Sunny and clear days

Sunshine and blue skies welcomed crowds to Verbier this weekend. With temperatures remaining below zero the snow quality is still very good – packed powder on the pistes and chopped up soft stuff off-piste. Col des Gentaines is once again open although watch out for a small rocky patch halfway down. Tortin is also open and said to be very good at present with not too many moguls. The glacier drag lifts and itineraries Vallon D Arbi and Col des Mines remain closed for the present. However, rock coverage off-piste is generally much better following the recent snowfall this week.

At Savoleyres the snow conditions are still very good and the slopes are much less crowded. The only icy run is the red down to La Tzoumaz all the other runs are pisted powder and there is still some powder available off piste on the La Tzoumaz side of the mountain and under the Tailley lift.

The forecast for the next few days into February is for more sun and temperatures of around 4 C during the day and -5C overnight. Snow cannons are now back hard at work to maintain the snow conditions as we roll up towards the half term holiday.

ES come 2nd in 24Hr Freeride

It’s party time in Verbier again with the Dominique Perret 24Hr Freeride contest hitting town. Over 130 teams of 4 skiers and riders competed day and night in a grueling 24hr race down the main mountain. Music and entertainment was provided for the teams who ran in relays to do the most vertical metres with the top teams completing over 80,000m. The winners were Team Saloman with local team European Snowsport coming in a very creditable second with 515km logged. This was a first time entry for the boys from E.S – Louis, Anders, Andreas and Olivier well done guys!

<a href=”">2nd prize

<a href=”">celebration

+++++++++++++++9 AM RACE UPDATE++++++++++++++

Dawn has broken over Verbier and the news is not brilliant…but not bad.

Louis is pretty sure that Team ES are still behind the lightening quick Team 101 (who are rumoured to be a team of pro-skiers), but we’re still hanging in there.

The fatigue is kicking in though, so Anders’ secret technique of “just going straight” might be a little risky…

The thing is that we’ll only find out where we stand when it’s all over at midday…

24hr Race Update 6 a.m.

DSC_2567
Originally uploaded by European Snowsport.

After some stunningly quick laps from Anders and Louis, mystery Team 101’s lead is now reduced to 5 mins.

Anders said “we’ve tried some new routes and it seems to b paying off” he added “101 are real fast pro-skiers but i think we can stay with them maybe even close the gap some more”.

The race contiinues…..

3 am and all is, well, a bit close…

At 3 am Andreas had just taken over from Louis on the decents and things were very close.

Estimates are that the mysterious Team 101 are a daytime lap ahead of Team ES (about 11km) but a night time lap behind us (about 5km), which means that they’re roughly 6 km ahead.

And we think we’re running in second place but no one’s quite certain.

But they were clawing back time as Andreas took over and gained about a minute on the boys during the pre-changeover and post-changeover laps. It’s very, very close in deed…

More later…

24hr Race Team ES Charge on

As the moon is high over Verbier and most people are either asleep or revelling away in a cosy night club, up on the mountain Team ES charges in to the night.

12 min laps were maintained past midnight, and a 12 min Lap involves almost straight lining the whole mountain at night over-taking other racers and dicing with various dangers on the descent…

Louis, Anders, Olivier and Andreas all put in fast laps before midnight, and while one skis the others try to catch up on much needed sleep.

However, the hardest hours are still to come…