We've finally wrestled with technology and dug out the pictures from the Farinet Apres Ski opening night, and even got a picture of Kato's new headgear following his 'upside down dancing' exhibition, lucky you...
The boys try to fix the sliding roof...
The girls dish out free shots...
The White Lines Open proceedings...
The Dicktators dressed as a disturbing collection of Santas...
General carnage...
Kato's exciting new bandages...
No, not Christmas - although that was great, the real cause for celebration was the opening of Farinet Apres Ski.
Yes, beer-swilling, table-dancing, and drinking-shots-from-the-bottle are all back with an army of happy Apres-Skiers ready to join in.
Now, Apres Ski being Apres Ski, there was carnage.
First the sliding roof wouldn't close before the bands came on, so lots of very serious looking blokes hung from the rafters with crowbars tring deperately to get it fixed.
Secondly, while the workman looked troubled, the girls behind the bar decided to calm the baying and by now slightly excitable crowd, by standing on the bar and pouring shots into the nearest passing mouths. Naturally, this only fuelled the caranage.
Then it all kicked off with The White Lines and The Dicktators whipping up the crowd further. Bizarre and stunning - there are things in life you never expect to see, and for me it was always a band of Santas wearing army helmets and belting out AC/DC tunes.
There are pictures to show how the night unfolded, but sadly they're in my camera, which slipped from my fingers around 9pm and disappeared underneath a hundred pairs of highly mobile ski boots.
It has since been recovered and we should be dragging the shots from it's tattered memory stick tomorrow, so don't panic. It's worth the wait...
Finally, of course, something happened to Kato - he apparently landed on his head after trying to dance upside down in Casbar later that night.
Bless.
Sadly it's unlikely there are any shots of this, mangled or otherwise...
After ages of debate and rumor, Mt. Gelé finally opened up again, giving Verbier back its off-piste only mountain.
With just two Itinerary Routes from the top, plus bags of accessible terrain, and (if you're not feeling too self-conscious) the long run down the front that takes you back into Verbier under the watchful eyes of, well, just about anyone who's in skiing in resort.
The story is it's been shut for so long owing to a combination of snow conditions, or mechanical problems depending upon who you talk to, and there are even theories about insurance problems.
But it's open again and that's all that counts.
So we rather selflessly had a trip up, and it looked a bit like this (OK, the first shot was published last week, but we were so busy skiing, we forgot to take a snap to remind you what the mountain itself actually looks like):
The view from the top. Alright, if you like that kind of thing...
Lac des Vaux suddenly looks very, very small, and a long way down:
Naturally, loads of people were kean to get up there - although some might not have been quite aware of what they were getting themselves into:
Er, Louis and I practice our very best mountaineer catalogue poses (sorry):
...and a bit of Louis in action...
Well, as promised, here are some snaps of the first of our adaptive lessons, as part of our new adaptive ski school. This was a sit-ski lesson with our first client, Anna. And from now on we'll be catering for all sorts of different clients, so if you're interested, give us a shout...
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I know that I shouldn't be complacent, but the conditions here are still absolutely stunning.
We keep catching ourselves remarking on how empty the pistes are, then realising that, well, the season's barely started - with the snow and the blue skies it really does feel like March.
We've also been celebrating the start of two new parts of the ski school - the new race club for kids and teens has launched, and we've also started an adaptive side to the school which is run on a strictly not-for-profit basis. What's adaptive? Well, adaptive is any specialist ski teaching that goes beyond normal lessons - everything from visually impaired ski lessons, to learning difficulties to sit-skis.
It's a really important initiative that's been started in conjunction with Disability Snowsport UK, and we've given our first lessons this week.
And as soon as the missing USB key with all the impressive pictures on it appears, we'll upload the images (sorry Gemma - it''s here somewhere).
Thing 1: Blue skies are great (see below)
Thing 2: Loads of snow is great (see below)
Thing 3: Droopy mustaches are this season's must have facial hair (see below)
(Well, it's not all visual - Sandy and Toby found this just off the side of La Chaux. It's full depth slab creep, which means the entire snowpack has started to slide on the grass underneath a bit like a very slow avalanche. And that means the same thing could happen in a very fast avalanche... It's a huge warning, so PLEASE take care)
Well, I know it’s pretty frustrating sitting at home and hearing stories about how amazing the weather / snow / parties / views / etc are in Verbier.
And today is no different, so apologies in advance. But at least you can take some comfort from the fact that all of the information I’ve got is coming second hand, as I’m back in the UK after going to a wedding at the weekend.
I mean, who gets married in December, when they know the resort’s open? Grant and Caroline, you've got a lot to answer for...
Anyway, this means I know exactly how you feel, after Toby called me to say he thinks that by the time it stops snowing (in Vebier, not Birmingham) there’ll be about 1 meter of fresh snow in resort, and that’s on top of everything that fell a week ago.
Thanks for that. I’m delighted for you, mate.
Still, it’s a brilliant start, and none of us here at ES can really remember such a good start to the season (possibly with the exception of Pascal, who’s been here for ever. Maybe longer).
So have a look at the picture Toby took out of his window earlier, and when you’ve finished sulking, remember that this is the base that we’re all still going to be skiing on by the time April comes around, so you’ll get your chance…
After coming to terms with another early snowfall, and the news that another storm’s on the way, everyone in resort’s been getting back into the rhythm of things, which includes the first lessons of the year coming in for ES, and everyone knuckling down for some pre-season instructor training.
So to fill you in on what it’s all been looking like while we’ve been busily rushing about, have a squiz at these…
The snow hammering down...
The PDG gets snowed under...
Toby's posh balcony...
Blue skies on the hill...
...and more snow is on it's way...
You see, there’s a lot to talk about, really.
