I have always been lucky in November, and by that I mean – I have always found my first powder turns early season and not left half the bases on the mountain!
Last November I followed a big storm up from the Gulf of Genoa which put down a metre of snow in Cervinia followed by blue sky – not a bad weekend! This year was a little more touch and go – we hit Verbier mid-storm but on the second day of the weekend the storm broke to reveal ‘Lac des Vaux’ in perfect powder splendour with over 50cms of fresh snow.
The weekend was not all about hunting out early season powder though, the Whitedot team had six pre-production skis to test out before final adjustments and release in the New Year. There was not much room for manoeuvre! Ski or bust….
The prototypes included a new ski which had been in development all last winter – an all access freeride ski (i.e. a freeride ski designed for a few hours uphill slogging, complete with skin tail attachment arrangement), and the CarbonLite versions of the remainder of the Whitedot range. The CarbonLite takes off nearly half a kilo per ski – so really innovative stuff!
We made best use of the snow conditions over the weekend and gave the skis a good thrashing, dropping into the bowls both sides of the Lac des Vaux ridge line. The views across the Alps in this area are truly impressive and it is great to see the return of the snow capped peaks and glaciers.
There is a good dump of snow arriving over the next few days across the Alps – so next weekend would be a good bet to get your early season legs tested!
