I must first start by saying, to all those people who spent all of their day off last Wednesday sitting in a
Courchevel bar complaining about the weather or as I like to call them the 'I wish I'd done that' set, you missed one of the best days I've experienced in any of my many years of ski seasons. Naturally, I am talking about the 13th annual Boss des Bosses championships in Chamonix, part of the 5 day Chamjam festival. Originally started as a bet between Val d'Isere and Chamonix workers as to who had the best bump skiers.
Now including Verbier, Zermatt, Meribel and of course, for the first time
Courchevel.
Let me introduce the team. Team captain, wearing number 1 with a list of credits longer than my arm,
Pat Sharples. TJ's bar manager
Steve Dunsire wore number 2. Wearing number 3 was Volkl free skiing team member and '
Courchevel local'
Mark Belliveau. Simon Christy from New Generation was number 4. Jump barman,
Richard Smith was number 5.
Ski Higher's 'greylord',
Simon Hooper wore bib 6. Number 7, last minute stand-in and ISBA plongeur was
Ali Bridge. Telemarker extraordinaire, number 8 and Ski Academy instructor was
Benoit Poire-Blanc. The first of our two snowboarders and wearing number 9,
Smoo Smith. Wearing number 10, ISBA plongeur,
Ben Jones was the second boarder.
Number 11,
Mark Warner ski host, the lovely
Jen Allen. And last but by no means least was number 12,
Tanya.
Unlike most of the other resorts teams which consisted of wall-to-wall instructors and pro skiers
Courchevel only fielded two pros and two instructors, the rest of the team made of up normal skiers and boarders. Making the final result all the more surprising.
For the editor, considering his relaxed lifestyle, getting up early to catch the 7.30 bus was nothing short of miraculous. But after the 2 ? hour bus journey we finally arrived in Chamonix and made our way to the Grand Montet main lift station where we were met by Iain from
Natives who supplied us with our lift passes. As we made are way up the mountain on a rickety old chairlift that won't have looked out of place in a museum, I gained a new appreciation for the constantly updated lift network of
Courchevel. As we reached the top of the lift not only did we get out first sign of the bumps course but we also experienced the first of the many elements the weather was going to throw at us through out the day. These were to include rain, snow, mist, cloud and more snow. From a distance and through the poor visibility the mogul run could only be distinguished by a dirty red smear in the side of the mountain designed to make the bumps slightly more visible.
From the start of the day our mission had not been to win, merely to compete and have a good time. Part of this strategy was kept in Steve's large black holdall or as it was later to be called 'the bar'. As other teams were making practice run after practice run, team
Courchevel was taking a slightly different approach as they quietly finished off two bottles of Vertical vodka and a case of Dark Dog energy drink. Suitably juiced up it was time for the first real challenge of the day..
Team Chamonix.
In the tradition of women and children first, it was up to Tanya to lead the way for the team. Now instead of going into detail about each run I think the best way of describing the day is this.
Every member of the team from Pat to Ali skied their collective salopettes off through conditions and down a course most wouldn't even attempt.
And in the end their cumulative efforts paid off. Tying their first race against Chamonix 6-6, winning against Zermatt 7-5 and Val d'Isere 7-5. In their final race, tying with Meribel 6-6. Giving them a cumulative point score of 26 considerably more than any other team except Meribel with 24. After much complaining from Meribel a compromise was reached and the competition was declared a draw.