On one hand there’s the phenomenal heavy snow falling which has closed the resort, and on the other, there’s the early season shenanigans as all the ES staff have suddenly descended on Verbier.
So today you can choose your blog. Enjoy:
Blog A – the snow.
As Louis started to belt his first gig of the year last night in T-Bar, we couldn’t help but notice that it was starting to snow a little – modest, slushy snow that had a go a settling.
But then failed.
A bit pathetic really.
By the time Louis finished, those shy, quiet snowflakes had turned into big, aggressive, shameless ones that landed and settled wherever they fancied. Delinquent snow with an attitude problem. Snow that stole the other snow’s dinner money.
This morning it was carnage, snow everywhere, cars skidding up and down the street – the snow was definitely in charge. About 30 cm of it was loitering all over resort and sniggering when you fell over.
Equally aggressive winds had also shut all the lifts. So our Instructor Training Week was suspended and everyone toddled off home to stare out of their windows, then look up weather forecasts online.
Over and over again.
Since lunch it’s been hammering it down and doesn’t look like stopping ‘til tomorrow, and those high winds are going to carry on creating havoc all night.
And every time you step outside you get attacked by the sort of flakes that could take your eye out.
It’s brilliant.
Blog B – the shenanigans.
As if by magic, just before it starts hammering down with snow, the resort has filled up with staff. Old faces, new faces, and the odd comedy beard have descended on resort, and everyone’s wandering round desperately trying to remember people’s names.
It also means that the campest man in resort is back – yes Louis’ here, and he played his inaugural gig at the T-Bar was last night.
And he’s still a bit good. Annoyingly. But he is rubbish at growing facial hair. So in that sense it all evens out…
(Please God he never grows the ‘moustache’ again).
It also means that Kato is out and about as his spiritual home Casbah has opened up. A messy night, as usual.
And Taras has been transformed into “The Swankiest Nightclub in the Alpes”.
Whilst we don’t really know what that means, we do know it’s going to be called The Coco Club, and judging by the amount of work going into it, it’s going to be very impressive in deed.
We’ll let you know more as soon as Jimmy let’s us in…
Right, let’s get things straight, it’s November. Definitely November. Which is why we’re all a bit confused here in Verbier.
Look at the sky and you’d swear it was April, step outside and it’s as cold as January. Then when you put your skis on, and you stop caring what’s written on the calendar and you hammer around like a fool.
And grinning. There’s been a lot of grinning.
We’ve had a massive dump last week (about 60 cm, maybe more – who’s really counting?), and it’s been absolutely freezing (try waking up on Friday morning to temperatures outside of minus 15º).
So, when Televerbier fired up the lifts on Friday, everyone in town and the valley, plus a good few keen Swiss from Geneva, were all desperate to get up there and see what it looked like…
Well, it didn’t disappoint – put it this way, nobody in the pub could remember an opening day where you could get face shots when you dropped off the sides of Lac des Vaux. And some of those guys are really old…
The highest November snowfall in Switzerland since 1956, apparently.
The fresh snow off-piste has started to creep a little though, sliding on the smooth grass underneath. And it’ll take a little while for the snow to form a stable base.
So backside of Mont Fort and other favourites are going to be off limits for a while.
And what’s the winter going to be like? Well, you never know, but with more weather coming in at the end of the week, it couldn’t be a more perfect start. I can’t wait.
And it’s still only November…
Update from ES instructors Emma & Jojo, in Queenstown, New Zealand...
If you ever get the chance to come to New Zealand, jump at it - it's an amazing country, so beautiful, stunning views, friendly people, chilled atmosphere and generally clear, sunny weather.
We're working and playing out here for the winter, Emma at the Remarkables and Jojo at Coronet Peak. Both really nice mountains to ski at & within easy reach of Queenstown. Jojo has been excelling in race training at Coronet and Emma has been working on her Freestyle & Big Mountain skiing in the park and off piste at Remarks. It's very unspoilt here, there are huge mountain ranges completely untouched - I imagine it to be like the European Alps before it was taken over by lift developments.
There's still some winter left - we've just had a good dump of snow, which was needed - and now we're back to cold but clear days.
Photos to come...
I know being a weatherman (or woman) is probably a desperately difficult job, one requiring a towering intellect and terrifying understanding of the Earth's complicated and chaotic weather cycles.
However, the one's responsible for telling us what's going on seem to be a little behind the pace, because for the last week we've been looking at reports that have told us that we're about to receive rain and cloud, and we've promptly enjoyed days of blistering sunshine and blue skies, with a few cotton wool clouds thrown in for aesthetic effect...
There are probably complex things happening in the stratosphere that make forecasting Verbier's weather dead tricky, but the net result is that there are a lot of people walking round looking a bit like matchsticks - crimson faces supported by slightly pasty rest-of-thems.
(Sadly there are no photos today as I neglected to take my camera, so you'll have to use your imaginations - just picture a photo with lots of blue in it, a load of dramatic mountains in the bottom bit, and lots of people swanning about with pink faces. Good isn't it?).
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Sun, sun, sun in Verbier on Easter weekend. A few clouds were seen in the sky this afternoon but that didn't really cool things down too much. There was also some wildlife seen on La Chaux - anyone spot the rabbit? There were quite a few wearing T shirts to ski in and getting the red arms to match!!
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Rumours were rife today that our illustrious leader had been spotted on the Les Esserts beginners slope - Could this be true??????????.jpg)
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Blue skies and high temperatures again in Verbier made for a great start to the Easter weekend. People have been sunning themselves on deckchairs and enjoying the spring snow. The Cabane Mont Fort (pictured) has been heaving at lunchtime - advice is to get there early for the great Tartiflette and other good offerings..jpg)
