Verbier's reputation as an extreme freeriding resort preceeds it, but on our visit over the 2001 season we were searching for one thing and one thing only, the snowpark. Yes although in the past Verbier has refused to build a park and has stuck to it's 'extreme' roots, over recent years the attitude has changed and freestylers are now welcomed and offered a couple of snowparks and pipes well worth a day's visit if you're in a neighbouring resort.

The main park lies over on the Mont Fort ski area which is a bit of a trek from the village itself. The park is huge, spanning for a couple of km, with a chairtlift serving it. Most of the kickers are of a fair size with a couple of larger ones too, as well as plenty of hips, rails, roll-overs, etc etc. It has everything including a sick sound system and a trampoline surrounded by picnic benches and barbecue!

The Mont-Fort Glacier also hosts some pretty sick freerding terrain with some good powder bowls. The glacier is also open for riding in the summer from May to October. In a way it is a waste to stay in the snowpark as the resort itself has so much good natural terrain to ride, and it is so varied it has everything from good on-piste runs, tree runs, powder bowls, glacial runs...



Verbier is full of nutters...when we were in the cable car we passed over a 40 degree, 2 metre wide coulior which would have been gnarly enough just to ride down, but lone behold there was a huge booter built above the entrance which people had been launching off to land in the coulior - fucking mental.
For more extreme off-piste riding head for the Mont Gele cable car. This is much like the Aiguille du Midi cable car in Chamonix in that from the top there are no pistes, just off-piste runs. Here there are shit loads of extreme runs in between the rocks. Proper shit your pants stuff.

As a town Verbier is very expensive and prestigious - loads of rich people. To stay here for a week or longer would be very pricey but for a day trip it is fairly reasonable as long as you avoid buying anything, although you'd need much much longer if you wanted to really explore what's on offer cos the ski area is simply huge with endless possibilities. Verbier is located above the town of Martigny, close to the French and Italian borders. From Martigny just follow the signs to Verbier and a road winds up to the resort. The closest airport is probably Geneva which is 2 hours away by car. The cheapest accomodation is in hostels, one of which is set in an old army bunker.
Overall Verbier is definitely one of the best places to ride in Europe but if you plan to stay any longer than a couple of days make sure you've brought your credit card and ferrari with you, this is the type of place where you might bump into James Bond.




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