When the storms are raging at 4 Vallees and all the upper mountain alpine terrain above the treeline is too hectic and lifts are closed, where are you gonna go? The worst kept secret in Verbier is Bruson of course.

Happily for anyone staying at Verbier, they have to download to Le Chable base before heading up again to Bruson so day trippers can often get the jump on them. In early January 2026 we were 'day tripping' from nearby Orsieres and despite requiring a snowy drive, car parking and gear change, we still easily got on board the first gondolas of the morning. And despite being the worst kept storm riding secret, the comparative mass of humanity lining up for the Verbier gondola perhaps indicates Bruson will always be seen as the 'poor man' s powder day hill'. Fine by us, see you later suckers....

Proof of a cracking few days is that we hardly crossed anyone else's tracks. Freshies on the pistes under the impressively good Pasay chairlift were first exploited. Gotta love a race car designed seat on a chair - so utterly unnecessarily fancy.... & comfy. Then left and right of the pistes with serious amounts of whooping and yipping. Then into the trees. Then across to Grand Tsai and open bowl then some steep tree skiing. Then traversing out wide, cautiously as there was much snowpack whumping. Deep snow in gullies, then well pitched trees which spit you out on a snow-covered forestry road that comfortably brings you back to the chair, where of course, unlike Verbier across the valley, there was never a queue. De light full! And so it went. Lap after lap.

At some point I spied a few punters attempting the at times awkward traverse to the start of the ski route down to Moay. Slipping to the front was a synch, but alas my cohort was stuck behind a hapless snowboarder potholing their way across. Never mind. There was plenty of fresh snow for all as it was still pewking. Waiting in the quiet as the flakes came down hard was nearly as pleasurable as skiing it..... but only nearly. The ski route was fun as expected. Popping out at Moay we noted no one had skied the terrain around the Moay J-bar. What a joy to ski unsullied deep powder in such an obvious spot at lunchtime!

Late lunch on the first day was at the excellent Moay Restaurant. So good. The snow was still piling up as we exited. And so it went on…..

How satisfying is a powder chase when it comes together. The days to come were epic too. Through some good decision making we scored an absolute cracker of a week at 4 Vallèes and Pays du St Bernard. Two days were spent at Bruson during the 'worst' (read 'best') of the storm and we were spoilt for choice.

It is instructive that in recent years the ski routes down to the valley have been deleted from the trail map. The impacts of climate change are real and obvious, but it is worth remembering that Le Chable (the base of the access gondola) is at only 821m a.s.l. which is extremely low elevation for skiing in Switzerland. So it's not really a surprise to see the valley ski routes deleted. Doesn't mean you can't still ski down though when the snow is good enough!

So just to clarify why you should choose to ski Bruson on a stormy powder day.

1. All lifts are likely to be running.
2. Visibility is good across the majority of the ski area.
3. Avalanche risk is more manageable in this sector.
4. Freeride terrain usually lands onto a safe exit trail - be it a groomer or a snow-covered forestry trail.
5. Crowds will be less than those across the valley.
6. Lift passes are cheaper.
7. It is just great fun and even though 'small' by comparison, there is still alot of terrain to explore.

A new chair being installed over summer which will increase the highest lifted point and improve access to the sidecountry terrain that is currently a hefty push across from the top of Grand Tsai J-bar. Could it irreversibly change the ski area. Not sure, but we suspect not. Well we hope not anyway. Another visit after it's put in might need to be on the cards to ensure our research is up to date!

When in the region, don't just get sucked in by the glitz and glamour (plus the eye-popping lifts and terrain) of Verbier and the broader 4 Vallees. Ignore Bruson at your peril. If you do, you’ll miss out on a fabulous powder day ski experience, and one that is quite different to most Swiss resorts.

See our thoughts on the resort’s pros & cons via the Bruson overview page.

See our video here

Our friends arrived in Switzerland as a big snowstorm was firing up, and their timing couldn’t have been more perfect for powder days in 4 Vallèes.

With the likelihood of many lifts being on wind-hold at Verbier and visibility close to zilch away from any trees, Bruson seemed like the perfect choice for a couple of days.

I’m an opponent of the saying of “no friends on powder days” because friends are what turn a fun powder day into a highly memorable one. We had a couple of Padawan in tow who hadn’t travelled much beyond their basic local ski hill, so it was lovely to watch their fascination at riding a modern gondola and a detachable chairlift with a hood. The hoods on the quad chair were a godsend considering the amount of snow dumpage which rivalled the banter dumpage on the chairlift.

Considering the high-profile nature of 4 Vallèes, I was very surprised at how quiet Bruson was, particularly on the first day which was a Friday. There weren’t many people waiting for first lifts, and we didn’t have to get our elbows out to ski the fresh powder to the sides of the piste under the quad chair. We had multiple fresh passes at this easy-pickings terrain and had a leisurely morning coffee without stressing that we were missing fresh lines. Come early afternoon, the zone around the village serviced by the 501 Moay surface lift was bereft of tracks.

The Saturday brought more people and there was a small amount of frenetic energy to get on the gondola at the start of the day, and we had to hustle a little more to get the easy-access powder, yet the skier traffic remained low relative to my expectations for the 4 Vallèes.

Bruson is a very small ski area, with the gondola primarily providing access to the Bruson village, and just 2 other main lifts and a handful of piste. Despite its petite appearance on paper, Bruson had plenty of off-piste terrain to explore and some diversity. In addition to the easy lines visible from the quad chair, there were the sparse larches and treeless lines off 503 Grand-Tsai. My favourite terrain was the zone out to skiers’ right of the quad chair, which made me feel “homesick” for the tree skiing of Nagano Japan at places like Shiga Kogen. This fabulous area had some well-pitched, well-spaced evergreens that offered easy route finding for the apprentice powder hounds, along with a couple of ravines and rocky outcrops that required some navigation.

We also enjoyed heading out skiers’ left towards the touring route. Considering the deep fresh snow, the snowboarders found it very slow going to pole along the traverse. It was satisfying to overtake our powder poaching whippersnappers on the track whilst flippin’ the bird, although I wear 3 finger gloves, so maybe the bird was lost in translation.

It was dumping with snow most of time and we scored plenty of free refills. Despite the snow being as fresh as it gets, the snow was a little heavy which was to be expected considering the moderate elevation relative to upper Verbier (and it’s not Hokkaido 😊). The snow was the best in the trees to the skiers’ right where the aspect is almost purely north, perhaps because the base was in better condition. Even though it wasn’t light dry snow, I’ve given it a 5/5 because there was plenty and it was so much fun!

I have scored value as 5/5 also, even though the 4 Vallèes area has a rep for being high-priced, because we day tripped to Bruson from Orsières where the accommodation was affordable, even by Swiss standards. We’re sort of lucky that our home resort is on the Epic Pass, so we didn’t have to purchase lift tickets, we parked for free at Le Chable, and a hearty lunch at Restaurant de Moay was reasonably priced.

It was such a fun time with a fun crew at Bruson!
See our video here