Yes. It’s happened.

Yesterday afternoon and last night the wet miserable weather got just a fraction colder and it started snowing. “Like crazy”, according to Kling – who know’s a thing or two about these things.

So as the clouds have slowly parted this morning we’ve snapped some of the views and it is, as we often tell you, epic up there.

Now, we know that it might all melt and leave sad little faces all over Verbier. But the point isn’t that it will stay. The point is it’s started.

And that, people, is most epic news indeed.

 

Well, it’s been a while since we were up at Col des Gentianes to see what’s been going on with the new restaurant. Last time we went up there (click here for the photos) it was just starting to look like a big circle on the ground.

But as usual Mike has been up there and generally knows what’s going on better than anyone, and he took these pictures a little while back.

As you can see it’s really taking shape and possibly won’t look as odd as we thought. And the story is there are toilets in the building – so no more freezing walks across to the lift housing if you need to spend a penny. (Although our local intelligence suggests the loos are the same ones accessed by a tunnel).

A green Igloo?

 

There’s even better news than a few toilet facilities though, as the whole thing is powered by wood pellets, which is pretty eco-freindly.

However, that’s not all, because the whole building is supposed to be carbon neutral. Which when you think about it is amazing – and a vital step by TeleVerbier to make sure that the buildings we put up in the mountains respect and protect the rather fragile ecosystem we’re plonking ourselves into.

But on the whole, a new restaurant in verbier is always popular with certain members of the team, so very good news indeed on many levels.

Ok it’s on the Verbier Medran roof but as per the rumors the Bruson telecabine has been ordered. Although the rumors also say it’s not going to be built by the winter.

Still, cool eh?

 

UPDATE: Building work confirmed

Televerbier have announced building work on the new lift starts October 2012… Click here for the video

Yes, we have bullied actor, legend and all round top bloke Jason Flemyng to do the weather report for us. He was up at Carrefour, we were up at Carrefour, one thing led to another and he put’s in a rather fine performance I think you’ll agree.

The weather report is a well known springboard to greatness so we’re going to have our people talk to his people…

even bigger news than us getting all star struck that we had 20cm of fresh snow last night and it’s cold again. So when Guy said “it’ll stay sunny for weeks” he was being a fool.

So tomorrow sun’s back out and if you’re lucky we’ll have a raft of photos for you… We can’t promise any celebrities though.

Looks coudy in town but a quick look at the webcams reveals it’s clear up top.

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.