Round 13 - MILLET SKI TOURING COURCHEVEL - Wednesday 11 March 2015

Wins for Jean-François Philipot and Florence Page in the 13th round of the Millet Ski Touring Courchevel.

For this 13th round of the “Millet Ski Touring Courchevel” (MSTC), held on Wednesday 11 March, 168 ski mountaineers took the start of this Vertical Race event. Equipped with touring skis and climbing skins, the competitors began this time trial course at 6 pm from Le Praz up to Courchevel 1850. This time it was still light when they set off but, over the 3.2 km and 500 metres of elevation gain, the head torches came on one after another before the finish line appeared, which they crossed under a magnificent starry sky.

In this round, many instructors from the Écoles du Ski Français (ESF) were present. Indeed, as part of the “ESF Challenge 2015” in ski mountaineering and the partnership between the organising association “Courchevel Sports Alpinisme”, the Courchevel ESFs and the national ESF union, the organisers had put them in the spotlight by offering registration to ESF instructors from all over France.

For the occasion, the 3 ESFs of the resort had sent a good number of competitors, but it was the Courchevel 1550 school that won the prize for the best-represented school. Despite this numerical superiority, ESF Megève set the best time among the men with Noël Feige (27min48s) and ESF Pralognan won among the women instructors with Armelle Favre (34min39s).

In the scratch standings, Jean-François Philipot of CAF La Roche sur Foron won in 24min36s ahead of Sébastien Bedu of the Club des Sports de Tignes (24min55s) and Arnaud Mazet (25min25s).
Among the women, Florence Page of the Courchevel Sports Alpinisme Club won in 32min22s ahead of Véronique Laturaz (33min44s) and Armelle Favre (34min39s).

Next week, for the 14th and penultimate round of the MSTC on Wednesday 18 March and for the 4th and last Plum KV Courchevel (PKVC) on Friday 20 March, many international athletes currently competing in the Pierra Menta should be present alongside the reigning world champion Laetitia Roux to try to win the records, which are richly endowed this year by the partners.
For the moment, the provisional MSTC records are held by Kilian Jornet in 22min01s and Corinne Favre in 28min05s, and those of the PKVC by Yoann Sert in 42min01s and Catherine Juillaguet in 54min26s.

4th Grand Slam next week.

In the weeks when the MSTC and the PKVC are organised, a ranking is drawn up for those who complete the “Grand Slam” (taking part in the 2 events in the same week).

Next week, the “4th and last Grand Slam” of the season will take into account the combined times of the MSTC on Wednesday 18 March and the PKVC times on Friday 20 March. The “Grand Slam” records are for the moment held by Yoann Sert in 1h05min03s and Charlotte Le Roux in 1h32min04s.