J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by verbier_ski_bum

Brucie wrote:North America certainly seems to be pricing itself out of the market for some reason. Seems they neither want nor need overseas skiers anymore!

To be honest they have over 300 million people leaving in America alone, this is a considerable market already to try to change something just to attract some exotic tourists.

We received about 80 cm I would guess. Friends skied on Friday and in trees they were still falling through knee-deep powder towards the (absent) base, but on Saturday and Sunday when I skied, I had snow under my skis all the way. Very light snow and it has been blown around by wind quite a lot. Unfortunately, this week is the Verbier Freeride week, so by Wednesday there will be nothing resembling powder left anywhere within a 30 min hike from lifts. However, to put things in perspective, all this snow still wasn't enough to bring the total depths to what they normally are in an average to good snow season, probably only half-way there or a little more. I can tell just by seeing all the bushes off-piste where in an average season you can only see very tops and in a good season in many areas you cannot even guess they are there. At the moment they are big enough to ski around them, not through them. Yesterday it was very odd as it snowed mainly mid-mountain: heavy snow in the village was getting lighter as we were going up with nothing and clear skies about 2500m and also getting lighter below 1500, with nothing in the valley. Anyway, let's hope January delivers some more snow.

Waist-high powder in Verbier! Hope you guys had a good pre-season preparation because your legs are going to get a good work-out.

You need to go to a ski school to learn how to ski in a real mountain environment. I don't think indoor slopes are really comparable to an actual mountains, unless you are on a flat run.

Looks like the cold spell will continue for some time. Not as cold as it was back in Feb 2012, but still colder than we had it last few years.

I think we got maybe 15-20 cm total, not a real game changer, but made skiing more pleasant. Whoever is going on holidays next week should enjoy it way more than those who went for Christmas break, especially with less people on slopes. At the moment it's still busy, but tomorrow is a changeover day and less people are expected to come than to leave.

Yay! Finally some snow. I actually went skiing today, not touring, but real downhill skiing, the 2nd time since the start of my 2-week holiday. I also went on the first day with a friend to make sure skiing was not worth it :) Today I only lasted about 6 runs before bailing though: the viz was really poor and slopes were unusually busy considering the weather, but I guess everyone had been missing skiing on real snow as much as I had. Next three days should be nice and hopefully winter will finally start now.

Resorts are making available avalanche bulletins but It's up to skiers to consult them, the risk level is usually shown near lift stations. If they receive the forecast snow the avalanche risk will be crazy. I hope people are careful. They haven't been spoiled by snow this season yet so temptation will be high.