Yes, it’s that time again – the Verbier Extreme weekend. So loads of people in one-pieces have been pottering about in resort pretending to be the competitors.

As usual it was a busy day in town and an even busier one if you were queueing for the Jumbo lift. But the main event was only 50% successful as the weather really closed in before either the snowboarders or skiers could make it down.

But the drizzle in town wasn’t enough to dampen the spirits of the crowds when the presentation was made.

(And you’ve got to bare in mind that Apres was HEAVING so there were loads of people in there and the rugby had dragged away quite a few poeple who weren’t that interested in standing in the rain watching people receive big cardboard cheques from senior executives from the sponsoring companies…)

But – cynicism aside – it’s a very cool event to have in town and the fact that the mens comp is postponed and will return for the re-runin the five days means we might have a rather quieter trip up the Jumbo when it happens.

Anyway, it was all rather good and Mancusso got third. Not bad for a racer, eh?

Oh, and they had kebabs on the T-Bar terrace. What more do you want? I mean, it’s not City Kebabs in Stokie, but they were pretty good…

Finally, to see what on earth the Extreme is and to understand why the guys who do it are pretty bonkers we’ve even managed to embed the video of the winning descents. We’ll ping up the next lot once the mens snowboarders and skiers finally grind into action… Enjoy:

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It was absolutely boiling today – and the fact that I’ve managed to get some hefty sunburn is testament to the news that spring has arrived. Well, for a bit.

But the increase in temperatures saw wet avalanches going off left, right and  center, especially one on the Route de Carrefour that came steaming down towards Kenta as the poor boy watched from the button lift. It actually stopped a good 100 meters above the lift but still took out the road through the trees that normally links the Savoleyres area to Verbier.

Meanwhile Bjorn (my client) took the chance to hurl himself off the mountain whilst attached to Stu from Verbier Summits. And it looked like this…

It’s boiling up there and rather nice. And that’s probably why Mike-or-Stu from Verbier Summits was up messing about in a parapente…

Well, it looks like we only really have a 5 weeks of the season left. Pretty sad really but that’s the way it goes. After a crazy month of work for all of us sadly we have lost Jenny and Maria (Mackan) to the lure of Svenska. Maria is back teaching men to fly planes and Jenny is off to prepare for the sausage season (don’t look too far into that). The rest of us are left to fend for ourselves. We wish them well, and will see them next season (or April if we’re lucky)

Andy (Snowboarder) is finally getting some work, good effort. Being skiers we sometimes forget that Andy exists – very sorry for that mate. But check out his blog on his snowboarding page. You probably won’t understand a word as he uses ridiculous jibber language (trying to stay young, no doubt…).

Meanwhile, good luck to Becky who’s one of our apprentices in the midst of her BASI level 2 ski instructor assessment. We all have the utmost confidence that she will smash it..! We need a 100% pass rate Becky, no pressure…!

I’m also starting to feel less guilty as my foot seems to be improving so I’ll soon be able to take the pressure off the others and do some real work. This Saturday I hope.

Not much gossip off the slope (that we can talk about anyway) but as it warms up and the sun stays out longer, there is plenty of mischief to be getting up to.

WATCH THIS SPACE.

…Toby

Had a pretty amazing day on the hill and this afternoon it was starting to fairly pretty spring-ish with slushy snow low down and strong sunshine. And after skiing down it seemed rude not to stand outside the Fer a Cheval and have a pint whilst getting verbal abuse from Loic.

Alarm clock off. Kettle on. Check the weather. Check the webcams. Grin and go skiing. It’s something of a ritual and it’s rather nice when it looks like this. Enjoy your Sunday (we will…):