When I woke up in Geneva Friday morning to head out it was rain, rain, rain. Still sleeping, Alf was whining about the rain and was giving the trip a pessimistic vibe. I was not giving up on my late march powder fantasy, forced him to wake up and we got the rental car at 7:01am. After a two hour drive, we rocked up the road to Verbier’s town. It was nothing short of a blessing, that valley rain storm had dropped 10-12 inches of fresh snow on Verbier, now the sun was out and it was time to go skiing.

We decided Les Savoleyres was the best option as the main mountain looked very crowded. We got up to the gondola about 10 minutes after it had opened. When we arrived at the top, I saw one of the most wonderful things ever- a closed area- totally untouched with ski attendants holding the 30 skiers back exclaiming things weren’t open yet. Alf and I were sooo stoked. When they let us go, we all dropped into ecstatic, deep, fluffy pow pow.

We hit the front side of the mountain twice, which was totally unskied and we also rocked the lower glades which were full of soft corn snow. It was nothing short of out of this world. Mike and his girlfriend Jennifer arrived from London to round out our group to four and we booked a drop with the heli guides on the Pigne D’Arolla for Saturday. That night we went for some of the famous Verbier/Valais valley pinot noir, fondue and raclette. I conked out par normal after the raclette. The waiters graciously noted my condition and when I came to I was treated with some noxious homemade peach schnapps to make sure I woke up and cheese digestion kick started!!!

Saturday we woke up and made the forty-five minute drive to the Pigne D’Arolla which is part of the Alps Haute Route. We rode in a helicopter which seated 5 people and serviced the Pigne D’Arolla exclusively. They dropped us close to the 12,500ft summit. After a short hike to the peak, we began our lengthy two hour ski down. The ski was chilled out wide open powder fields with breathtaking views of the alps on all sides. We did feel a bit humbled by the locals skinning up. It was my first heli drop and has opened my eyes to what’s available out there in the Alps. It was another superb alpen weekend break from the London cloud cover.