Well, War & Pisteurs, I am officially snowed into the house in Verbier so I can finally update you all on the progress of our book tour. I confess I have been a little too over-excited about the immense quantities of neige in the trees here over the past few days to be capable of composing a blog post. If I had, it would have read: "Eeep! Snow! Tree! Snow! Tree! Snow-pillow-air-snow again!" *Small giddy noise* etc.

I'll spare you. Instead I'll tell you about our adventures since departing English shores last week.

We left Traudl Publishing HQ at Old Street, London at around 5pm on Friday and drove through the night in shifts of three hours. Calais, the Somme valley, Lyon, Bourg, other stuff in between that I can't remember because I was snoozing… until we arrived in sunny, snowy Meribel at 9am Saturday. Yes, we were rather tired but of course far too sensible to even contemplate sleeping when the lifts had just opened on a massive valley of untracked slopes. And there was no-one else there. Did we shred it? Just a little. The following day was more of the same, but with added Poppy Campbell. This leads me to Theme One of our tour: happily bumping into mates here, there and everywhere. Everywhere we have been – Meribel, Morzine, Chamonix and Verbier so far – we have been chuffed to find that lots of our like minded friends have done the sensible thing and headed back to the Alps this winter. Good times! The only problem with this trend is that the author has seriously struggled to leave each resort. It has been a mission to get her into the tour van. Will leaving Verbier tomorrow be any easier? Are you kidding? There is over half a metre of fresh snow outside my door. It will require some sort of ninja doom squad to get me out of here tomorrow morning. Polly, Blue – you have been warned.

But I'm getting ahead of myself here. We waved goodbye quite reluctantly to Meribel on Sunday evening after a wicked session in the Rond Point and a great evening with Liz, Fi and Matt. Huge, huge thanks to Liz and Fi for your hospitality. It was such a treat. Really looking forward to seeing you both soon for plenty more vin rouge and perhaps even a ski. Liz, you've got the jacket now. It self-destructs in 5 weeks if not used to move rapidly from high to less high altitude on slippery surfaces. How you choose to accomplish this is up to you, but I would suggest getting on your snowboard, pronto (or skis – I ain't fussy).

After Meribel, Morzine was next on the route, where we signed books and munched the world's most amazing food courtesy of Mel and Sus at Dotty's Coffee House. Thrilled to see our favourite ski journo Trine Bregstein and her new crew at VIP for a coffee and a catch up. Also really glad to meet and chat to Amie and Rowena from Yodel Magazine.

The only downside of this tour stop was The Shining hotel we stayed in in Montriond. The first impression I had was "why are we on an equestrian farm?" The second was "this looks like the kind of place where you would get killed." And it lived right down to expectations. I am still a bit too traumatised to go into detail on this one, so I'll sum it up in two words: insect infestation. I still resemble a plague victim. This is emphatically not OK.

Anyway, moving swiftly on, and how we did. Chamonix next, where we arrived in the dumping snow. Happy day! Although our visit was a brief one, it was action packed and featured a very fun time at MBC, followed by La Terrasse. It also featured (but of course) beaucoup de skiing on Les Grands Montets with some very excellent locals. Thanks, Phillippe and Sandra – our hosts and the coolest people in Cham (this is an objective fact). The author had by this point concluded that the solution to the problem of "where to live in the Alps when I move back out here?" was emphatically "Chamonix." Mr AT and I will be seeing you next winter!

In driving snow, we just about made it over the Col to Verbier that night, where it has now been hammering down consistently for the past three days and we have been ski ski skiing… [Editor's note: The following passage has been deleted due to excessive giddiness]…and partying it up with old and new friends alike. Huge thanks to Dave at Pub Mont Fort for organising two back-to-back and very excellent parties; to The Leg (I dig your jacket style, lady… one of a kind, the whole resort is envious) and most of all to Ruaridh the Legend (I had *almost* got nostalgic about my tour ops past until that 5am uphill jog, the 6am snowchains fun and All The Staff Crying – must be a record! It's not even Christmas week yet!).

Now the next challenge (aside from the aforementioned battle of wills regarding the morally objectionable concept of driving away from a resort with This Much Snow) will be getting the van down to La Châble this evening ahead of an early doors departure. Next stop: Zermatt and the Rip Curl Pro Store book signing at 4pm tomorrow. However, the flakes are falling heavier and slower now, and the bank of snow outside my door is only getting deeper…

AT