Yes, after a decided draught of snow Verbier has opened. And despite the doubts about what we’d actually be skiing on, it’s turned out to be a lot better than we were expecting.

Lac des Vaux has been the beneficiary of a lot of artificial snow and the piste was pretty good, although naturally limited.

But it’s been cold up top and the canons were on first thing, and there are whispers of snow next week when the high pressure finally heads off and some of the dodgy weather that’s been swirling around the atlantic comes over…

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.

And to click  here if you want to see the video (which is rather good) of them in action plus some very dodgy jazz (which is rather strange and out of place).

Meanwhile, as they say, don’t panic. It’s still early.

Yes, we are very excited. Loads of snow fell in town last night so when we got back from the Comptoir in Martigny (a big festival style event for the Valais region) we were very excited to see one Hell of a lot of snow in town. And it was very, very chilly.

But this morning whilst it was still cold the sun has come out and it’s one of those bluebird days you dream about after a decent snow fall. Anyway, it looked (and looks) a little like this…

I know – I was a little surprised, but I was sitting in my flat watching the snow fall and I heard cow bells. And I thought “Guy, why are there cows still coming off the mountain – they were supposed to come down two weeks ago.”

And I couldn’t really answer so had a look and there was a police car escorting a herd of cows down the road with a few farmers who clearly never read the weather reports. I mean the farmers hadn’t read the weather reports – not the cows. (Anyway, feel free to comment below if you have any views on this questionable piece of animal husbandry.)

But it is snowing in Verbier. There was about 15cm on the cars up at Les Essertes this morning. It’s brilliant isn’t it? I am going to celebrate by going to the Comptoir in Martigny.