Verbier

Verbier is the front door to the Four Valleys, the largest linked ski area in Switzerland, and the resort the rest of the freeride world measures itself against. Mont Fort stands over it, and below the lifts the off-piste opens out in every direction. This is where the Bec des Rosses and the Xtreme Verbier close the world freeride tour, on a face most people would only ever look at. The piste map is almost beside the point; the terrain between the runs is why serious skiers keep coming back. And yet the days run long and unhurried, the lunches late and the nights later, a mountain that takes the skiing seriously without taking itself too seriously.

We fly here for the skier who wants the mountain, not the boutique. Some resorts sell the village and throw in the slopes; Verbier does it the other way round, and that is the version worth flying to. The off-piste is the point, and the face that closes the freeride tour earns the weekend that follows it.