Spent a great afternoon yesterday hobnobbing with the riders from the men’s Freeride World Tour in the sunshine. And we met Glen Plake. Which was a bit special….

Just had a rather pleasant lunch in the Fer a Cheval and looking forward to spending a little more time in the sun – the odds of putting on ski boots today were always rather low. Oh, and it’s rather warm today…

Yup, Televerbier has been using up dynamite like it’s going our of fashion and blasting the life out of the lower Verbier faces. It’s phenomenal how many have come down and the size of the debris – as well as the proximity to the pistes… But conditions are getting better and the sun made it out today, as did confirmation the Verbier Extreme is running for the men tomorrow…

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Well, considering that we may have had the coldest season that I can remember, it’s now seriously warmed up. Now that may sound like the best thing since sliced bread but in actual fact it can be pretty bad. As soon as the weather warms up the top layer of snow starts to melt. This, in turn, makes the snow unstable and vulnerable to avalanche.

The south facing slopes are particularly susceptible. This is then compounded by rain (that would normally be snow) that has been falling up to 2500m today.

Regardless of your experience you should always be cautious when the weather warms up and it rains above 2000m. Always check the avalance danger on the local resort website or on the National Bulletin.

The picture below is from yesterday on the face if Creblet and Col des Mines. This is always susceptible to avalanches.

Every lift in Verbier was closed today other than the Rouge drag lift. Pretty bad day but the temperature is expected to fall a little over the next few day, so it should stabilise the snow a little. All is not lost

Toby

Yes, it’s that time again – the Verbier Extreme weekend. So loads of people in one-pieces have been pottering about in resort pretending to be the competitors.

As usual it was a busy day in town and an even busier one if you were queueing for the Jumbo lift. But the main event was only 50% successful as the weather really closed in before either the snowboarders or skiers could make it down.

But the drizzle in town wasn’t enough to dampen the spirits of the crowds when the presentation was made.

(And you’ve got to bare in mind that Apres was HEAVING so there were loads of people in there and the rugby had dragged away quite a few poeple who weren’t that interested in standing in the rain watching people receive big cardboard cheques from senior executives from the sponsoring companies…)

But – cynicism aside – it’s a very cool event to have in town and the fact that the mens comp is postponed and will return for the re-runin the five days means we might have a rather quieter trip up the Jumbo when it happens.

Anyway, it was all rather good and Mancusso got third. Not bad for a racer, eh?

Oh, and they had kebabs on the T-Bar terrace. What more do you want? I mean, it’s not City Kebabs in Stokie, but they were pretty good…

Finally, to see what on earth the Extreme is and to understand why the guys who do it are pretty bonkers we’ve even managed to embed the video of the winning descents. We’ll ping up the next lot once the mens snowboarders and skiers finally grind into action… Enjoy:

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It was absolutely boiling today – and the fact that I’ve managed to get some hefty sunburn is testament to the news that spring has arrived. Well, for a bit.

But the increase in temperatures saw wet avalanches going off left, right and  center, especially one on the Route de Carrefour that came steaming down towards Kenta as the poor boy watched from the button lift. It actually stopped a good 100 meters above the lift but still took out the road through the trees that normally links the Savoleyres area to Verbier.

Meanwhile Bjorn (my client) took the chance to hurl himself off the mountain whilst attached to Stu from Verbier Summits. And it looked like this…