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It’s snowing at 2 pm Verbier Time, small flakes started falling which are now about the size of “em chocolate sprinkles” said Georgia Fitzgerald rather modestly, ES West country Instructor and Ski School Debutant. “This is the begginning of the big one” she added later…

As a general rule of thumb, if you take 30 ski instructors up a mountain, fill them up with wine and cheese, top it off with a couple of shots, and then hand them a sledge and tell them to meet you in Medran, the results are fairly predictable.

However – agaiunst all the odds – the annual ES staff meal was an injury free experience, and the only notable problem was Sandy moaning abou a tiny bruise when he (rather unsurprinigly) rolled his sled (prooving once again that he can fall over almost anywhere and anyhow).

Suffice to say, much of the evening’s events are top secret, but here’s what the bits we can show you loked like…

The boys go to work…

Table One prepares to raid neighbouring table Two’s supply of cheese…

Toby “rewards” notable instructors (congratulations to Olly D on being voted “most likely to be the next gay James Bond”. We’re all very proud).

Caroline looks beautiful, whilst Kato sadly doesn’t seem to have quite mastered the look…

Snow’s coming a bit Tuesday and Wednesday and some more serious stuff on Friday… Meanwhile rumours are spreading that the ‘100 year storm’ is on it’s way…

(And Gus and I want to make it clear that we won the race up to the retaurant, even if nobody else was aware that there was a race.)

Snow is on its way to Verbier. Forecasts are for some significant a snowfall this Tuesday and potentially more at the weekend.

Savoleyres remains the quietest place to ski with the most variety of conditions. Watch out for the end of the Route Carrefour though as the last bit goes rapidly to tarmac.

Nordic skiing, ski de fond or langlauf is very popular at the moment with purpose built tracks extending from Ruinettes round to La Chaux and offering some amazing views along the way.

Another new innovation in Verbier is the Dog Sled team of huskies doing round trips from Ruinettes to La Chaux.

Celebrity spotting today saw Richard Branson doing his first parapente (paragliding) flight with Mike of Verbier Summits.

There are some things in life that you come to really depend upon.

The things that never change – the sun comes up in the morning, all babies look the same and Australians always win at cricket.

So when stuff changes it becomes awfully confusing.

For example, Louis plays on Thursdays and is always depressingly good. Right?

And January and February are freezing cold. Right?

Well, everything’s a bit odd at the momment – Louis’ playing on Fridays (still depressingly good though), and it’s still beautiful and sunny in resort even though it’s February.

I know – you can’t rely on anything any more (apart from the skiing high up staying great).

Still, it all looks a bit like this…

The sun continues to shine in Verbier during the day and blue skies are everywhere. The pistes are almost empty but snow conditions are still good. Snow cannons are working hard in the below zero overnight temperatures to ensure the pistes are kept covered.

South facing slopes on Savoleyres are sufferring a bit from the warm days but the other pistes in the area are still in great condition. The Route Carrefour back from Savoleyres to the main mountain is open but care needs to be taken at the end to avoid the patches of bare tarmac.

Weather forecasts show more sun for the next few days – watch this space for details of the next snow……..