A trip to Veysonnaz and Thyon from Verbier

Today, being Saturday, the start of half term school holidays, and with great snow conditions in the resort, I knew it would be quite busy in Verbier.  What could be better than escaping across the four vallees on a trip to Veysonnaz?  Despite my legs feeling a bit tired from training this week I heading out for some serious skiing mileage!

The view down the Piste de L'ours

Ski conditions on Chassoure Tortin were great, super soft small moguls and not as busy as the pistes.  Once I had gone up the Greppon Blanc button lift the queues and people vanished, and untracked powder beside the slopes arrived.  Despite choosing the less wind scoured sections the off piste was still wind affected and slightly heavy.  I managed to get in at least five untracked descents before heading down the Piste de L'ours - the slope that has held many World Cup races.  Normally this is an incredibly icy run, however it was super soft and there was no race training going on so the whole piste was open.

The view towards the Lac des Dix from Thyon

Can you spot the Matterhorn in the back on the right?

Another reason I love exploring Thyon is the open feel of the pistes and the incredible views across Switzerland from the Bernese Oberland to the Matterhorn and Zermatt 4000ers.  You can also see the dam of the Lac des Dix at the end of the valley.

The main valley and the Finsteraahorn dominating the skyline on the right

It takes around 1-2 hours to return all the way to Verbier.  That is, if you ski quite fast and don't get lost or distracted along the way! Although you don't cover a huge number of vertical ski meters it is a long way horizontally and you need to be relatively fit as well as being happy skiing red runs.

A big avalanche across the piste on the way back to Verbier

Evidence of avalanche activity was everywhere, and whether natural or set off by the ski patrol, there were some pretty big slides around the resort only helped by the continuing strong winds at altitude.

You can just make out this slab that had gone on the side of Mont Gele towards the Attelas to Ruinettes piste