FFS Pod with the Verbier Guide Office
Recorded in early January, on a Backdrop Crew visit to the Verbier valley to check out a couple mountain huts, we took the opportunity to interviewed Daniel Coquoz - Verbier’s Head Mountain Guide.
The Verbier valley is renowned for its extreme terrain, especially as it hosts the Freeride World Tour final each season. This recognition has seen a huge rise in backcountry skiers and boarders hitting the slackcountry zones straight from the lifts, often without the skill set or knowledge to do so, and even more frighteningly the necessary safety equipment.
Pete Coombs catches up with Daniel to hear what the resort is doing to enhance safety, and to find out more about what life as a head guide means. He also chats with local guide Richard Michellod, and hear direct from the skin-track, as Pete skins in the morning sunshine high above the Cabane Brunet Mountain Hut.
“It’s not only walking and skiing, it’s about the weather and avalanche forecasts too!”
“If you have an avalanche close to the piste, the ski patrol can arrive in maybe ten minutes, so the first ten minutes you need to do by yourself. We know you only have a 50% chance of survival in first fifteen minutes.”
