After a lot of very worried talk in the papers and in resort the snow drought has ended. And in emphatic style. This really is the heaviest fall for along time and the roads up and down the valley have been impassable – the snow ploughs simply can’t clear them quick enough before more snow covers them up again.

Up the mountain the viability has been zero – but to be expected and an inconvenience we’re happy to tolerate… We are expecting almost everything to be open soon and with tis amount of snow Televerbier have plenty of the white stuff to make sure pistes low down (which were grass until three am this morning) are operational.

This winter certainly started late and Verbier – benefitting from altitude and excellent snowmaking facilities – has been host to people travelling from all over Switzerland and France who came as their own destinations were simply unable to open. (And we must admit to being a little smug seeing the visiting ski instructors studying piste maps and attempting to navigate round the resort that we call home. Bless them).

Of course, when it’s freezing and a complete white-out, the only sensible thing to do is pop in and say hi to Claude-Alain at Dahu…

So how much snow is there? Reports vary depending on altitude but looks like there could be accumulations of well over half a meter.

Happy belated Christmas!

It is, indeed, the season to be jolly. And with a ton of snow on the horizon it could be very, very jolly.

So, to show you precisely how the Performance team celebrate the combination of a good snow forecast and Christmas, here are some snaps of Olly, Kate and Chris meeting Mr C and some slightly scary snowmen.

So a very Merry Christmas from everyone here at Performance and we wish you all a very Happy New Year – ideally one with rather heavy snow falls to kick it off…

 

A quick flick through the ski catalogues and it’s clear that this season’s colour palette is a more muted and indeed autumnal affair. Never left behind, Performance has unveiled the new uniforms and my goodness they are AMAZING. Thanks to Faction and Alp Images.

With a fairly hefty dump of snow last week The Powers That Be at Televerbier decided that this weekend would be the opening weekend of the season, and true to their word they opened up Lac des Vaux this morning.

So, because we knew that you’d want to know, we went up for a slide around and got some pretty epic photos. Not that the photography itself was epic, but the subject matter certainly was.

In a change to seasons gone by they opened both of the Lac des Vaux lifts and as there weren’t really any crowds, there wasn’t a queue at all. That said I imagine there were hefty queues of people scrambling to buy lift passes this morning.

The base is pretty good and although in places it’s a little agricultural it’s a great start – and to be fair, the ricks are almost entirely on the Ruinette side which isn’t open yet, and judging by the holes in the base of my skis it’s not a trip I’d repeat before the next snowfall (which should be this week, since you’re asking…).

But enough waffle, here are a load of photos. And a video of nothing in particular. Enjoy.

You’ll be delighted to hear that we had a rather encouraging storm pass over yesterday and the result is that Verbier is covered in a blanket of snow. So here are a selection of photos from the webcams showing it off in all it’s glory. Suddenly opening Lac des Vaux soon doesn’t seem so crazy…

 

PS if you – like Katie – are wondering what the funny white circles are, don’t panic – we’re not being invaded by UFOs, it’s the live links on the webcams that take you to other webcams in the network. To see what it’s like up there click here and go to our webcam page.

Finally. Yes, the first proper autumn snow fell last night and it settled all the way to just-above-Ruinettes. Which is plenty low enough for this time of year. On the webcams Lac Des Vaux looked all the better for a dusting – and that’s good news as we could be skiing up there in about 26 days. So keep your fingers crossed and someone remind Televerbier to switch the snow cannons on.

So it was a nice morning to stroll around Verbier and after a summer that didn’t know where to stop, it really feels like winter is coming… And because we’re very excited, you get some nice big photos. There’s even a dab of artistic lens flare. Don’t say we don’t look after you.