Non-news from Davos

I'm in Davos this week for the Great Boondoggle in the Alps. I'll be posting on the TIME Davos blog, but plan to cross-post all my contributions here for those who get these posts via RSS or e-mail (or just can't be bothered to click over to another blog). So here's the first one:

The World Economic Forum in Davos is still a couple days away (it officially starts Wednesday, although a few preliminary things happen Tuesday afternoon), but I'm already here to do a little bit of skiing and a lot of pre-conference sleeping. And to take pictures.

At the moment the town is still mostly in the hands of locals and skiers. From Tuesday afternoon through Sunday in the afternoon, it will be fully in the grip of Davos men—that internationalist vanguard whose members stand out for their addiction to panel discussions and their ability to function on about three hours of sleep a night.

I and my TIME colleagues Michael Elliott, Peter Gumbel and Bill Saporito will be chronicling the event here. I will add a few lo-fi videos, and possibly some h-fi audio (I borrowed a cool tape recorder). But for now you're just going to have to make do with mediocre photos.