Messages posted by : admin
Zermatt kids rental and where to start?
Started by GarryHarry in Switzerland, 5 Replies, discussing Zermatt |
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Hi Garry, we'd need more info to advise where you should go (e.g. how well do you ski? how confident is Harry, etc.) but if in doubt then maybe book a lesson or 3?
Kid's boots, skis and a helmet look to be about 90CHF for mid-January which doesn't seem too bad (for Switzerland/Zermatt). You can find the location of various rental shops on our map here https://www.j2ski.com/ski_resorts/Switzerland/Zermatt_Map.html (apologies in advance for the annoying insistence of our map in showing hotels repeatedly - on our list to fix!). Or you can check SkiSet's Zermatt prices and 3 shop locations directly. HTH (disclosure :- we work with SkiSet and they help J2Ski happen!) |
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I don't know the shops in Les Brevieres, but the guys at Mountain Story in the centre of Tignes le Lac know their stuff (I've not had boots fitted there, but had excellent hire kit from them a few times).
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Lech, Austria, got their season started last weekend - with 2 metres of snow on the mountain! Hundreds more ski areas open across the northern hemisphere, with snow levels and conditions excellent across most of the Alps. The Snow Headlines - December 7th - Chamonix opens for 23-24 season posting deepest snow in the world at 3.3 metres. - Andorra's ski season is underway. - Dolomiti Superski fully opens Friday with 500 miles (800km) of slopes. - Eastern Europe's season underway with centres opening in multiple countries. - Utah resort closes briefly for avalanche danger as heavy snowfall arrives in the Rockies. - French ski resort Risoul damaged by a flash flood. 
More heavy snow forecast for Europe, and decent amounts for America and Japan.
World Overview The start of December has brought more active weather systems across the northern hemisphere. The good news from that is more snowfall, particularly welcome in North America where there hasn't been much to date. The downside has been yoyo-ing temperatures bringing rain at high elevations at times, high avalanche danger in both the Rockies and the Alps and gale force winds or fog at times. Between these normal winter weather systems, which brought temporary closures to ski areas in both Europe and North America, there have been some glorious blue skies and fresh snow days. In other positives, hundreds more ski areas have opened including the first for 23-24 in Andorra and several Eastern European nations. Europe Austria Austria's dominance of the table for the resorts with the most terrain open in the world thus far this season may be about to be relinquished with bigger areas in France and Italy opening up much more terrain from this weekend, but conditions still look great, especially when compared to this time a year ago. Kitzbuhel, for example, is reporting the snow lying deep on its village streets just like in the olden days last century. Austria still has three of the five biggest areas open in the world; with Ischgl (OK, an area shared with Samnaun over the border in Switzerland) still in the top spot and the first to pass 200km of lopes open this season, now up to 210km. St Anton and Solden are the other two. France Into every Alp a little rain must fall it seems and sadly Risoul (which has not yet opened for the season) got an awful lot of rain last Friday/Saturday during a brief temperature spike up to high elevations which caused flash flooding and severe base area damage - cutting the resort off for several days. Outside that extreme though, conditions for the start of the season are very good and certainly much better than they were 12 months ago. La Plagne is the latest French area to announce that it's opening a week early, this weekend, for a preview opening, after Avoriaz, 3 Valleys and Val Thorens did so last weekend. Les 2 Alpes, Chamonix, Val d'Isere, Montgenevre and Alpe d'Huez are among the areas that opened last weekend joining Tignes and Val Thorens. Much more snow is forecast for the coming week. Italy Italy's big ski areas have been opening up over the past few days, with the Milky Way on the French border starting to open terrain around Sestriere from Thursday and the vast Dolomiti Superski beginning its full opening from Friday, when it says it will have about 320 lifts and 800km of slopes operational across all 12 sectors of its huge domain. So in other words a positive start to the season. In common with other parts of the Alps, there's been a good start to 23-24 for most of the country with more powder alarms this last week and Bormio posting images of snow lying metres deep up at 3000m. Switzerland Swiss slopes are in good shape too after a whole lot more fresh snowfall. Europe's highest slopes on the Swiss-Italian border shared by Zermatt