Yes, things have been ticking away nicely on the Bruson lift, but when we were woken up by a heavy-lift helicopter sometime before 8am, we knew that today was going to be a day that saw a lift go up and meant the sound of helicopters would be pretty constant.

Annoying but the sound of progress – and we’ll never complain about Verbier taking a leap forward.

The great news is that this lift is being installed two months earlier than the Mayentzet lift was (September 24th, if memory serves) and that was running by Christmas. So this is really encouraging and we should be able to have a go as soon as Bruson is operational – perhaps a little before.

Of course, cynics would say that a lift to Bruson that’s twice the capacity of the bubble that it meets (between Chable and Verbier) is going to cause problems… But for now we think it’s amazing and look forward to our first trip up in it.

 

 

OK, the plan was to go to Siviez and see the new bubble lift being built. But, well, it was cold up there at the top of the Jumbo, and Dahu was closer and warm, and it sells really nice food.

So we quit.

And we went back to Dahu for lunch and we’ll go over to the new lift in Siviez soon.

But our expert in Nendaz, Ms Vantreen, informs us it’s a bubble and will replace the knackered old two-man chair and drag lift and will whisk you up to the top of Plan du Fous. Good news indeed.

And we’ll go and have a look soon. Very soon. Promise.

Meanwhile the trip up to Gentiennes was very cool and La Chaux looks like something out of The Sound Of Music. Please don’t ask how I know…

 

 

 

With all the excitement surrounding the summer skiing antics in Verbier, we’ve not really been too hot on keeping you up to date on the Bruson lift.Partly because other things have been going on, and partly because whilst things are happening down in Chable and up at Bruson mid station, the metalwork hasn’t started getting assembled yet.

You’re a fickle bunch and we know that until we have a video of a heavy lift helicopter flying in the pylons, you won’t beleive there’s any progress…

But there is a huge amount going on. And thanks to Laura here’s a glimpse…

First of all we need to say thanks to our special correspondent and photographer Nessa, who took the pictures and supplied all the info. She is a legend as always.

Ian is also a legend, as the last two pictures are his. (He’s in the pub right now so sure he won’t mind – thanks mate, put one on my tab…).

But today saw Verbier open for summer skiing for the first tim in 25 years. At least, so I’m told – the Performance team has been here for a while but not quite that long…

It was a cracking day all round – there was a huge uptake leading to a pretty hefty queue forming pretty quickly at the Mont Fort lift, but when you’re standing in a sunny queue with views like these, frankly who cares?

It genuinely was old-school bikini skiing weather, with scorching sunshine probably leading to some even-more-scorching sunburn later. (In fact Verbier was briefly transformed into one of those eighties post cards that still seem to circulate in ski resorts everywhere. As a sophisticated bunch, we have shunned that sort of cheap titillation. Have a look on Facebook though).

Televerbier did a cracking job and even had a barbecue  going. As Nessa observed, “The BBQ wasn’t free of course, but still good to enjoy a beer and bbq’d steak post ski”. True that.

The snow was “grippy to start, slushy & sticky at the bottom” which is pretty standard issue for glacier skiing although the mini drag lift broke below the start of the main Mont Fort lift, which leaves you with a rather hefty walk when you’re at a smidgeon under 3000m. I’m sure the thought a of a beer and a steak waiting at the top might have hurried a few along.

So here are the snaps and let’s hope this kind of spontaneous opening is something we’ll see an awful lot more of…

 

I know we had the whole will-they-won’t-they thing going on in June – remember, after Toby posted a load of skiing videos following some serious late snow?

Well, if you didn’t read it, there was talk of opening the lifts between Attelas and Ruinette. Now it didn’t happen but it clearly got people into the idea of summer skiing in Verbier.

Then we saw (via the nice people at Planetski.eu) this got launched on Facebook:

 

We can ski at Mont-Fort this weekend!

The trail of the Mont-Fort will therefore open to spring skiing these Saturday and Sunday July 13 and 14. As we are on the Tortin glacier, runway will be tagged and bounded by ropes, for security reasons (crevices in off-piste!). The trail is steep and without bump will be opened when snow relaxes, around 10: 00. The track will be closed at 1 p.m., so skiers are sinking until the thighs! Note that the glacier skiing is not recommended to beginners and inexperienced skiers.

As promised early June, the price will be CHF 20.-, 4 valleys annual passes holders can enjoy free use of the ski pass.

This one-time reopening of summer skiing after a break of almost 25 years is to be regarded as a full-scale test of your interest for this kind of action made possible by the good collaboration with our partner Télénendaz, co-owner of the facilities of the Mont-Fort.

The access will be possible from le Châble, Verbier (Médran) and Siviez (Nendaz).

Very beautiful days in perspective!

It’s a bit crazy but I like it. (Apart from the fact I scheduled a knee operation this summer so I could be fighting fit for December. Oh the irony… I’ll try to get up on the crutches to have a look though).

But you have to note the bit that says that this…

is to be regarded as a full-scale test of your interest for this kind of action.

Which means if it’s popular they might do it more.

So please share the life out of this. Just click the buttons below or follow the Facebook links or do whatever social media jankery you can to make sure it’s not just a flash in the pan…

If you’re not an obsessive social media monkey (and that’s no bad thing) you might have missed our little (badly edited) video yesterday on Vine so here it is again. You lucky things…

But the news is the work is continuing a lot quicker than the Mayentzet chair did the other year, so we’re hopeful it’ll be up and running to get us over from Verbier to Bruson in record time.

Now we know that many locals bemoan the fact that Verbier’s favourite secret spot will be inundated with humans but we think it’s still going to be a brilliant place to escape the crowds and hopefully will keep all the character that made it so unique. And if you’re asking, then yes – we think creaking chair lifts, t-bars and button lifts mean character.