Things have moved on drastically in the last few years in the world of transceivers. Increased range, longer battery life and much more intuitive visual and audio signals. As I have mentioned before, every second counts when it comes to avalanche rescue, so it follows that the easier a transceiver is to use then the better the chances are of a positive outcome. I have selected the market leaders and broken them down into a simple chart so you can easily compare the most relevant features.

Having your ski equipment delivered to your door must cost a small fortune, right? Surely it`s the preserve of Verbier`s long list of celebrities and super rich? Well this might come as a surprise but actually you can have this amazing service for the usual price of renting equipment in the shop. Instead of standing in line with the others, you can have us do the hard work for you! Then when you are ready we will come around to your chalet and kit you out with all the best gear, while you have a cup of tea or maybe even a glass of champagne.

Verbier is known as an off-piste mecca, but we are also the largest ski area in Switzerland with 412km of beautifully groomed pistes. We also have thirteen itinerary runs that are just the right amount of wilderness and nature (being ungroomed) but without needing a map or a guide! Skiing starts at 821m of elevation and climbs all the way to the lofty Mont Fort at a breath-taking 3330m – with a 360 degree view from the Matterhorn right round to Mont Blanc and countless famous peaks in between. It can take you a day just to navigate from Bruson’s tree lined runs over to the world cup run down in Mayens-de-l’ours and that’s without deviating from the most direct route or stopping in one of the areas famous mountain restaurants.

A new winter menu at Le Bec and the après-ski menu is back! There’s a couple of new additions to the menu this winter, as well as some familiar dishes making a return. After it’s uptake as a special this summer and autumn, “Toast Skagen” is on both the lunch and après-ski menu. A skandi dish which is made from crayfish, horseradish, chilli, dill, mayonnaise, lettuce, and toast.

Tell us a little about yourself Emily, You are originally from the Val de Bagnes? My name is Emily Vaudan, I was born on the 31.03.1983, in Bruson, the most beautiful village in the world 😊 I currently live in Châble and am an accountant at the Fiduciaire Alpina in Châble and Verbier. You are a serious athlete and compete in various sports but which is your main passion, is it ski touring, trail running or road biking? I like sport in general because I spend all day at my desk thinking, so sport gives me the reason to get into the mountains. I was nearly born on skis and from there I continued to skis as often as possible, starting with downhill with the help of my dad. Then I discovered ski touring and it opened a world of untouched powder and a chance to get away from the lifts and the crowds. In summer, my favourite discipline is trail running but my joints thank me when I do little road biking or mountain bike. I also love climbing the passes of the Tour de France or the Giro d’Italia on my road bike.

Essential Ski Gear for Your Winter Holiday Packing List, with insider knowledge from our friends at European Snowsports: If you’re going skiing for the first time this winter, or if you go every year but always forget an essential piece of kit, we’re here to help! Ski gear can be a tricky one; conditions are always changeable and smaller bits of kit are easy to leave in a drawer at home. But with our handy kit list, you can make sure you’ll always have the absolute essentials to hand. Whilst you are able to rent almost anything you need; like skis, boots and in some cases, outerwear (as we do here at Mountain Air), trust us, there’s some kit that’s better bought yourself!

As part of Mountain Air’s drive to recognise and promote local talent we would love to introduce one of our sponsored super stars the one and only Charlotte Percle. Charlotte has just started on a very promising career as a film maker. Her first full edit has been a great success. The film follows the exploits of 3 local young riders as they too start out in a career in extreme sports. It tracks the high and lows of competing on the freeride world tour. Charlotte followed their journey physically and emotionally around the globe and through success and failure, her complete love of the mountains and skiing is clearly evident in this beautiful edit.

Future ski trends – with our friend Patrik Sannes, ski designer at Faction who is the creator of two of our favourite skis this winter; The Prime and the Candide series. What wood cores do you think manufacturers will move towards for upcoming ski designs? - I think that the lightweight wood core trend will continue for quite a while, especially wood types like Balsa, Paulownia and lightweight Poplar in combination with classical hardwoods like Ash and Beech. I think there will be better combinations of the wood types available that will start to make their way into skis. I think this trend is going to continue since a lot of the lightweight skis available at the moment don't ski great and they need improvement.