Le Franco Phoney

I direct you to the photos below. Click on the photos for the full-sized, uncropped images. Quick review below.

Last weekend marked the very first La Clusaz Free Sessions competition, which was a bit boring during the day (due to the fact that the riders were off-piste all over the mountain, and often out of view of the public), and lots of fun at night, with a jib session after the day’s video footage was shown. In the photos above, you can see how the competitors started with a road jump, getting massive height and doing all sorts of tricks, then moved onto some rails before hitting the wooden log at the bottom of the hill, pictured. People walked under the road jump while the road was blocked off to cars. There were only a few falls, but thankfully they were all minor, with the riders picking themselves up again as soon as they had stopped sliding down the snow.

La Clusaz is certainly better-known for its skiers than for its snowboarders, but I think it’s a bit sad that there were no snowboarders at all in this event. There’s certainly no snowboard-exclusive event in this resort, yet it hosts cross-country events and even a big telemark weekend.

Meanwhile, in the snowpark, an event for teenagers was held. I didn’t get to see much of the action, nor try the skis on offer, but the warmed sachets of Nutella that were being handed out with bread were very welcome! If I can use an extremely awful pun, the weekend was bitter-sweet. I’m so, so sorry for that.