Category Archives: Weather

Early season ski touring and lift serviced freeriding

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Two weeks after our first snowfall, the skiing is still supreme. Conditions are rapidly changing though. The 50-70cm of snow at 2500 has squashed to 30-60, and is powdery only on the north aspects. Some of the wind blown couloirs are even showing fine spring snow. At 2000 meters, it’s been around +3. This has lead to a lot of melting on south aspects. The forecast is calling for fine weather for another 6 days, then some models show some snow… The opening of TeleVerbier last Friday offered super fun, lift serviced, freeriding. There was just enough snow on the ground to ski the front face of Attelas to Verbier, and conditions were not far from as-good-as-it-gets. Here are a few photos from the past few days. Hope it’s getting snowy now too, in your neck of the woods!

End of Indian Summer – Early Winter – Avalanche Awareness

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Our indian summer is coming to an end. A deep depression moved over us yesterday, starting with strong Foehn winds of over 200km/hr., then depositing 27cm of fresh snow here in Verbier last night. What a change, and it looks like winter is on its way. Yabba Dabba Doo!

We profited with this last blast to hike into our Val de Bagnes with Cherries and Stephan. These two have been getting close to mother nature for years from their base here in Verbier. Stephan is a professional mountain guide and Cherries a professional accompagnatrice de montagne. Going out hiking with her is a while new experience. She stripped the bark off a tiny root for me to eat, which provided an amazing amount of flavour and water. Picking tiny leaves and flowers, she was a wealth of information on so may aspects of our environment. It was overwhelming. They have started taking people far and wide, to not only hike and climb, but discover the wonders of nature. Their latest, the Selvaggio Blu on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia, looks like one of the most dramatic hikes around. Send them a note to get on next year’s wonderful trip in the spring.

I will again offer a series of avalanche courses starting in late November and early December. Have a look at the avalanche awareness page for some preliminary dates that may work for you. It’s real fun, hands on stuff, that helps you understand how the snow pack develops over the winter and what to look out for. Hope to see you soon in the snow!

Summer has left Verbier

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The colors of Autumn are coming back. The grasses and Larch on the slopes of Savoleyres and Attelas are turning golden brown. The peaks are holding thier snowy coatings as Verbier sheds the long summer days.

Its been a long time since I updated this little blog on Verbier. Too much fun away, no time to restore a lost blog, and only a few photos has delayed any updates this summer.
Though the weather was generally good, timing was key in changeable forecasts to make any peaks. We climbed some fun peaks and scrambled up some fine pure rock routes. The glaciers continued their retreat, though the cooler and wetter weather meant that they were not as dry as in the past few years.