Round 12 - DYNAFIT SKI TOURING COURCHEVEL - 19 February 2014

Florent Perrier and Caroline Freslon Bette win the 12th stage of the Dynafit Ski Touring Courchevel.

The Wednesday meetings are now firmly fixed in the minds of ski touring enthusiasts, who are coming in ever greater numbers to take part in the Dynafit Ski Touring Courchevel. Since the launch of this 4th season of the DSTC, more than 800 different participants have come to the start of this 3.2 km race with 500 m of elevation gain between Le Praz and Courchevel 1850. The DSTC field includes the world’s best athletes but also amateurs and beginners, some of whom had never done the sport before. This mix is one of the keys to the DSTC’s success, Guillaume Prin, president of the organising association “Courchevel Sports Alpinisme”, tells us.

For this 12th stage of the DSTC, a mass start (all together) was given at 6 pm from Le Praz, as on 8 January for the Lionel Blanc special and on 26 January for the World Cup Vertical Race. Unlike the other Wednesdays, when each participant sets off in turn in a time trial, this time all 105 runners present left together at the whistle.

The 2008 ski mountaineering world champion, Florent Perrier of the Club Multi-Sports d’Arêches Beaufort, left his rivals no chance, leading the race from start to finish. With a superb time of 23min34s, Florent wins this 12th climb and sets the record in the veteran category. Yoann Sert came second in 23min49s, leaving third place to Yann Gachet (25min30s), the reigning French Sprint ski mountaineering champion.

Among the women, victory went to Caroline Freslon Bette of team Garmin in 34min39s ahead of Christine Gachet of team Isère in 34min43s and Pauline Caillet in 35min17s.

In the ESF challenge, Yann Gachet, instructor at ESF Courchevel 1550, and Pauline Caillet, instructor at ESF Courchevel 1850, set the best times of the evening.

Among the resort’s holidaymakers was the Israeli Dmitri Smetanitch, who has taken a liking to this night race for 2 years now and who regularly comes accompanied by his High Mountain Guide Jean-Louis Guigonnet to try to improve his time. With a time of 37min53s in this 12th stage, Dmitri improved his time again, and there is no doubt he will be back one Wednesday soon to do even better. Jean-Noël Usanaz, instructor at ESF Courchevel 1550, introduced his two English clients Mark Windis and Simon Bland to ski touring earlier in the week and suggested they take part in the DSTC. At the finish, they were delighted to have done the climb and to have discovered the discipline thanks to their instructor. Next year, for sure, the DSTC will be one of the events not to be missed during their holiday week.