Yes, the double whammy of a snow storm hitting and the new Performance outfits arriving back from the printers can only be an omen. Winter is here and it means business.

So here are the first glimpses of the new outfits, leaving behind the old green and yellow Kermit style and bringing in a whole new era of brightness that means when we sit on lifts together it looks like a packet of refreshers going up a mountain. Rather disconcerting.

But we hope you like it. We’re rather pleased with the combination…

And the even better news is that the sun popped it’s head out once or twice today but the cloud has kept all that nice fresh snow exactly where it is (on the trees and on the pistes) and it’s snowed on and off all day.

And – even better than that (if you feel you can cope) is that all the forecasts have upped their predicted snow fall for the coming days. Could be epic.

Just got down after a quick scout about Lac des Vaux and there’s about 10cm on the piste, but Alain – aka the Silver Fox – says that they’re expecting 40cm above Ruinettes in the next couple of days,

Cross your fingers.

Just at Lax des Vaux and it’s really nice up here. Still just the main run open but the piste’s really well groomed and not busy.

If they do as good a job on the rest of the mountain when the snow comes next week it should be great.

Yes, after a decided draught of snow Verbier has opened. And despite the doubts about what we’d actually be skiing on, it’s turned out to be a lot better than we were expecting.

Lac des Vaux has been the beneficiary of a lot of artificial snow and the piste was pretty good, although naturally limited.

But it’s been cold up top and the canons were on first thing, and there are whispers of snow next week when the high pressure finally heads off and some of the dodgy weather that’s been swirling around the atlantic comes over…