and Cervinia often have the most terrain open in Europe at the end of November or early December and although they've not quite managed that in 2023 they are in second spot with about 140km of runs open already. They have been overtaken for the country's deepest snow by Glacier 3000 near Gstaad, posting 220cm lying up top. Pyrenees Ski areas in the Pyrenees appear to have had a bit of a battle to open this week – which resorts on the Spanish side of the range have been keen to do, mostly as there are no less than three bank holidays this week. The biggest area, Grandvalira, delayed a planned opening last weekend to Monday when it finally opened with about 40km of slopes around Pas de la Casa and a thin base reported. Baqueira Beret on the Spanish side has already opened and seems to be faring slightly better so far, with up to 65km of slopes open now. After some good November snowfalls, recent weeks have been too warm and too dry. A good snowfall is expected over the next 48 hours though. Scotland Scottish ski centres were forced to deny a newspaper report that the cold (and slightly snowy) weather meant they were opening early at the end of last week. It has indeed been very cold, hardly getting above freezing much of the past week and reaching double-digits below zero (C) overnight on the hills most nights too. But it has been mostly clear weather with light snowfall and The Lecht was first to say they haven't got enough snow yet. It is one of those that might open early if it does snow enough. Cairngorm and Glenshee are both talking about the week before Christmas, while Glencoe say that they have their access chair running up to high terrain for ski tourers but no in-bounds runs ready yet. Scandinavia Another cold and snowy week in Scandinavia with northerly centres again seeing lows down as far as -25C and although no big snowfalls were reported in the last seven days, the weightless light powder has been giving a nice refresh for slopes most mornings. Most of Finland, Norway and Sweden's resorts already opened in November and of course, most have their slopes under floodlights at this time of year too. Norway's Hafjell is currently posting the most terrain open – about half of its 50km of slopes, while Kåbdalis in Northern Sweden, which has already been open a month, is the first in the region to reach a 1m base depth. Eastern Europe The main news this week is that Jasna, one of the region's bigger ski areas, has opened with lots of snow lying already. It has about half of its 45km of runs open, which it says makes this one of the best season starts in years. It has been a mostly cold and snowy week in the region. Further south in Bulgaria, there's nowhere open yet but there has been snowfall reported down to resort level at ski areas like Bansko, which plans to open for the season the weekend after next. North America Canada Canada hasn't got off to the best of starts to winter 23-24, with no huge snowfalls so far and warm temperatures in the East and on the BC coast for periods too. The past week has seen a marked improvement in all areas with resorts in the west reporting about a foot of snowfall in the last few days, and colder temperatures for snowmaking plus snowfall in the east as well. Generally, the open ski areas only have about 10% of their terrain open so far, but the biggest, Whistler Blackcomb, is up to 20% or about 1,700 acres so far, already the most in the country. USA There's been snow falling across the US this last week and with a lot of the past month staying dry, many regions have seen some of their biggest snowfalls of the early season so far (and for some it's the first significant snow). Most leading US resorts are now open with many reporting at least a foot of new snowfall, some as much as two feet over the last seven days. Terrain open remains limited as the snow is still not yet that deep and it's still early season, but the percentages open are creeping up. |
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A snowy November, and big snowfalls ongoing and forecast for the week ahead, have kicked off the European ski season in style.
Flaine, France, one of many Alpine resorts where it's bucketing down snow today... We are into the final month of the year and this is, of course, the big one for ski areas opening – we start December (and winter by the meteorological measure) with about 200 centres open already, and by the end of that month the number will be somewhere between 3,000 and 5,000 ...no one really knows how many of the world's smaller resorts are still operating! This December is pretty much the opposite of last year, when Western North American ski areas had seen huge snow storms and European resorts were getting nervous about late snow. This year, the Alps are celebrating after one of the snowiest Novembers of recent years, while many North American areas are finally seeing some snow after weeks of predominantly dry weather.
