As the clock struck 11 the day was almost perfect. Blue skies, spring like snow, 4 checkpoints from
Courchevel to la Masse and 18 teams of four waiting outside Gringos to head off on this season's three valley rally.
The first checkpoint, the bottom of Cospilot drag, located only 100 metres up the road from Gringos didn't stop most of the teams heading in the opposite direction and then down pralong. Justin and Tanya where there to meet the teams with an alcohol mixture that made mentholated spirits look like 25 year old scotch. Of course one of the teams were spared this experience. The Flexi girl's Really Pants Team, after begin told directions, instead of walking up the road to the check point proceeded to take a wrong turn walk down the road, getting completely lost in the process and eventually turning up 1 ? hours late.
By check point two, at the bottom of truite (French for trout) in Meribel, Steve Dunsire's extreme team and Qski's Wild West country were leading the field followed closely by The Punters and Team Taliban. As Team Extreme left the checkpoint they encountered the underhanded trechery when they collided with an incoming Team Taliban. In the impact Ollie's finger was badly cut requiring some medical attention. 30minutes later they were back in action but only skiing for position and not the top slot.
On the way out of checkpoint 2 going up the Tougnete bubble Justin from Team dark dog came very close to being spanked by a pisteur. After Rob Stevenson nicked his board for the ski rack on the outside of the bubble, Justin left his team and went out for a bit of payback. With his one remaining 'dog ear' he attached a dynamite sized banger and threw it in the general direction of the
Scott Dunn punter's bubble. After the preceding explosion it took all the charm of Sophie(Thompson) to stop the pisteur from confiscating Justin's lift pass.
At Checkpoint three, the editor was positioned at the Point de la Masse, high above Les Menuires team Wild West were first to arrive. 10 minutes later the punter team who had crept ahead of team Taliban, going for a wank and the
Scott Dunn punters.
After deciphering a very tricky anagram clue(not) the teams headed for the last checkpoint at the Col de la Loze where Rob Artois and Justin dosed out even more dubious refreshments.
A special thank you to Tanya, Justin, Fred, Fiona and Rob Artois for giving up their time to work on the check points. Thank you also to
Ski Higher, White stuff and
Natives for donating prizes.
