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A rather nice day in Verbier if a little nippy. But as long as the sun keeps shining then Gareth can keep dreaming of the first spring barbeque… But while we wait for Verbier’s most enthusiastic outdoor chef to break out snags and stubbie-holders here are few pictures of the views you get when Toby ropes you into walking his dog:

An absolutely freezing return to winter today – if we’ve said anything about spring here recently please accept we’re fools and haven’t got a clue. As low as minus twenty up top then you have to add on the wind chill – which goes even higher the faster you ski…

Anyway, despite that it looked very pretty:

Had a rather cloudy trip up to the Pub to help Gareth celebrate his first day on skis since he broke his back on the very first day of the season…

So by the time the pub got in sight, well, it wasn’t really in sight and the snow started falling pretty hard.

Suffice to say it started dumping pretty heavily when we were in there (and whilst G was losing at darts…) so we’ll tweet from the hill and let you know what’s happened up high – not sure what to expect but should be a good few inches of fresh if the wind hasn’t been spoiling things.

Meanwhile all the fresh snow and the change in temperature has lead to some avalanches across the Alps (click here to read Planet Ski’s coverage of the situation), some sadly fatal – so if you’re heading off piste ask an expert.

Kent had a look at the weather yesterday and decided that he might just tale advantage of our proximity to Italy to nip over the boarder for some skiing, some sunshine and some very pleasant Italian cuisine. So he got to the sunny weather before it got to us here in Verbier and judging by the photos they had a rather nice lunch while they were there…

• Tanning weather or cloudy today? The forecasts say sunny but the view from the window says cloudy & the webcams agree. We'll see… G #
• Skiing over in Italy & had sunshine all morning – if you've been in the cloud in Verbier check our blog later to see what you've missed… K #
• Kent might be the smuggest man in the world right now, but we've finally got the sun here too… G http://bit.ly/df9BbY #

Yup, we skied around in the snow and cloud for a few hours this morning wondering what exactly John Kettley and the boys at the MET office were on about, then at about midday the sun broke through and it’s all nice and sunny again. As predicted. So that means we can stop feeling quite so jealous about Kenta sitting down to a rather nice lunch in Italy in the sunshine…

• Champex Lac was no bone in the fish today, very nice with no people and perfectly groomed slopes. Lunch at Cafe des alpes, Orsiere…..K #
• Be careful out there – avalanches all over the place. Plant Ski have just published this. G http://www.planetski.eu/news/1415 #
• So the forecasts say snow in the early hours of tomorrow followed by sunshine. And they all seem to agree. There must be a catch… G #

• What a bizarre day – really heavy snow all morning, cloud so thick you couldn't see the tips of your skis, & now everyone's sunbathing… G #

Isn’t it funny how you can plan a big day on the hill and then when you get a day off instead of going on a massive trip you simply end up taking it easy?

Well Toby and I had a day off so planned a day skiing with some friends. We even started using all the usual names of ski areas to persuade ourselves we were serious – Col des Mouche, Catwalk, Stairway, Barry’s Bowl, etc.

The light was a bit dodgy so we decided on “a quick break” to see if it improved and nipped into the new bar  at Col des Gentianes with some of the Swiss guys, but we just ended up having a chat with the slightly crazy French barman (using our very best French much to his the amusement of the Swissies) and then kidded our selves we were just waiting for the girls to join us an that we weren’t just wussing out…

• Got the day off and about to head up. Think we'll be using the words "amazing", "epic" and "stunning" a lot later… G #
• Managed one entire run and stopped at the new bar at Col Des Gentianes for a drink. Risky… G #
• We, we seem to have discovered the most enthusiastic batman in Switzerland. G #
• A great afternoon in Verbier up high…. G http://bit.ly/d0LjFi #