 Poster: A snowHead
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Love Verbier and 30 of us are heading there next March. However one husband is in trouble...'Not looking good with Joyce re Verbier at moment, I'm working on persuading her that it isn't all black runs and off-piste skiing! I'll need to take her down the "Flypaper" in zero visibility to show her what really scary is!'
She's a good skier and has no trouble getting around as she did this year in Zermatt and Glencoe !
How can this poor husband be helped to explain that a great time can always be had in Verbier ?
Thanks
Paul
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I took my girlfriend to Verbier as a complete beginner and taught her to ski myself. By the end of the week we had explored the majority of the area, from La Tzoumaz all the way over to Siviez and we both felt that some of the runs were overgraded - lots of the reds made her go 'that was a red? are you sure, it was dead easy'. That was in her first ever week on skis. Its reputation as somehow 'experts only' is clearly a load of rubbish.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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I've always thought it a bad place to be a 1st timer, but it is a superb place if you can ski OK and a fantastic place if you are a true expert.
She sounds like she is much better than OK, but less than expert.
Verbier will be great for her.
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RE: 1st timers. We spent the first morning on Les Esserts until she could snowplough and slightly stem turn, and then over to the Savoleyres bit going down to La Tzoumaz for a load of practice on the blues and easy reds there - to migrate to more proper parallel turns. By day 3 we ventured over to Verbier proper. It's not miles and miles of noddy green runs, granted, but it's really not that bad for a beginner, the 4 vallees. That said, she did progress fast (black run on day which was "no problem"), but if this chap's missus is already roaring around Zermatt then she's worrying about exactly nothing, quite honestly.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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paulmags, surely the logical solution would be to go along with Joyce, agreeing that it would be too hard for her and then spend the week on the lash dancing on the bar in the Farinet with topless girls, or in the Farm/Coco's with the Russian hookers if that's more his thing.
I think your mate needs to think a little more out of the box..
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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I can see where BGA. is coming from but I think its a ploy by Joyce to get left behind and do the dirty....
Thinking out the box is fine but you gotta start thinking like the enemy...
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Bad idea. Verbier sucks. Why don't you ALL go to the 3 Valleys? 
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Superb help and text - thanks. Until the last one - the poor guy is doomed. However, aren't the congested motorways of the 3 valleys closed for resurfacing next year?
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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paulmags, I think parlor was teasing.
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Oops, sorry !
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Thanks folks. The good news is that she has taken that on board and decided to come. The bad news is no topless girls or Russian hookers for us ! It is tough being a husband.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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paulmags, post a picture, I might be able to look after her while you're out skiing...
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paulmags, Just to add to the general consensus, I went to Verbier for my first ever week skiing, and found plenty that I could do there, including quite a few of the reds by the end of taht first week.
There are a couple of god blues and some easy reds in the Savroleyres area, all of the reds in the La Chaud area are doable for any reasonably competent skier, etc.
I think that Verbier's reputation as an "expert" resort is based more on the off-piste available than on the marked pistes being particularly gnarly.
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You know it makes sense.
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Agreed.
The onpiste in Verbier is rubbish.
The offpiste is topnotch.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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There is a reason for the seeming disjunction of fact/reputation. All the main black runs at Verbier (except Mont Fort) have been regraded as Itineraries to protect the resort against litigation if someone falls on ice or hits a rock. This means they are no longer groomed. However they are still heavily skied.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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just go and get smashed
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Good sentiment, however the piste skiing is perfectly OK for intermediates. We have friends who come to visit us every year who are red run skiers and then always enjoy the skiing. Verbier itself has a lot of blue and red pistes and although the links to the 4 Vallees are not comparable to the 3V it's still an enjoyable day out to head over to Nendaz and back again. The old 'piste maps and signs and lifts are crap' line is rubbish and just regurgitated from numerous tired guidebooks that haven't been updated since the late 90's. There are a number of new lifts and a four year old could navigate the entire 4 vallees network without any problem. Better skiers will get more out of Verbier but there is still plenty for everyone else (including topless girls and Russian hookers)
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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BGA, sorry, but the piste map and signs are really not good in Verbier, however old you are. I agree it's perfectly easy to get around - once you know!
Calamity, welcome to snowHeads!
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| Whitegold wrote: |
Agreed.
The onpiste in Verbier is rubbish.
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Why do you come out with these ridiculous comments?
On Piste in Verbier is very good, just not as "expert" as the overall reputation of the resort might suggest.
Given the level the OP says they ski at, it most certainly will not be "rubbbish" for them (unless they are very unlucky with snow cover).
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Hurtle, have to agree to disagree there. Friends who stay at ours never seem to have problems navigating round the area, and although I obviously know the area very well I still think the piste map is good for those less familiar with Verbier. The new signs that were put up a couple of years ago make things easier as well.
As a test I shall kidnap a four year old tomorrow and get him to guide me round the area. Do you think this is a good idea?
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BGA, ace idea!
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Jolly good. If fellow  s could begin a fund to get me bailed out of the Canton jail then I shall undertake this vital piece of research
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BGA - Hurtle,
This is a little more promosing, give me a little more comfort that i shall get some skiing done (if i go) and not end up in some gutter singing Swiss drinking songs with Helga the Russian ladyboy of the night.
The thought of being stranded with no sign of a St Bernard anyway is not appealing in the slightes....
Look forward to the results of the experiment
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Until the regrading of the black pistes this resort had some of the toughest anywhere. I tend to think of itineraries as pistes but clearly people on here do not. Is only a groomed run a piste? Not for me.
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snowball,
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I tend to think of itineraries as pistes
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I used to, but the other difference now (I'm pretty sure that this used not to be the case) is that they tend not to be patrolled either, or so it says on the piste maps. Even as an inexperienced intermediate skier, I was happy to ski on well-skiied, unpisted itineraries, in the knowledge that they were avi-controlled and patrolled. But now, even though I'm a better skier, I think twice about doing them, especially if I'm skiing on my own at the end of the day. And of course, this is relevant not just for the resort's insurance, but also for the skier's: an itinerary is undubitably off-piste for most policies.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| snowball wrote: |
| Until the regrading of the black pistes this resort had some of the toughest anywhere. I tend to think of itineraries as pistes but clearly people on here do not. Is only a groomed run a piste? Not for me. |
If you take the literal translation from the French, then no, as "piste" just means "track".
But the English usage also treats the word as a verb, as in the run has been pisted when the piste bashers have groomed it. And if you are using that definition, then yes, it does only mean groomed runs.
I think it certainly only means marked and patrolled runs.
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