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21/03/2009

15

(left to right) Ryan(Snowlinx),Ben(Ski Higher), Sally(MIM),Jen(Killimanjaro), Alan, Rob, Keith(Momentum), Ben(Momentum), Ryan(Skival), Lara Crisp

Boss des Bosses
Before I start spouting superlatives about the event I have to have a little bit of a rant. And as usually it’s about general seasonnaire spirit.
I ask you how is it possible for Verbier to have 4 coach loads of spectators, Zermatt with 2, Meribel and Val d’Isere with 1? and Courchevel could only muster a paltry ½ a coach load of supporters to a day widely described by those who came as the “best day of the season”. Instead of being enthusiastic people behaved like i was trying to pull their teeth out. Only a few years ago people flocked to get out of resort for the day. Now everyone spouts excuses.
"Wednesday is not my day off" - Apart from bar staff this excuse doesn't work. In the past most companies have given their staff the option of changed their days off so they could go.
"I don't have any money" - apart from the money I spend on drink every day.
Anyway while most people were making excusing the above people stepped up to the plate and choose to spend a day representing Courchevel throwing themselves down a scary black mogul course against some of the best semi-retired mogul skiers in the alps.
Looking at the course from the spectator’s areas it looked like a deceptively easy red in the same way when you see a slalom race on tv. Because of the camera angle it looks like the biolay when in fact it’s black steep and icy. Only when you took the chair lift which runs adjacent to the course to the top do the bumps suddenly gain an extra dimension and finally when you reach the top and realise the course is steeper than harder than our Suisse piste and you are about to race another person down at speed its time to tighten your sphincter.
Amazingly a week before the event and the first time in many years Courchevel actually had a full team. Unfortunately Hoops(Ski Higher) had to pull out at the last minute because his daughter came down with chicken pox and because it’s quite contagious couldn’t be left in the crèche.
The six resorts where initially divided into two group with Courchevel racing against neighbours Meribel and hosts Chamonix. The first race of the day was Courchevel vs Meribel and first down on telemarks was birthday girl Anna(Ski Activity) from La Tania. Followed by the two snowboarding Ryans (Skival and Snowlinx) which despite good speed and final jumps lost on overall style. It wasn’t until Jen(Killimanjaro) showed off her pink Pull in pants that Courchevel got it’s first point. Rob Watson won against Meribels Craig Conkie to win Courchevel’s only other point. The final score was a slightly disappointing 2-11.
In the second race of the day Zermatt beat Val d’Isere convincingly 10-3.
Courchevel were immediately back in action against 2006 champions Chamonix where it was Lara who broke Courchevel’s duck beating Plake’s wife Kimberley. Sam Harper’s(1550) second run down the course was unluckily plagued by his bindings releasing twice gifting the win to his opponent. Ben(Ski Higher) got the second point against Jamie Stracken by attempted an awesome Lincoln loop (basically a sideways roll in the air) despite not quite sticking the landing. It was left to ski legend Glen Plake to show him how it’s done being the only other person in the competition to do the trick. The final score again was 2-11.
Finally Chamonix beat Meribel 8-5 to take top position in the group.

In our final race against Val d’Isere Most of the judges were split 3-2 on every race with style points usually being the decider. Even front flips of Ryan(Snowlinx) and an attempted 180 from Jen(Killi) not being enough to get the overall point. Sally(Magic in Motion) beat Graham from Val to get her first point. This was quickly followed by wins from Ben(Ski Higher), Rob Watson and team capt Alan “Spaz” Hutchison. Giving a respectable score of 4-9.
Now it’s easy to scoff at these scores but if you saw the overall level of competition I can say that everyone in the team gave 110% and did amazingly well. Respect is due to tham all.

Verbier
The biggest surprise this year came from Verbier who stepped up their game from last year. In their first race against last years champions they immerged victorious wining 7 out of the 13 races. This was followed up with a 7/6 victory again Val d’Isere. Had Zermatt not beaten Val d’Isere by a larger margin 10/3 Verbier would have gone through to the final. Instead they went to beat Meribel in the last race to cement a very commendable 3rd place overall.
Final standing
1st Zermatt
2nd Chamonix
3rd Verbier
4th Meribel
5th Val d’Isere
6th Courchevel

Questionable decisions
Throughout the day certain members of certain resorts (especially ones beginning with M) got a little heated when results went against their favour.
As with all refereeing/judging there are always questionable calls. Just watch any football match. When they are in your favour they are ok but when they are against you we must have a public enquiry.
Each run was judged out of five points. 1 for speed, 1 for air, 2 for style and 1 for overall. With the two judges whose teams were competing judging the non-subjective speed category.
As one (of six) of the judges it wasn't until after the third race that some of the finer technical parameters had been worked out. By which point Courchevel had already raced twice and although it wouldn’t have swung the overall scores they should have won a few more points. However I think there were an equal amount of questionable decisions over all the teams so no one team really benefitted.

Big thanks to everyone who came along and cheered our team along. Thanks to Polly for taking some excellent action shots and thanks to Ski Higher, the Kalico and Natives for sponsoring the team t-shirts. Don’t forget the 3 Valley Rally takes part this Wednesday at 11am.