Rest of the world

Finish lineDimanche 16 Février 2008 - 6h15du matin. Température – 20°C. Ciel sans un nuage .Le jour ne s’est pas encore levé. Et pourtant, la 1° étape de la Coupe d’Asie vient de s’élancer sur les pistes de Yong Pyong, station de ski située près de la côte Est de la Corée du Sud.

C’est un peloton de 122 coureurs dont 26 Filles qui s’enfonce dans la nuit pour remonter les 740 m de la première difficulté du parcours. De suite, le Japonais Sato Yoshiyuki prend les devants, précédant son compatriote Yokoyama Minehiro.

Russian Ski Mountaineering Championships
This is well and truly over due, but better late than never.......

The Russian Ski Mountaineering Championships took place on the 19th -22nd December in Magnitogorsk situated in the Southern Ural mountain range.
The top racers from Russian gathered, all with hopes of being selected for the Russian ski mountaineering team to race in the upcoming SMWC.

Strong winds and a lack of snow were the theme for the championship and a lack of snow meant that all the ski descents were on man made snow of the ski area. This lack of snow how ever did now restrict the race organisers imagination for the ascents, with some very interesting and challenging climbs in the singles and teams races.

The Japanese Mountaineering Association organized the 1st Asian Championships 2007, 31st March -1st April. The Ski Mountaineering National Teams of China, Korea and Japan attended to this event. The race had the official partnerships of Otari village authorities, Tsugaike ski resort, Nagano mountaineering federation and other groups.

COSMIC series
Dear friends of skiing,
I've started a ski mountaineering series with five races, fun courses and good prizes - the COSMIC series (Colorado Ski Mountaineering Cup). If this is new to you it goes like this: skin up, remove skins, ski powder, put your skins back on, ski up to another run, ski down and repeat. We try and include the steeper skiing and the most interesting skinning terrain. The whole course is flagged up and down. It's similar to doing a 2.5 hour mountain bike race.

Temple Basin (NZ)

The Temple Basin Randonnee Rally was held in Arthur's Pass on Saturday the 30th September. Despite Temple Basin Ski Area being closed for the season, almost all of the snow being blown or rained away and the race day being less than perfect, 8 hardy competitors turned out for the first ski mountaineering race to be held in New Zealand. The course was shortened from the planned 1000 vertical meters of climbing, to 2 laps of around 300 vertical meters because of snow and weather conditions. Everyone had a great day, with all the racers and marshals walking away with some great prizes from sponsors of the race.

This weekend was celebrated the 2nd Japan Skimoutaineering Championships. 27 racers (25 men a 2 women) from Japan, Korea and China came to the event. The winner was Yokoyama, who did the 1215m uphill itinerary in 1:32:12, followed by Seiji Yamada and Yoshijuki Satoh. Miyuki Fukumoto, the first woman, did 1:58:39.

The first norwegian race took place the 28th of January at Oppdal. Due to bad weather the race had to be shortend a bit. 30 competitors came to the start. Men and ladies had the same route, level 1210m.