Foam Rolling, & Stretching

Foam rolling, stretching and mobility routines are effective tools for reducing muscle soreness from skiing. Beyond recovery, these practices help decrease injury risk and keep your body feeling strong, mobile and balanced throughout the winter. Many of these sessions also reinforce core strength, stability and balance, making them an important component of sustaining performance over a long ski season.

Foam Rolling Focus Areas (45 to 60 seconds each) 

• Quads
  
  

• Glutes
  
  

• Hip flexors
  
  

• Calves
  
  

• Arches of the feet (tennis or lacrosse ball)
  
  

My Go-To Stretches (45 to 60 seconds each) 

• Child’s pose
  
  

• Cobra
  
  

• Pigeon pose
  
  

• Couch stretch
  
  

• Figure-4 glute stretch
  
  

• Deep squat hold
  
  

• Calf and ankle mobility stretch
  
  

• Seated spinal twist
  
  

Simple Mobility Circuit (5-8 reps each)

• Cat/Cow
  
  

• Bird Dog
  
  

• T-Spine Rotations
  
  

• Glute Bridge
  
  

• Dead Bug
  
  

• Hip Openers / Hip Flow
  
  

• Balance board work
  
  

Aerobic Maintenance

Remember that ski touring is primarily an aerobic, endurance-based sport. Incorporating easy, low–heart rate aerobic work throughout the winter is a great way to maintain your aerobic base while also supporting recovery. Activities like cycling or walking allow you to stay active on a fatigued body from skiing without adding excessive stress. Light spinning or easy walking increases blood flow, promotes tissue repair, and keeps your aerobic system engaged without additional load on the joints.

Fueling on Recovery Days

Use recovery days to catch up on nutrition. Aim for quality carbohydrates and sufficient protein. Your body needs fuel to rebuild damaged tissue, restore glycogen and prepare for your next ski day.

My Recovery Day Routine

• Foam roll + mobility: 10–15 minutes
  
  

• Active recovery ride: 60–90 minutes in Zone 1
  
  

• Post-ride stretch + recovery shake: 10–15 minutes
  
  

Managing Fatigue Through a Long Winter

Build planned rest into your ski season. A good rule of thumb: schedule a rest week every 3–4 weeks.

If you’ve had several big weeks of vertical gain, long days or intensity, dial it back for a week. Reduce both volume and intensity by roughly 50%. This intentional deload is essential for continued progress, fitness gains and keeping your skiing sharp all winter long.