Verbier, another virus hotspot

[p_levert]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...ort-became-a-virus-haven-as-officials-dallied

BTW, Verbier looks extremely cool: https://skimap.org/data/989/3788/1580063296.pdf

The routes from Mont-Gele to Tortin and Chassoure to La Tzoumaz look outstanding.

Anybody been to Verbier?

 

[thetrailboss]

I need to get to Verbier. It's on my to-do list.

 

[p_levert]

I need to get to Verbier. It's on my to-do list.

Should be affordable next winter :=)

 

[granite]

Went to Verbier my 2nd ski trip to Europe-can't go wrong. I spent most of one day skiing from Verbier over to the slopes at Thyon and back to Verbier. There's some real serious off piste options that involve short climbs and there are a lot of very good skiers there. The village of Verbier is great, a real ski town feeling. My favorite hang out was the Fer a Cheval (French for horseshoe). They have a lot of US License plates on the walls. One of them was from NH "CMAN" short for the Common Man restaurants. I took a picture of it with me in it and when I went to the CMan in Lincoln showed it to the bartender. She slid it under the glass at the bar on display. The next time I went there, the bartender told me that she showed it to the owner of Cman. Turns out, two twins stole the license plates off the owner's car, one of them was arrested and the other took off for Switzerland with one of the plates, so that's how the CMAM NH license plate got there. Photo attached I took off the internet, the CMAN is at the bottom right.

 

[fbrissette]

Verbier is without a doubt one the best ski area in the world. Crazy off-piste options.

 

[p_levert]

Verbier is without a doubt one the best ski area in the world. Crazy off-piste options.

It looks effin great from the trail map. Best in Switzerland for the expert skier? It seems to be on a par with Chamonix. Scenery probably not as good, but the integration of the slopes seems way better (Chamonix is actually multiple non-connected areas).

 

[fbrissette]

It looks effin great from the trail map. Best in Switzerland for the expert skier? It seems to be on a par with Chamonix. Scenery probably not as good, but the integration of the slopes seems way better (Chamonix is actually multiple non-connected areas).

Chamonix is really different. Not connected at all and needing to take a bus to get to the main stations. The town is outstanding, and skiing from the Aiguille du midi is something every skier should do at least once, but it's not a ski resort. It is really a mountain resort. Infinite variations of extreme skiing and backcountry skiing but you need a guide or advanced skills as many of the main routes are glaciated. Beside the 4 resorts of the Chamonix Valley (Les grand montets being the best by far), you also have quick access to Courmayeur in Italy (20 minutes) and Megeve (40 minutes).

The Verbier area is really 6 resorts connecting 4 valleys. It takes a solid 2-3 hours of skiing to go across les '4 vallees' in one direction as granite mentioned above. Lots of sidecountry/bootpacking extreme otions. Verbier was an important center of the early extreme skiing movement.

 

[p_levert]

Chamonix is really different. Not connected at all and needing to take a bus to get to the main stations. The town is outstanding, and skiing from the Aiguille du midi is something every skier should do at least once, but it's not a ski resort. It is really a mountain resort. Infinite variations of extreme skiing and backcountry skiing but you need a guide or advanced skills as many of the main routes are glaciated. Beside the 4 resorts of the Chamonix Valley (Les grand montets being the best by far), you also have quick access to Courmayeur in Italy (20 minutes) and Megeve (40 minutes).

The Verbier area is really 6 resorts connecting 4 valleys. It takes a solid 2-3 hours of skiing to go across les '4 vallees' in one direction as granite mentioned above. Lots of sidecountry/bootpacking extreme otions. Verbier was an important center of the early extreme skiing movement.

I have been to Chamonix and pretty much all other ski areas in the French Alps. Nothing in Switzerland, however, other than the brief ski-down from Avoriaz. In terms of the verticals you can get, the backcountry and size of the domain, I would say that Verbier looks better than any ski resort in France (excluding Chamonix). I guess the two closest competitors would be Val d'Isere and Val Thorens/Les Trois Vallees. There's also La Grave, but that's not a resort. Like I said, I was just blown away by the Verbier trail map.

Ischgl in Austria is another virus hotspot. I looked at the trail map and didn't get excited.