To Verbier, one more time

FL’s slayer-in-chief Rich Evans invades Verbier yet again, in the hope of finally getting the goods that can transform the Four Valleys spot into a world-class pow stash

Are you allowed to have a top of the bucket list destination with the caveat that you’re only going if it’s snowing like crazy? I hope so. Because having done a season in Verbier during the snow-drought of 2010/11, I really did not want second (lack of) helpings. Surely, the Swiss heavy hitter can’t let me down again, I thought, as I dusted off my faithful Völkl Mantras (a solid, all-mountain 100mm underfoot, so as not to tempt fate) and contemplated a January 2023 trip.

But coming out of Christmas 2022, things looked grim. With the mountains green/brown, and emails bouncing between our group discussing contingency plans, what would happen if there remained so little cover (as was the case in plenty of European resorts), and how we might even be forced to… cancel.

But hail Zeus (or rather Warren Smith, who would be tasked with adding thunderbolts to my turns), and Helly Hansen (kindly organising the trip and supplying heavenly swag including the Elevation Infinity Shell 2.0 jacket and pants), who somehow arranged for the snow gods to deliver in the nick of time.

And as is always the way in the best fairytales – sorry, ski stories – the skies started to fill with the sort of giant flakes I’d rarely seen in Verbier as soon I arrived in my Audi Q3 and began hauling a lot of bags (with this trip being followed by the Ski Test in La Clusaz, then a week in Les Carroz) towards the plush Hotel Montpelier.

As to the Monday to Thursday action, cue sufficient whoops to re-programme my view of the place in just 96 hours, and make me finally understand what all the fuss is about regarding legendary locations like Tortin. And with Warren’s finely-tuned radar able to pilot us through the fresh snow and low cloud, we’d gather in the Lumi, at the foot of the slopes, most afternoons to share beers and stories about who’d had the deepest powder or best wipeout.

It really, finally, was the Verbier-in-full-glory experience I’d been waiting over a decade for, with the mountain’s kitted-out-in-Helly-Hansen Ski Patrol closing the trip in style with a tour of their underground bunker below the Medran lift, followed by a sharing-their-favourite-off-piste-routes mega-session.

Verbier, let’s just say you’re definitely forgiven. And rather amazing in the powder…