Archives for 2007

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……..

The great thing about Verbier is that it’s a resort where you get extremes – from people out here battling with their first snowplough to the experts off hammering through the off piste.

Which makes it brilliant working out here – the instructors get all kinds of different skiers all the time and when we get time off we can head out exploring…

Which is exactly what we’ve been up to, and here are few shots from the other day (I know they’re a bit arty, but we thought it looked nice…):

However, the problem with skiing off piste is the dangers that come with it – especially with the new snow in resort – so we weren’t too surprised when our weekly ski school meeting was interupted by an emergency call asking all instructors to head up the hill to help with a massive avalanche search…

As a Ski School here we’re expected to be part of any avalanche rescue and if there’s a real emergency we have to get there and help out.

So with the adrenaline pumping we ran up to Medran and got on the lift.

Once we were up there it became clear that luckily it was just a drill organised by Televerbier, and we spent the next few hours in the pitch black and up to our wastes in powder practicing searching in -13 °C.

A good (but very cold) reality check for everyone, and it underlined the message that if you’re going off-piste then make sure you know where your going, make sure you all take an avalanche tranceiver, shovel and probe – and make sure you know how to use them.

And – although it all sounds a bit serious – if you’re not sure then go with a guide or an instructor, or just don’t go – it really isn’t worth the risk.