The  holiday season kicked off with the first race of the season here in the Chamonix Valley on December 8th, a little later than the Alpine and Nordic races.

Being in a heavy training period I was not expecting super results, but pleased to be not far behind Gloriana Pellisier of the Italian team and World Champion Sky Runner Emilie Forsburg in her debut of skimountaineering. I even took the top step for the Veterans podium and was pleased with the training our own back yard.

I was lucky to share a wonderful visit from my parents who originally gave me the gift and love of skiing, kicking & gliding in my back yard in Vermont and weekend trips up to Bromley mountain of skipping school to ski! (Don’t tell my kids!;-)

The boys have been getting out kicking and gliding too in our own back yard, practicing their sprint starts!

Anders had a little early season setback…and its working hard to get strong again on my bike!

We celebrated a special birthday (20 yrs x 2 ) with my family & friends. Thanks to the Albert Premiere for their wonderful hospitality.

Our Chamonix Ski Alpinisme Club  organized a womens’ training weekend to help grow the sport of ski mountaineering for women, as it is a very male dominated sport, much like many endurance sports. It was a weekend that coincided with a night uphill race in La Clusaz, home of World Cup x country skier Vincent Vittoz. We had a great turnout for the weekend with over 10 women involved in the training weekend. I particularly liked the race for a good hard training as it had a sprint start on skate skis.

 

Click on the following link  video to see the skate start where I was imagining to be Kikkan Randal. I continue to be inspired by the USA women ski team’s strong performances this year, especially Kikkan approaching her injury with such tenacity!   IMG_0850

Just before Christmas my team ventured down to Tignes for the first Sprint race of the season. The race was a coupe du France and it was great to get in the sprint game again. Chamonix Ski Alpinisme showed a strong performance there taking both men and womens wins overall and 2nd woman. The first World Cup Sprint kicks off in Switerland at the Alpiniski the 24th of January.

A couple more weeks of hard training before the season really begins with French nationals on the 6th followed by the first skimo World Cup the 9th/10th of January in the Tyrol Italy.

Here’s a little slide show of what’s been going on in our world….

From our family to yours, Wishing you a happy & healthy holiday season!