We had an exciting weekend of racing. Lyndsay and I took 2nd place in the TSF-Millet! A famous French ski mountaineering race. http://www.tsf-millet.org/ 2 day Stage race which had over 2000 meters of climbing each day and sections on both days with crampons. The weather was spectacular. Sunny blue sky days on both days. It was the real thing in ski mountaineering. You carry all the food and water you need for 3 hrs of racing. We started early, 8 am to avoid the snow getting to wet or heavey and to avoid afternoon slides. Saturday we finished in the lead by 4 1/2 minutes. There were some great decents which was advantagous to Lynds and I and helped put us in the lead. The snow was gnarley….death cookies, carton, iced out moguls, you name it. I popped out of my skis a couple times but managed to hang on. On the ridge, we had crampons on. I caught a glimpse of Lac Annecy over my left side and the view was stunning. A racer lept 3 feet and bumped Lyndsay forward launching her ski overhead. Luckily we managed to catch it and did not loose much time. On sunday we lost some time, Lyndsay had some skin failures but with that we managed to pull off 2nd overall which was exciting for us. The hard work is paying off.
We are resting and recovering now and gearing up for the World Championships which start on the 23rd of February in the Portes des Soleil, Switzerland. http://www.smwc2008.ch/ This will be an exciting week of racing where teams from all over the world will be competing. We are looking forward to meeting up with the rest of the crew from the States!
Check out the slide show for some shots of of some training days here in the Champnix Valley.