Europe Austria Austria dominated the world in terms of the number of ski areas it had open compared to everywhere else through October and the first half of November. It has now been overtaken, but still starts December with more terrain open than anywhere else, thanks to big accumulations in early November and snowfall down to low levels in the final week. So the best start to December in quite a few years with most of the country's areas set to open the second or third weekend of the month. France France was a little late to the party for the 23-24 season, but the heavens opened and it has been one of the snowiest Novembers in recent memory. A number of French Alpine areas opened (or pre-opened, for weekends, like La Clusaz and Flaine) this weekend, catching up with those in Italy, Austria and Switzerland. Tignes and Val Thorens have been open a fortnight too. Tignes opened with 1300m of skiable vertical, the most in the world at that point, and Val Thorens now has 150km of slopes open, pipping Ischgl/Samnaun to claim the most in the world. French resorts opening this weekend include Alpe d'Huez, Chamrousse, La Clusaz, Les 2 Alpes, and Montgenevre to name but a few, and half a dozen more in the French Pyrenees. Almost all the rest are expected to open on either the 9th/10th December or the following weekend. Italy The final week of November saw temperatures drop and snowfall return and the forecast for the first week of December is looking promising. Cortina d'Ampezzo and Madonna di Campiglio are among the big-name areas already open with much of the country's biggest area, Dolomiti Superski, expected to open from this coming weekend. Switzerland As we start December, Switzerland has more centres open than any other European country, having just overtaken Austria that has been able to make that claim for the past 10 weeks. Many of the country's leading resorts including Andermatt, Arosa, Crans Montana, Davos, Engelberg, Gstaad, Laax, Murren, Saas-Fee, St Moritz, Verbier and Zermatt are all already open, thanks to a mostly cold and snowy November, so there are far fewer big names waiting to open here than in the other big name ski nations in the Alps. Samnaun leads with its shared cross-border terrain with Ischgl for the most runs open - or at least accessible - from Switzerland, nearing 150km. St Moritz has 120km already spread across its three main areas and while Zermatt-Cervinia 'only' has 70km open as we compile this report, it often claims the most open in the world on the first weekend of December so expect that number to at least double. Quite a few Swiss areas have only opened weekends through November but are expected to open daily from this weekend if they're not already. Pyrenees Things were looking a bit lacklustre for the start of the season in the Pyrenees a couple of weeks back, but a decent dump in the final week of November led Spain's biggest area, Baqueira Beret, to open a week early crediting a 35cm snowfall, as, unexpectedly, did France's smaller Porte Puymorens. Andorra's resorts will open this weekend, and most of the rest in the region over the following two. The first full week in December includes several public holidays in Andorra and Spain so centres are keen to open what they have to encourage early visitors. Scandinavia It has been a really good November for Scandinavian ski areas with most of the region's larger resorts including Sweden's Are and Salen and Norway's Geilo, Hemsedal, Trysil and Voss now open, and predominantly sub-zero temperatures reported. It's still been getting down to the -20s (C) in Lapland and northern Scandinavia and some Norwegian centres have also seen up to 50cm of snowfall in recent days. So it's currently looking good for the start of the season and, in northern Scandinavian, the disappearance of the sun under the horizon in a few weeks until early January. Eastern Europe None of Eastern Europe's well-known ski areas have opened for the season yet, but what signs there are for the season ahead have looked promising in recent days and weeks with sub-zero temperatures dominating and forecast for the start of December, with regular snowfalls too. The northeast's biggest area, Slovakia's Jasna, opens the first weekend of the month and reports the snow lying up to half a metre deep. It's probably a few more weeks for Bulgarian ski areas but it's looking fairly promising here too. Scotland The Scottish Highlands, home to the country's five ski areas, has seen a predominantly cold November, but still suffered the warm weather spikes which saw much of the occasional snowfalls up high thaw away again before the next snowfall arrived. Nonetheless, Glencoe says it will open up its access chairlift for ski tourers to use to reach any high-altitude snow outwith the ski area boundary from December 2nd. The Lecht and Glenshee will open as soon as there's adequate snow. All five centres have all-weather snowmaking machines which will allow them to create small snow areas for beginners and terrain parks even if Mother Nature doesn't deliver enough natural stuff pre-Christmas. Cairngorm says they'll open Christmas week, if not before, and are hoping their upper-mountain access funicular will be open again by then. North America Canada It has not been a particularly epic start to the 23-24 season in Canada so far with limited snowfall and until recently warmer than average temperatures, particularly noticeable in the East. The final week of November did see a better foot-plus dump in the west and more centres in Ontario and Quebec opened thanks to snowmaking. Big