ROUND 18 - DYNAFIT SKI TOURING COURCHEVEL - 6 April 2011

Yannick Buffet and Mireia Miro Varela take the records for the 2010 – 2011 season.

A fine final for this 18th edition, which closes the Dynafit Ski Touring season, and a record turnout. Indeed, 77 competitors were on the start line and for the occasion more than half of them were in fancy dress to celebrate this last climb, which had to be modified by the organisers because of a lack of snow on the official course.

Guillaume Prin, President of the organising association Courchevel Sports Alpinisme, had announced that ''The ski tourers will set off from the snow front of Courchevel 1550 to reach the top of the mur de la Loze. The course is 2.6 km with 500 m of elevation gain. And this time the start will not be a time trial: all the competitors will set off at the same time''.

6.30 pm, the whistle blew, Yannick Buffet took the race in hand from the very first metres and behind him, some odd specimens followed his track. A chick, a frog, a rabbit, a barbarian, a Tuareg, a Mexican… and many participants had decided to come in fancy dress to enliven this last climb.

Yannick Buffet of the Club Praz Montagne won this last climb in 21min34s. Lionel Lehmes came next in 25min23s and Frédéric Thérisod of the Courchevel Sports Alpinisme club in 25min34s. Among the women, Stéphanie Duc won in 27min58s ahead of Gabrielle Magnenat tying with Ludivine Chauchaix, both dressed as babies, in 34min47s, and Claude Chenal, dressed as a bee, in 35min06s.

At 80 years old, and on his second participation, Pierre Gruneberg finished in 54min49s, and Robert Simon, the only one to have taken all 18 starts, arrived dressed as a Mexican in 31min55s.

938 participations, a real success!

The evening then continued with the prize-giving and a meal prepared by the Hotel Chabichou in the Salle de la Croisette.

For the occasion, 150 people came to take part in this festive closing evening. Those present included our departmental councillor Vincent Rolland, our municipal councillors Patrick Pachod and Eric Brèche, the Fédération Française de Montagne et Escalade represented by the departmental technical adviser Olivier Mansiot, who finished the race in 28min29s, the Fédération Française des Clubs Alpins et de Montagne represented by the head of the ski mountaineering “excellence” group Jean-François Grandidier, the organiser of the Pierra Menta Guy Blanc, our parish priest Jacques Plassiard, and our race partners, starting with Robert Gonzales (Dynafit), Jean-Jacques Delmau (Le Camp de Base), Nicolas Rochedy (Le Chabichou), Laurent Setiey (Vallat Immobilier), Eric Brèche (Ecoles de ski Français de Courchevel), Christian Dayret (X-Rider glasses), Olivier Bagners (Yogi tea) and Lionel Blanc (Refuge le Grand Plan), who did not fail to congratulate all the volunteers on this fine organisation and the competitors on their performances.