More snow...

Last night we had a dusting of snow, and we all woke up in a very cloudy and very white Verbier.

The weather forecast said scortchio, but that was clearly rubbish. Which is why I took out loads of warm clothes, no sun cream and the low-visability lenses in my goggles.

Fool.

By 10.30 we were sweltering in La Chaux, all the cloud had gone and we were treated to stunning views across to Mont Blanc.

I was sweating like a pig in a sausage factory.

The moral of this story? Have a little bit more faith in snow-forecast.com. And with this in mind, they say it's going to snow tonight.

So tomorrow I'm leaving the suncream at home, putting on loads of warm clothes, and crossing my fingers...

Something starting to happen in the stratosphere this evening...

A day out of Verbier

Bruson is great - ok, maybe a bit icy, and there are the T-bars, but still great. And it's covered by your Verbier lift pass, so we popped over today for a look.

The lift takes you to Le Chable, get the bus over and head up on the old-and-knackered-but-cool two-man chair.

It's not too high, but it's SO quiet it's unbelievable.

However, if you go over - and you should - get the bus back to Chable. The ski down the tracks can be a little 'agricultural'...

Oh, and don't get up three hours late with a hangover and miss the bus.

And don't go with Iggy and Stef.


The lads at the top:




The snow disappears en route to Chable:

More sun: all good

Ah, a few days off and couple of my stupidest friends in town - doesn't get much better than this.

The sun's been out constantly (well, not at night, but you know what I mean), and the snow's been a bit, well, spring-like. Which is odd for January, but we're more than happy with it.

And there's more sun to come, so we'll hopefully get you a couple more shots of my foolish mates on the hill in the sunshine.

Meanwhile, here's a photo of Stef and I on Mont Fort, as seen from way above by Ian on the cable car. It's not very high resolution, but then again it was taken by one of my stupidest friends...

Yet another sunny day

Although the sun's been getting on the snow and the lower slopes can be a bit icy in the morning, it's been a brilliant day on the hill, and the Fontaneyes itinerary route had softened up really well by the end of the day.

Which makes you wonder why Pete was squealing like a big girl on the way down...

Stuff.

Welcome to more Verbier stuff.

The first stuff is that we haven't been banging on about the standard sun/snow/sun cycle for a bit. Big news is that it's been sunny, then it snowed the other day, and now it's sunny again. Shocker.

Second bit of stuff is about training - we had more today and (despite the fact that I managed to completely confuse myself and occasionally lose the plot) it's been great. Again.

And on top of all that stuff, we also had the highest qualified video man in Switzerland, as Jules followed us about and filmed us all as we ground out our short turns.

Sadly I can't upload the video at the moment, but here's a shot of the boss on video duty...

Two for one...

There's something you don't get everyday: training with ome of the top British coaches (Kerr Stewart) and a photo shoot with a legendary ski photographer (Marco Shapiro).

So that's why it was a bit of a treat yesterday, when our training was punctuated with a session hammering down the bumps on front of Marco's lens. Which is slightly daunting - when you bear in mind that the guy has shot just about anyone who's anyone in the skiing world, including legends like Glenn Plake...

Kerr didn't look too fussed, but it's safe to say a few of us might have been a little camera-shy and our technique might have buckled a bit under the pressure...

That said, we might just have been distracted by Kerr's orange jump suit. Cool, but he looks like a walking piste marker.

Jules put a couple of the shots up yesterday click on the image boxes in the blog bellow), but you can see more of the results on our gallery page.

So have a squiz.

Guy in the bumps

DSC_4104
Originally uploaded by European Snowsport

Photo by Marco Shapiro, Taken during Staff Training.

Kerr Stewart

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Originally uploaded by European Snowsport

Kerr Stewart in the Bumps

Verbier in cloud shocker...

At 1600 hours today Verbier fell in to sheer panic as a cloud appeared over Bruson but it didn't start snowing. After the consistent pattern of blue skies / fresh snow, the population were simply not ready for this kind of crazy meteorological anomaly.

Other big news is that Kato is refusing to take responsibility for the missing camera. Man-up wee man, man-up...

(It's a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P200 with incriminating images of Kato on the memory stick, in case you stumble across it)

The broken record goes on...

OK, it hasn't exactly been more of the same - we have slightly broken the fresh snow / amazing blue skies cycle. Calm yourselves.

You see last night we had - brace yourself - a little bit of drizzle in resort.

For about an hour.

Not enough to have an effect on the runs to resort, and probably indicative of a light dusting of snow up top.

But guess what?

Yup, blue skies are back and there are amazing conditions on piste.

I would put up some pics, but there are two reasons why I won't...

Reason one: you'll just think I'm gloating.

Reason two: I might have mislaid my camera in T-Bar whilst having a 'quiet night' with Kato...

I say might, because I can't really remember where we ended up, all that's stuck in my memory is the image of a slightly befuddled Kato wandering down Route de Verbier suggesting we went into every single bar we walked past.


I know, the more things change, the more they stay the same...

Déjà vu.

I know.

You're a bit bored of it.

Every post says "blah blah blah lots of new snow blah blah blah" then "blah blah blue skies" followed by "cloud coming in blah blah new snow on it's way yadda yadda yadda".

But can I help it if it's true?

Because there's loads of new snow, blue skies and more on the way.

And to make you feel worse here's a video of Mr A MacLaren banging through the bumps on Fontaneys. Git.

And there's more...

As I type clouds are gathering and the great news is that more snow is on it's way.

So after yesterday's perfect blue skies and knee deep powder (which was even deeper where it had been blown into gullies and couloirs), we can expect more of the same.

Suffice to say we'll get pictures up as soon as it arrives...

On top of that we've got the long anticipated ES staff meal at the Pub Mont Fort on Tuesday, followed by an evening in Coco's. Wednesday morning could be a tough one...

And if you're not accessing this through the ES website, you can click here to have a squiz at our brand-spanking-new site. Lucky you.

Answer: loads

It's entirely possible that tomorrow will be the best day in the world. Ever.

There's a good foot of fresh in resort, and even more up top - add to that the sunny forecast for tomorrow, and it really could be above average...

This evening at Chez Danny - not short of snow...

Told you so...

(No idea yet how much there is up the hill, but we'll keep you posted)

How much wind?

It's been blowing an absolute gale on and off all day here - not that we're soft or anything, but it didn't half make it feel nippy...

The good news, though, is that this blustery weather is a forerunner to more snow. Apparently. The MET office says it's true, so don't hold your breath.

That said, a number of corroborating sources support the claim - in fact, they say there's about a foot due at mid-station tonight, and more next week...

Well, maybe holding your breath isn't such a bad idea...

Cloud starting to look a bit menacing this morning...







The wind whipping the snow everywhere this afternoon...



Dr Nic gets battered by the elements...

More snow in town. Finally.

After AGES waiting for snow to arrive, it's back (although the blue skies of the last few weeks were pretty good...).

So, despite the fact that there was quite a lot of snow overnight followed by rain in resort, the conditions have been great all day.

It started with white out everywhere, which gradually gave way to blue skies and sunshine, and is just closing in again with a bit more of the white stuff forecast...

And here's what it looked like:

The snowline moved just above town early this morning...




The view on the Savoleyres lift - not ideal visability...





More snow coming this way...