Fresh snow hails return to winter in Verbier

The snow conditions all over resort are fantastic now, thanks to a 20cm snowfall on Monday night, and a further 50cm falling throughout Thursday and into Friday morning. This has left us with some epic off-piste opportunities, with even the side-piste areas providing excellent powder. Even better, the resort is much quieter than it was throughout February, so even the easy-to-reach powder is staying untracked for longer. The more serious terrain such as the freeriding routes around Tortin and Col des Gentiannes are a real treat for the experienced skier, providing large open powder fields with lots of vertical and knee to waist deep snow. I spent the day yesterday skiing some of the Attelas Couloirs and Fontenay, and had some of the best skiing conditions of the season so far. In places the snow felt easily 50cm deep, with almost every turn bringing a spray of light and fluffy powder up to my waist and sometimes over my shoulders. Lac des Veux also offers some fun and playful terrain at the moment, with the fresh snow creating soft landings for the many small drops and natural kickers that can be found here.

The pistes are in amazing condition now too, covered with a fresh 5cm layer of powder to provide excellent grip and a strong edge hold. Some of the pistes are a little bumpy in places, but these bumps are simply the soft snow that has been moved around, and so are not large icy moguls. For the most part though, there are very few icy patches on the 215km of Verbier pistes, and going further afield, the terrific snow across the whole 410km of pistes in the 4 Vallees very much mirror the conditions in the Verbier area. My favourite run in resort currently is the red Fontanet run, a piste which often gets overlooked and forgotten about. Because of that, it stays very well groomed and smooth when other pistes might be getting chopped up. The FIS black run must also not be missed at the moment, as its steep upper section means you can build some serious speed until the run eventually mellows out into a flatter area at the bottom of the piste. With the soft, grippy snow we have right now, you can really push your skiing hard without worrying too much about hitting a sudden icy patch or your edges sliding out from underneath you when putting in a large and hard turn.

Over in Savoleyres, the cruisey blues and reds make for a great area for beginner and improving skiers to head to, especially as the extra snow on piste can make learning that slight bit more challenging on the steeper reds on the Verbier side. There’s also some great off piste in Savoleyres underneath the Taillay four man chairlift, with the low gradient making it a slightly safer area to learn off-piste without needing too much specialist equipment. The fresh snow takes the base at the top of the mountain to an amazing 275cm, with 218cm at 2200m, and even 120cm at resort level. With the avalanche risk currently at level 4/5, it’s strongly advised not to head far off-piste without the correct avalanche safety equipment. The forecasts are saying the weather will be a bit more stable over the next five days, with the temperature rising to three degrees at the mid station, and lots of sunshine on Saturday. After that, it should get colder again, with a potential 10cm of snow on Sunday night, followed by more sunshine midweek. Everyone around resort is buzzing to see the snow return to Verbier, and it’s likely there’ll now be enough to last us through the rest of the season. With virtually no lift queues, quiet pistes, and awesome snow, it’s definitely a great time to come out to Verbier for a late-season ski holiday.