The 2010 Coeur Blanc Challenge

At 06.30 hrs on Saturday morning my alarm went off after a full week's work, not nice. I immediately phoned my friend and ski instructor colleague Mike Harrison, "Uuurrrggghhhhh" he answered gruffly and loudly. We made this deal the evening before; we had to make sure that we were both awake at this time. Because a bus had to be caught at 07.30 hrs to take us down the valley to Brides Les Bains. Our "conversation" continued at 07.20 hrs outside on the street all kitted up in uniform and ski clobber. "Urghh, Urghh, Urghh" we continued in our sleepy gruff manner. We walked up the Tourist Office steps, jumped onto our skis and started to whizz off down the piste path towards the bus when..... "OH YIKES, a piste basher !?!?!". We slammed on the brakes just in time, the piste basher skidded to a halt within inches of us, staring right into our now wide-awake eyes. "Phew, that was a really close one" we shouted, trying to look brave at each other but failing, as the piste basher rumbled past within touching distance. I'm not exactly sure what the furious French driver was mouthing to us, I haven't covered swear words in my French lessons recently.

We just made the bus in time ready for the start of the bi-annual charity event down in Brides, the mighty Coeur Blanc Challenge. Each team had to try to ride up each of the Méribel lifts in a single day to raise money for the creation of a National Melanoma Information System.

I had been asked months ago to guide a team called 'The Bump Bashers'. They included an ex British army downhiller, a knee surgeon, a highly respected and consistent podium finisher in the 'Downhill Inferno' of Murren in Switzerland, and finally a very fast and determined 'Penelope Pitstop'. Oh, and Canon of course.

All the way through the day we were all trying to think of silly nicknames for each other for my blog. What else are you supposed to do when on umpteen lifts together? We ended up with 'No knees' for Johnathan. 'The Knee Doc' for Ian. 'Smooth Dorset Gold' for Cleeves and 'D-wee Stop' for Edwina.

It was a very different day for me, no snow ploughs, no plotting off-piste routes, no obligatory pauses admiring the scenery, no talking about technique, no coffee stops, no lunch stops (the chewy picnic was eaten on a chairlift, OUTRAGEOUS), and hardly any 'pee' stops much to Edwina's discomfort and disgust.

However, we all managed to survive the gruelling schedule and completed the epic challenge just in time before the lifts closed. Non-stop from the first of the earliest lift openings at 08.30 hrs down in Brides Les Bains until 16.02 hrs outside of the Hotel Yeti. My goodness that beer or two, sorry energy drink, hit the spot at the end.

Some interesting statistics have emerged from yesterday. Over £250,000 has so far been raised. Over 82 miles in total were covered by each participant. Seventy five people (amazing!) completed the event. And talking to Christophe, one of my colleagues down at the school, this morning: he said that the fastest speed his monitor recorded yesterday was 110 kmh, that's about 70 mph !?!

So the next time I hear people say to me that they never stop for lunch when skiing, I wonder if their day is similar to the participants of the 2010 Coeur Blanc Challenge?

A massive thank you and admiration to the organisers of the event, Rory Tapner and Pierre Taylor (pictured above). At least my alarm this morning was a little more respectable compared to yesterday, but the noise "Urgh" sneaked out again even louder when crawling out of bed. At least the Piste Bashers were parked up in their garages for the day when I bumbled onto my skis........

Martin

P.S. I've had huge fun with Victoria and Lexi today on the nursery slopes, with more to follow this week. Plus I can't wait to catch up with Chris again later in the week.