Round 14 - DYNAFIT SKI TOURING COURCHEVEL - 6 March 2013

Melanie Bernier and Florent Perrier take the 14th Dynafit Ski Touring Courchevel.

The heat was there for the 99 runners present this Wednesday 6 March for the 14th Dynafit Ski Touring Courchevel (DSTC), with the south wind blowing in abundance over the resort. In this spring-like mildness the ski mountaineers covered the 3.2 km and 500 m of elevation gain between Le Praz and Courchevel 1850. This new round of the season was birthday day, starting with that of Pierre Gruneberg , who was celebrating his 82nd birthday. He could not give himself the pleasure of achieving his goal of going under the one-hour mark, but he came very close with a time of 1h01min09s. The organising association “Courchevel Sports Alpinisme” was also celebrating the anniversary of the 50th DSTC climb, which began on 8 December 2010. For the occasion, a magnificent cake prepared by the pastry chefs of the Hôtel Le Chabichou was offered by the association to all participants, partners, elected officials and volunteers at the prize-giving.

Florent Perrier of the Arêches Beaufort multisport club won in 24min22s ahead of Yoann Sert of the same club in 24min46s and Andrew Mc Nab of the Canadian national team in 25min56s.

Among the girls, Canadian Melanie Bernier of the Canadian national team won in 30min18s ahead of CAF Vanoise, represented by Christine Gachet in 35min38s and Armelle Favre in 36min16s.

A World Cup in Courchevel in 2014!

For 3 years, the team of volunteers of the association “Courchevel Sports Alpinisme”, represented by its chairman Guillaume Prin , has proved through its action and motivation that ski mountaineering has its place in Courchevel. Proof of that is the success of the DSTC, whose number of participants grows every year, and the organisation of the French Ski Mountaineering Championships for 2 years. Courchevel is also the first ski resort to have created a permanent course dedicated to ski mountaineering.

For this 50th climb, Alexandre Pellicier, Technical Director of the International Ski Mountaineering Federation (ISMF), came to congratulate the association “Courchevel Sports Alpinisme” on its efforts and the enthusiasm it has shown around ski mountaineering, and officially announced that the ski mountaineering World Cup will be held in Courchevel on 25 and 26 January 2014.

Philippe Mugnier, deputy mayor, thanked the international federation and all the volunteers who work throughout the year to contribute to the success of all these events, with the support of the municipality, aware of the interest for the resort of this booming sport. Adeline Roux , director of the tourist office, also praised the work and motivation of the organisers, which led Courchevel to be awarded a ski mountaineering World Cup in 2014. The partners present, Robert Gonzales , head of Dynafit France, Christophe Normand , director of ESF Courchevel 1850, Loic Lemoine , director of ESF Courchevel 1550, Laurent Setiey , director of the Vallat Immobilier agency, and Sébastien Figliolini , manager of the shop Le Camp de Base, were delighted to stand alongside this association to help it with its projects.