names like Tremblant and Whistler are open for the season and centres not yet open will be joining them over the next three weekends. Whistler and Sunshine start December with the most terrain open in the country – about 20km of slopes each, that's about 10% of Whistler's total terrain. USA The ski season in the US has had a slower start than across Europe. Most of the country's big ski areas are now open, with the Thanksgiving holiday at the end of November a major opening-day target, but with not much snowfall so far, what's open at each is, on the whole, limited to just a few miles of runs. There have been snowfalls, coast-to-coast, with reports of up to a foot in the Rockies in the final week of November, but that's been the exception in a dry few months. California's Mammoth has about the most so far, with about 12 miles of runs open on a foot-deep base. Alta in Utah is posting the deepest base with over three feet lying up top they say. Some way to go to reach its record 900 inches of snowfall total topped last winter! |
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Three weeks is a long time in weather... but it's looking pretty good right now, so you'll be fine. :thumbup: |
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J2Ski Snow Report - November 30th 2023
Started by User in Snow Forecasts and Snow Reports, 2 Replies |
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Hi Jack - just click the button with your username and Profile on the blue bar above, and look under "Ski Areas in Your Snow Mail". You can select several resorts and change them whenever you like. |
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J2Ski Snow Report - November 30th 2023
Started by User in Snow Forecasts and Snow Reports, 2 Replies |
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St.Johann in Salzburg, Austria, looking pretty and ready to ski... Heavy snow for the Alps (albeit with fluctuating temperatures - mostly cold!) and Japan, with more early openings announced. The Snow Headlines - November 30th - Still more big snowfalls in the Alps, up to a metre more up high, 50cm in valleys. - Ski season underway in the French and Spanish Pyrenees, Andorra opens this weekend. - World Cup ski racing continues in North America. - Eastern Europe's 2023 season starts this weekend, Slovakia's Jasna among those opening. - Dry autumn for northwestern US continues to delay opening of some areas. - Avalanche danger level in the alps widely up to 3 on scale to 5, some see level 4 ("high"). 
Snow forecast for Europe, America and Japan - again!
World Overview It's December and that means the start of meteorological wintertime across the northern hemisphere. The good news is that it does look pretty wintery in much of Europe with one of the snowiest Novembers on record and it's heading that way in Japan too. North America has seen sub-zero (Centigrade) temperatures in some areas at time, but full on winter still seems to be running a little late, still waiting for the kind of big early snowfalls we're used to... although there have been some moderate falls for most. In any case, resorts are opening up on both sides of the Atlantic and after being still just in double figures at the end of last week, we're now into the hundreds and heading fast towards a thousand open now. In north America there was a rush to open for the Thanksgiving holidays last weekend, even though those open didn't have much in the way of terrain. In Europe the numbers of ski areas open aren't that much higher but the amount of terrain each offers is much greater, thanks to the snowy November here, with a growing number already posting 100km+ of slopes open. Europe Austria It appears to be almost a dream start to the Austrian season with heavy snowfall down to valley floors since the weekend, leaving resorts almost apologising for posting hard-to-believe images of streets buried in deep snow in the final days of November. The snow has been falling all week and is expected to continue through the weekend, although probably lighter than it has been through the coming weekend, with temperatures double-digits below freezing on mountain tops and only getting a few degrees above down in resort. About 15 high altitude and glacier resorts are already open with several including Ischgl and Solden already posting more than 100km of slopes available. We'll hit at least 50 open this weekend. Saalbach is among those newly opened with the Arlberg region and Zell am See among those due to join from Saturday. France After just having Tignes and Val Thorens open in the French alps for the past fortnight (unexpectedly joined by Porte Puymorens in the Pyrenees last weekend), more big name French resorts are set to open for the first December weekend, including Alpe d'Huez, Chamonix, La Clusaz, Montgenevre and Le 2 Alpes among quite a few others. Avoriaz says it will open a fortnight early, for weekends initially, due to all the snowfall. We also saw Val Thorens open up much more terrain, 150km, to jump up the leader-board for most terrain open in the world at present, going head-to-head with Ischgl/Samnaun. Although with the size of the 3 Valleys, ultimately there can be only one winner! Conditions have continued to be excellent for this point in the season in the French mountains with overnight lows in the -10s (C), daytime highs only just below freezing and plenty more snow falling. Italy A pretty good week in Italy too after some snowfall at the start of this week. Drier since but staying cold for most – cold enough for snowmaking to operate at