Right, let’s get things straight, it’s November. Definitely November. Which is why we’re all a bit confused here in Verbier.
Look at the sky and you’d swear it was April, step outside and it’s as cold as January. Then when you put your skis on, and you stop caring what’s written on the calendar and you hammer around like a fool.
And grinning. There’s been a lot of grinning.
We’ve had a massive dump last week (about 60 cm, maybe more – who’s really counting?), and it’s been absolutely freezing (try waking up on Friday morning to temperatures outside of minus 15º).
So, when Televerbier fired up the lifts on Friday, everyone in town and the valley, plus a good few keen Swiss from Geneva, were all desperate to get up there and see what it looked like…
Well, it didn’t disappoint – put it this way, nobody in the pub could remember an opening day where you could get face shots when you dropped off the sides of Lac des Vaux. And some of those guys are really old…
The highest November snowfall in Switzerland since 1956, apparently.
The fresh snow off-piste has started to creep a little though, sliding on the smooth grass underneath. And it’ll take a little while for the snow to form a stable base.
So backside of Mont Fort and other favourites are going to be off limits for a while.
And what’s the winter going to be like? Well, you never know, but with more weather coming in at the end of the week, it couldn’t be a more perfect start. I can’t wait.
And it’s still only November…