ROUND 1 - MILLET SKI TOURING COURCHEVEL - Wednesday 27 December 2017

The Perillat-Pessey family opens the account at the Millet Ski Touring Courchevel!

In 7 years, with 114 rounds held and more than 12,000 starts given, the Millet Ski Touring Courchevel has become an institution in the ski mountaineering world and the reference among Vertical Race events.

The launch of season 8 of the Millet Ski Touring Courchevel took place this Wednesday 27 December under snowflakes with record participation. For the occasion, a "Safety Academy" workshop was organised during the afternoon on the Courchevel snow front with the presence of Millet, Recco and a S3V ski patroller with an avalanche dog, to introduce the various avalanche victim detection systems and to demonstrate searching with an avalanche dog.

In the late afternoon the snowfall grew heavier and the weather conditions put off quite a few people because of the difficult driving conditions. Despite that, the “Millet”, as most people nickname the race, got off to a flying start with 145 ski mountaineers at the start. With the exceptional snow conditions this year, the race was able to take place on the official course from Le Praz to Courchevel (3.2 km with 500 m of elevation gain).

In this first round, the reference times were set by Joris and Célia Perillat-Pessey. The brother and sister end this year 2017 in style by winning this first round in 23min57s for Joris and 30min10s for Célia. Bastien Flammier (26min26s) and Géraldine Bau (32min17s) came second, Jean-Baptiste Curtet of the Courchevel Sports Outdoor club (26min44s) and Elisa Gayet (32min28s) took third places.

In the ESF challenge, it was once again Joris and Célia Perillat-Pessey of ESF La Clusaz who won.

Among the locals on the stage, the fine performances of Philippe Mugnier, mayor of Courchevel, who finished in 47min14s, of Roland Claude Durand Terrasson, director of the resort radio station “R’Courchevel” with a time of 38min24s, of Jean-Marc Sullice in 42min24s and of Loic Lemoine (49min23s), director of ESF Courchevel Village, who created the “Arrête toi si tu peux!” (“Stop if you can!”) Challenge, are worth noting. This challenge rewards the most regular participants in the Millet Ski Touring Courchevel with very fine prizes drawn by lot according to the number of participations in the season.

Many holidaymakers were there, including Russian Dimitri Orlov for whom this climb has become a tradition and a real challenge not to be missed under any circumstances.