full pelt in fact – and there's more snow forecast to end the week. About a dozen Italian ski areas are open so far including big names like Cervinia, Cortina, Livigno and Madonna di Campiglio with those numbers set to more than double this coming weekend. Several areas have more than 50km of slopes open now but Dolomiti Superski starts its opening from this weekend so a big jump in those totals is expected too. Val Gardena say they'll open early, this Saturday, with 50km of slopes, jumping to 180km from next Tuesday. Switzerland Switzerland currently has the most ski centres open in Europe, nearing 20, and here too it has been a cold and snowy end to November, so much so that some Swiss centres are already posting level 4 on the scale to 5 of avalanche danger. In terms of changes from a week ago, all three areas at St Moritz are now open with a combined 150km of slopes, about the same as Samnaun-Ischgl has climbed up to over the last week since the season started there. Zermatt-Cervinia, still posting the country's deepest snow at 2 metres, is expected to get up there soon too but so far has just reported 60km of slopes open. Pyrenees The 23-24 ski season got underway in the Pyrenees at the weekend with snowfall at the end of last week allowing Spain's biggest area Baquira Beret to open about 25km of slopes and France's Porte Puymorens to open some terrain too. It's been a cold week with snow showers since and the region's largest resort, Grandvalira, is expected to open this weekend, along with a dozen more French and Spanish centres. More snow showers are forecast through the coming weekend. Scotland Scottish ski centres have seen sub-zero temperatures for much of the past week and occasional snow showers, so things are looking promising, although there's not been a significant snow fall to generate real excitement yet. Glencoe has turned on its all-weather SnowFactory snowmaking machine to build a base for its toboggan run and plans to turn on its access-chairlift to reach high altitude snow for ski-tourers before the season starts from this weekend. Remaining cold through the weekend with snow showers. Scandinavia It's been another cold and snowy week up in Scandinavia as well where all of the region's larger resorts are now open including Are, Hemsedal, Trysil and Voss as well as Pyha, Levi and Ruka up in Lapland. Some very low temperatures down in the -20s (C) have again been reported and daylight hours are rapidly diminishing. So overall a positive picture with snow depths building, open terrain increasing and snow quality fabulous with those low temps. Eastern Europe Eastern Europe's season is expected to get underway this weekend with one of the region's largest centres, Slovakia's Jasna, expected to open. It and the wider region has had a snowy week with temperatures staying low and frequent snow showers and, as it already had plenty of snow on higher slopes, things are looking good for day one. It's been snowing in more south-easterly ski nations like Bulgaria and Serbia but the season start is probably a week or two further away here. North America Canada It has been a mostly cold and largely sunny week again in Canada – the cold welcomed by skiers, the sunshine not so much. It's over a week now since the last decent snowfall in the west and that was just 20-30cms when there's been precious little more so far this winter. So it's limited terrain at areas already open and snowmaking going full blast where systems are there. Most of the big resorts have opened or will open over the next few weekends. Whistler Blackcomb has about 10% of its slopes open but Sunshine near Banff is approaching 30% of theirs and has the most in the country so far at 30km of runs. USA It has been another fairly dry week across the US, with ski areas struggling to open more terrain. Most are managing to keep a few miles of slopes open, Breckenridge posting it was up to 200 acres, about 7% of its total area, open at the weekend. Most major resorts are open now, with last weekend's Thanksgiving holiday a major incentive, only the northwest corner around Oregon has had very little snowfall so far. There have been very low temperatures and some snow showers in the northeast of the country. There is snow on the forecast; nothing huge, but enough to improve conditions. |
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Voted BEST SKI RESORT IN SWITZERLAND again at the 2023 World Ski Awards, Verbier, in Switzerland, draws legends, royalty, pop stars (James Blunt has a chairlift named after him) and, yes, us ordinary folk too. Part of the largest ski area in Switzerland, "Four Valleys" has 410 kms of slopes that cater for all levels of skiers and boarders. Here's what's new for this winter. News from Verbier winter 2023/2024 While Verbier remains the destination's main attraction, with its extensive range of activities and central location in the 4Vallées ski area, other villages on the ski circuit offer different ways to experience the region with their own charm, style and choice of accommodation. The villages of La Tzoumaz, Le Châble and Bruson all have the added advantage of being connected to the ski area, while offering more affordable accommodation than Verbier. With skiing already underway for the 2023/24 winter season, there are two key themes at the forefront of all the new activities and developments within the resort: accessibility and sustainability. Verbier is highlighting its sustainable ethos with a clear trend towards using renewable and local energy, installing equipment that uses less energy, improving