Tour du Grand Veymont- My First Ski Mounatineering Race

Well, my first REAL ski mountaineering race anyway.
We both were absolutely blown away by the Tour du Grand Veymont race course today. It started with a about a 400m climb on a groomed run, then some off piste tree skiing. Next climb started on a flat summer road, then the pitch stepped and the skinning got technical, with lots of kick turns. Not as technical as the boot pack section that followed. Wow. I couldn't believe it, it was so steep, and a mixture of snow, ice and rock. Thankfully there was a fixed rope that we clipped into and we had crampons on. The next ski was a traverse of sorts and then some icy skinning and another boot pack with crampons (this seemed like a side walk after the last boot pack). A nice icy ski and a final, short skin brought us to the final ski, about 700m to the finish line. The whole time the mountains around were pretty amazing.
I started out strong, in 3rd place on the first down hill, that was until it all went wrong for me.....
I managed to hit a nice big block of snow, flung my self down hard and pulled my foot and liner out of my ski boot?! I lost at least 3-4mins and about 15 places. I managed to get back into about 11th by the 2nd climb, but was pretty tired as I had to work hard to pass so many people. I was also pretty slow on the fixed rope as it was way beyond any kind of climbing I had done before.
In the end I finished in 10th, but am pretty frustrated as I was feeling strong, but that's racing and all part of the fun. And it was pretty fun.
Jane had an OK race, she finished 2nd, but wasn't feeling her best and was a way behind the winner.
We drove out with a friend Pierre, he placed 2nd over all and won the "old mans" divison.
Nice job Pierre!

Tour du Grand Veymont

The 2nd world cup race of the season is taking place this Saturday, the Valerette Altiski in Switzerland. I am thinking about going but have been pretty sick for the last few weeks so will probably give it a miss as its a long way to go if I aren't 100%.
Closer to home is the Tour du Grand Veymont, which is part of the Grenoble 3 Massifs, or G3M. Here's a look at what we will be in for....

La Trace de Vaugel

After racing in the French Vertical champs on Saturday the last thing I felt like doing was racing on Sunday, but I knew that doing back to back races would be good training for the Pierra Menta in March. Jane was racing with the DSA president, Cecile, so we were out the door at 5am to meet up with my team mate Thomas and other DSA members for the drive up to the Les Arcs area to race in the La Trace de Vaugel, a teams race of about 2200 vertical meters.
This was a huge contradiction to Saturdays race. A lot of people don't consider a vertical race to be a "real" ski mountaineering race (a view I some what share,despite really liking the idea behind a vertical race) and even more shy away from "championships". Longer, teams races, like the La Trace de Vaugel, on the other hand are very popular and much more social.
This was going to be the longest race either Jane or I had ever done, so we were both excited and nervous at how we would handle the extra vert. The course was really interesting, we started in a small road, surrounded by small cottages and run for about 100m on the road before starting to skin. The first climb was long and included some steep skinning with lots of tricky kick turns in a heavily treed area before getting out into the alpine and sun. On the first ski it was pretty clear that the skiing was going to be less than average, with breakable zipper crust. On the 2nd climb Thomas pointed out that Mt Blanc, France's highest point, was right in font of us! The 2nd ski was spicy, with a steep,double fall line and a cliff to one side. At this point I think we were about 18th or 19th place, but as Thomas skied down fast behind another racer he turned on to the "B" course! the racer he was following was in fact the leader of the singles race, so he was going the right was, but Thomas was not..........
I managed to yell loud enough that he back tracked to the fork and we skied down the rest of the A course, but had lost 5-7mins. It was a bit of a bummer, but its not like we were in the lead or going to finish in the top 3 or anything. All part of fun! We started the 3 climb and passed the slower racers quickly and I arrived at the top before Thomas and was able to help him with his transition and we passed a few more team here also. For the 4th and final climb we busted out the bungee and I "towed" Thomas. We picked off 2 more teams and even passed another team on the final ski down! When the snow disappeared we put our skis on our packs and ran a few hundred meters to the finish line.
We finished in about 3hrs27mins and in about 23rd place. Jane and Cecile finished in 5th for the girls division.
It was a really fun race and the course was very interesting. The standard 3 course meal followed, including a selection of cheese and wine, but unfortunately no Tartiflette this weekend.....
Stephan raced in the B course this weekend, finshed in 5th place and was still able to put together this short video! Nice one Stephane.

French Vertical Championships

Well as I said, this weekend would be a reality check...........
Defending world champion Patrick Blanc, current European champion Florent Perrier and espoir world champion Nicolas Bonnet all were on the start line, along with a string of other top French racers for the French Vertical Championships on Saturday.
The course was going to be 1000m of climbing, but was reduced to 750m vertical (thankfully!). It was all on a groomed run and most of the course was pretty steep, with a few flat sections.
Now I would like to not count the 7 or 8 espoirs (21-23yrs old) that finished in front of me and say that I was 14th, but I think saying I placed 22nd is a much fairer representation of my placing. The winner, Florent Perrier finished in 24mins and I was 4min59sec behind, about 29mins. Well the placing was not what I had hoped for, I am really happy with my time! Sorry, no photos........

Nocturne de Chamrousse

We raced in the Nocturne de Chamrousse on Tuesday night. Chamrousse is a ski area about 20mins for where we are living here in France, so there was no excuse for not going up for this small relay race. It was a very simple format-teams of 2, each taking turns to climb and ski 100vert meters, the team with the most laps in 1hr wins. The best thing about this kind if race is it is really social and great training.
Jane and I decided to race together in the "mixed" division which would make it more fun and make for an all kiwi team. I started out first, again getting a little caught out , but once under way "fun and "social" soon when out the window........
I arrived at the top first and had a pretty bad transition in the wind, and felt terrible when I arrived at the bottom. I handed off to Jane and laughed to myself, watching her run off in first place as the all men's teams followed behind. I was hoping that Jane would be passed by multiple racers so I would not have to go to hard on my next lap, but she arrived not far behind the leaders in 3rd place. This continued for the next 45mins or so and and in the end we did 4 laps each and finished in 1st for the mixed teams and 3rd place over all!
As always a huge feast followed and we met some fellow racers.
I have been really surprised, but a few different people have made a point of our 3rd place finish. On PisteHors.com they wrote "a mixed New Zealand team scored a notable third place overall (Jane Harper et Grant Guise of the CAF DSA)" and the FFME web site said similar (I think, its in French). I even got a small photo in the local paper....
This weekend I will race in a vertical race for the first time. Vertical races are just that, they involve no downhill skiing and just one climb. This race will be 1000m vert and is the French vertical championships. The French are renowned for vertical races, at the 2006 World Champs the had the top 3 places for the men, so this weekend is shaping up to be quite the reality check.