La Croix de Chamrousse

I did the La Croix de Chamrousse today (Jane sat this one out). This was the 3rd and final race in the G3M series. Going into the race I was 3rd in the series and Jane 2nd. With the Pierra Menta starting on Thursday a lot of people gave this race a miss, but not the guy that was in 2nd place nor former Pierra Menta winner Pierre Gignoux.
The race started out with a short climb (not short by NZ standards....) before a short ski and then a long rolling skin in the trees. By the top of this 2nd climb Pierre was way out in front, leaving the rest of us to fight for the scraps. I was in 4 at this stage and feeling OK. The last part of the 3rd climb was booting along a ridge that was really fun. A flat ski to a col (were Jane cheered me on) and a short ski where I arrived before the 3rd place guy had left - still in the hunt! The next climb was up a steep slope with lots of kick turns and then we put on crampons at the summit to downclimb! Was kind of strange to downclimb, but snow was thin and it was pretty icy. I actually enjoyed this part and move into 3rd as another racer struggled with his skis and back pack. We arrived at the col where Jane was and then skied again. I then left this transition at the same time as the guy in 2nd! There was 3 of us now in a group fighting for 2nd and 3rd. We skinned in a group for a while (me in 2nd for a bit) and then did another boot pack. This area (boot packing) has let me down a lot this winter as I haven't done a lot of boot pack training, so it was no great surprise when the others pulled away from me. By the time I reached the summit my legs were hurting and they just hurt more on the ski with refrozen, breakable crust snow. The next skin started flat, then kick turns, then another boot pack. I was still fairly close to 3rd place, but the guy in 5th wasn't too far behind neither!
This boot pack was steep and up a nice chute. The ski was inbounds and on icy bumps, just not fun skiing. We had one more short climb before it was over, thankfully I had no one around and could relax a little. I finished 4th in the open category and 2nd in the senior men (Pierre and another guy are vets!). I also held on to my 3rd place in the G3M, which I didn't expect.Jane was totally stoked and really surprised when they called here name for 2nd in the G3M after not racing today. Over all a pretty good day for the NZ ski mo team! RESULTS
Thanks to Stephane for the video and photos!

Pierra Menta starts in 4 days!!

Probably the biggest race in France, if not any were, this 4 day, 10,000vertical meter (no, I did add a zero, its 10,000) race is the Tour de France of ski mountaineering racing. We are both really excited about this and also a little nervous.

I have put a link to the PM home page on the top of the side menu and skimo.org is hands down your best source for quick up dates, with results and photos added daily.