snow grooming and snowmaking systems, and encouraging alternative forms of transport – all these measures are being put in place to reduce its carbon footprint. The biggest carbon footprint comes from the movement of clients from their place of residence to the ski resort; train access from London St Pancras to Le Châble is an easy and relaxing way to travel, and the station is linked to Verbier and Bruson by cable cars that leave from the village. Direct flights are also available from Aberdeen, Belfast-International, Birmingham, Bournemouth, Bristol, Cardiff, Doncaster, Dublin, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Exeter, Glasgow, Inverness, Leeds, Liverpool, London-City, London-Gatwick, London-Heathrow, London-Luton, Manchester, Newcastle, and Southampton. New: L'Inkontro This winter, the legendary Chalet Carlsberg is being reinvented and transformed into L'Inkontro, a convivial place rooted in the cultural identity of the Bagnard region, where old meets new, and infused with the warmth and flavours of the Mediterranean. The design of L'Inkontro (which literally means "I'm going to meet you" in local Val de Bagnes dialect) was inspired by recently renovated mountain huts such as Chanrion; the architecture preserves the original structure by enveloping it with a modern layer, propelling it into the 21st century. On entering L'Inkontro, guests will be drawn into its warm atmosphere immediately. Walls steeped in history whisper tales of days gone by, while modern touches bring freshness and energy to the space. Every detail harmoniously blends both tradition and innovation. At the crossroads of Verbier's major slopes, L'Inkontro isn't just a bar or restaurant, it's a place where skiers of all generations can mix, connect and share their experiences. New: Papill'on – boutique-hôtel à la Tzoumaz Papill'on, the restaurant that burst onto the scene 18 months ago, has made a big impact. Ideally positioned on La Tzoumaz's Rue Centrale, the place is surprisingly creative with its imaginative cuisine and a hint of edginess, all in a welcoming and laid-back atmosphere. This year, Papill'on introduces a new venture: a family-oriented boutique hotel with nine snug Alpine-style double rooms. The venue also hosts a variety of events and musical entertainment throughout the year, including wine tastings featuring local wineries, and concerts, all creating a fresh and inviting cultural experience. https://www.papillon-latzoumaz.ch New: "À Table!" by Jérémie Voutaz Local chef Jérémie Voutaz chose to set up his bistronomic table d'hôte in the unique setting of a former sheepfold in the heart of the hamlet of Etiez, at the entrance to the Val de Bagnes. Modern meets traditional, both on and off the plate, creating a unique and exclusive experience. Seated at the dining table, six guests have a direct view of the kitchen, where the chef concocts a unique, tailor-made menu for a culinary experience of infinite flavours. These gastronomic surprises are guaranteed to win over even the most discerning diners. Prices: Four-course menu 129 SFr / person / 5-course menu CHF149/ £155 pp, six-course menu CHF199 £ 178pp. https://www.davidadam.ch New: Kairos project in Bruson Wine in the Valais is born from the passion of its winemakers and the stories behind them. In the charming village of Bruson, Kairos is a new tasting room for fine Valaisan wines. Within a private cellar, guests are invited to discover the finest limited-production wines accompanied by local cured meats and regional Alpine cheeses. Beyond the tasting room, Kairos also offers a luxurious, two-room apartment in a charming chalet. https://www.verbier.ch New: Le Koti: Bistro, Le Châble Much like a Swiss Army knife, this innovative establishment combines a coffee shop, a bistro, and a pub, offering a complete range of food and drink daily from 08.00 – 23.00. Situated just a brief five-minute stroll from the Le Châble ski lifts with an impressive 120m² terrace, Le Koti strives to unite outdoor sports enthusiasts, locals and tourists within its welcoming, laid-back ambiance. Throughout the season, visitors can enjoy live music and a variety of entertainment. www.instagram.com/lekoti_bagnes/ New: Verbier Race Experience This winter, skiers can enjoy a brand-new dedicated race area at the top of the La Tzoumaz - Savoleyres sector. With a state-of-the-art timing system and an exhilarating giant slalom course featuring around 15 gates, it's open to everyone. Whether competing with friends or on your own quest for speed, it's the stopwatch that decides the outcome. www.verbier.ch First tracks The adventure starts as Verbier wakes up – a time when even hardcore skiers haven't yet put on their boots but the lift staff are already hard at work preparing for another day on the slopes. That's where the assigned ski patroller comes in. With them, guests have the privilege of making the first tracks on the freshly groomed Attelas piste before the first skiers reach the area. As the sun begins to rise, the pistes will be completely yours for two runs. Afterwards, refuel with a mountaintop breakfast (included in the price) before exploring the rest of Verbier and the 4 Valleys. CHF40 / £35 pp. www.verbier4vallees.ch About Verbier Verbier is known as the cradle of Swiss skiing and home to some of the best skiing, luxurious accommodation, and gastronomy in the Alps. People flock to this traditional Swiss resort because it has a heart and soul that lives for snow sports, for the mountains and for adventure. |
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