Here is what is coming up for World Cup events in ski mountaineering for Nina and Lyndsay in the next few weeks. 
On thursday March 5th, we head to the Sella region of Italy for the famous SELLARONDA SKIMARATHON skimountaineering World Cup. This year it will be it’s 15th edition. The race starts at 6pm from the village of Arabba, and passes through Canazei, Selva and Corvara over 4 mountain passes. 42 kms total with 2700 meters of elevation gain. We will be equipped with Petzl headlamps http://en.petzl.com/ultra/ to light our path . http://www.sellaronda.it/sellarondainglese/index.htm
The following week (march 12-15) we head out to the Beaufort region of France, not too far from where we live in Chamonix, for the famous French Pierra Menta.http://www.pierramenta.com/index.htm This year we will have more of an idea of what to expect; 10,000 meters of ascent over 4 days. You can do the math. You are pretty much cooked after each day and all one can do to prepare for the next day is recover as well as possible with food, hydration, stretching, massage and rest. One might compare it to the Tour de France in ski mountaineering. A few mens and womens teams from the US will be coming over to race which should be super fun!
The final team world cup event of the season is the Tour du Rutor-Extreme. http://www.tourdurutor.com/en/home.html Lyndsay and I did this race 2 years ago when it was just a one day event and had a great experience. It was one of our first longer races and also very techincal with some great decsents both being strong skills of ours. We hung in there with the top French and Italians and even make it on the podium with a ranking of 9th place. This year, being a world cup event, they have made it a 3 day stage race a bit like the Pierra Menta gaining over 6000 meters of ascent in 3 days.
Lastly we will head to the Trofeo Mezalama April 19th. This is not a World Cup event but it is a very international and world famous event. It is done in teams of 3 and travels at high altitude, across glaciers and climbs a 4000 meter peak. There is a lot of interesting information on this race and its history. Check out their website for more photos and information. http://www.trofeomezzalama.org/
