Yes, as part of our weekly piste report for verbier.com we elected Sophie as the next victim to audition in front of the camera. Now, she’s probably the most likely out of the team to end up doing children’s TV, so we had high hopes. And not entirely misplaced – notice the improvised Christmas references.
Meanwhile…
Kent also made his audition for a piste report:
Yes, the double whammy of a snow storm hitting and the new Performance outfits arriving back from the printers can only be an omen. Winter is here and it means business.
So here are the first glimpses of the new outfits, leaving behind the old green and yellow Kermit style and bringing in a whole new era of brightness that means when we sit on lifts together it looks like a packet of refreshers going up a mountain. Rather disconcerting.
But we hope you like it. We’re rather pleased with the combination…
And the even better news is that the sun popped it’s head out once or twice today but the cloud has kept all that nice fresh snow exactly where it is (on the trees and on the pistes) and it’s snowed on and off all day.
And – even better than that (if you feel you can cope) is that all the forecasts have upped their predicted snow fall for the coming days. Could be epic.
What’s happening? Is it bad? Is it terrible? Is it OK? Is it normal? Should we start to panic? These (and many other) questions have been flying about the internet as well as the resort. But there’s also been a mildly panicy and negative tone to it all. So we thought, “how about we try to give a pragmatic view?”
And it’s certainly not the best ever start to a season in Verbier. It’s my seventh and I can only remember one that was close to this light on snow.
But every other season I can remember we were open to Ruinettes by now. And currently there’s only a little of the real stuff in the shade (but not a lot). The rest is artificial.
Certainly not ideal.
It’s also certainly a lot less than normal but – and it’s a big one – it’s cold. Not baltic but consistently below freezing so the cannons are firing.
I remember about four season’s ago when we were short of snow at the start of the season, and it was warm. So the snow came, and didn’t settle well.
Today you really get the feeling that if we get some snow now it’ll settle on very cold ground and we’ll get the benefit of it all – not lose the first few days’ fall on wet ground.
So why haven’t we got any yet? Well, there’s been a big and unyielding area of high pressure over us. And all that swirling, unpleasant and wet weather that’s been lashing the west of Europe simply can’t push the high pressure away.
Which is why we have the same cold, clear weather over us. Have a look at the charts here – they give you a pretty clear idea of the front trying to smash through to the Alps and getting bounced away and off to the north and east by the high pressure.
Thing is, it might snow two feet next Friday and we’ll all forget about the stress and panic. So cross your fingers, keep an eye on the webcams and the weather forecasts (although don’t take them as gospel) and remember that massive fall back in October. Can happen again. And it always does.
Another update from Mike. And it seems that someone borrowed the keys to one of the trucks up the mountain and rolled it on Savoleyres. All the way down Savoleyres apparently – a front flip that lasted about 300m…
It might not be powder snow but the cannons have done their work up at Lac des Vaux, and added to the snow that fell way back in October. And you know what? It looks pretty promising.
Mike was up there today and as ever played a blinder by taking photos whilst messing about on the piste machines.
And with Verbier opening this weekend (well, the bit of Verbier that is Lac des Vaux) it’s looking good. Better than expected, actually.
Now, crucially, you won’t catching me claiming it’s about to dump here or making vague projections about when the snow comes back. But I can say that when it does, the ground will be nice and cold and it should all settle rather nicely.
So think happy thoughts people.
Yes, it’s the perfect temperature for this time of year – bang on zero outside. But those weather fronts that usually make life in the UK horrible, don’t seem to be interested in the long trek across France.
Still, it’s cold, so TeleVerbier, who haven’t had the snow cannons on so far have fired them up this week and it looks like they’re really cranking it out, covering bits of the mountain with spaceship-sized sheets of snow.
Anyway, so that you don’t lose hope here are some nice pictures of those very webcams.
Meanwhile, as they say, don’t panic. It’s still early.
