Just as we were getting used to bare patches and afternoon slush, this season had another little treat up its sleeve – dropping a couple of feet of fresh snow for us over Sunday and Monday. Not entirely sure where it came from given the clear skies and temperatures before and after, but no complaints at all, as when the sun returned on Tuesday, it meant one of the best days of the season up the mountain, with fresh tracks pretty much everywhere you turned.
So, we find ourselves firmly in event season now in Verbier, with the second annual Park 9 event on show last Saturday. It was a great day for both riders and watchers, with some epic tricks being thrown down by all teams across the 9 ‘holes’. The defending champions, Swedish Mafia +1 triumphed in a hard fought battle round the course and walked away with the trophy and the coveted Park 9 blazers. With tunes playing across the Verbier snowpark all day, and a BBQ and Ice bar laid on by Pub Mont Fort, everyone was suitably warmed up for the after parties which continued until late into the night at Pub Mont Fort and Casbah. We‘re already looking forward to next year's event coming back even bigger and better!
Apres Ski @ Farinet has been jam packed every afternoon this week, with the ever-popular Waste rocking up the crowd each day from 6pm. Tuesday was a particularly special session, as Roger Taylor from Queen just happened to be enjoying an après drink, and then stepped on stage at the request of Sir Richard Branson to play the drums with Waste and perform Lonely Boy by the Black Keys. Just your average day at après ski in Verbier! The outdoor bar is now open as well on the Farinet terrace – a perfect spot to lap up the sun looking over the Place Centrale with a pimms in hand.
The big news this weekend is the arrival of the Freeride World Tour for 2012 to Verbier. Big mountain competition just doesn‘t get any better than on the impressive north face of the Bec de Rosses. The home of the “Xtreme” will once again host the season‘s Freeride World Tour finals on the dauntingly steep and frighteningly jagged 500-metre rock-face, featuring gradients of over 50° in places! For those of you not entirely sure what freeriding is, allow me to explain. Put simply, there’s a start gate at the top, a finish gate at the bottom, and that’s about it. Best run wins. How fast, how big, how controlled, how exposed, how fluid the rider has been down the face all contributes to the overall impression of their run and resulting score from the judges. The event attracts thousands of live spectators each year, as they park themselves on Col des Gentianes with their binos and a beer in hand. It’s looking like it’s going to be a bluebird on Saturday as well, so slip, slap, slop and head up to watch simply some of the best competitive Freeriding in the world.
The attractions for the weekend don’t stop on the mountain though, as the event truly generates a festival atmosphere in the village over Friday, Saturday and Sunday with live music, performances, movie screenings, ski testing and parties laid on across all three days. For the full schedule and list of runners and riders pop to the information centre in town or go to Freerideworldtour.com
