Back in 1950, some ambitious locals decided to build a lift in Verbier’s quiet grazing fields. The Savoleyres gondola came along in 1970: those original Giovanola cabins have been hauling skiers up the mountain ever since. Five decades of spinning through bluebird days and powder storms, connecting riders to some seriously good terrain. What started as a farming village is now Switzerland’s largest ski area. Not bad.
Blueprints are satisfying snapshots of design history. Local Verbier artist Sam Bruchez knows this, and arranged key parts of the Savoleyres gondola design on a rich blue cyanotype. Since 1970, these Giovanola parts spun and whirred to make Verbier the heavy-hitting resort it is today.
Home is where you grow up riding. For Faction, that's Verbier. Here we learned what a ski needs to do, where we test everything we build, where our crew still rides every day. This place shaped us. The same peaks that pushed us still push our designs. The people of this resort are our neighbors, our friends; people who know this mountain better than anyone. It’s important to honor the people and the place that made you.
It's 7 AM and it's still dark. Verbier's patrol is already up on the mountain. They're the first ones out there every single morning, skiing each run before the lifts spin, checking snow stability, setting up safety equipment. They’re often the first face you see when you’re injured and need a hand. Every year, we gift each iteration of this ski to the patrollers so they can do the work that makes our home safer.
Mountain Air | Verbier, Switzerland
Xtreme Sports | Verbier, Switzerland
No 1 Sports | Verbier, Switzerland
Evasion | Verbier, Switzerland
Happy Sport | Le Châble, Switzerland
€39.00
€89.00
