november-2011
november-2011
november-2011
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ALPINE PURSUITS<br />
Factbox<br />
To reach Val Cenis, fly Jet2.com to Chambéry and take the A43 south-east to<br />
Haute Maurienne. It’s a 90-minute drive. hautemaurienne.com<br />
Sledding costs from £100 for a half day. +33 06 7080 7278, husky-adventure.net<br />
Snowshoeing costs from £13 for a half day. +33 06 7897 4673<br />
Biathlon training costs from £46 per hour. +33 04 7905 8005, esf-bessans.com<br />
La Grange du Travérole restaurant costs from £13 for a meal. +33 06 8211 0310,<br />
34JetAway<br />
Biathlon<br />
Bessans is only a tiny place, but it boasts a worldclass<br />
winter sports stadium. The venue was built<br />
to host the unorthodox activity of biathlon,<br />
a cross-country skiing race punctuated by regular<br />
visits to the shooting range. If you misfire with<br />
your rifle and fail to hit the target, you are<br />
penalised by having 20 or so seconds added to your<br />
overall time. This long-established combination of<br />
skiing and shooting seems crazy until you learn that<br />
it was invented as a form of military training for<br />
Norwegian soldiers, who presumably need to be<br />
able to both shoot enemies and quickly ski away<br />
from enemies trying to shoot them.<br />
Getting into the spirit of things, I considered<br />
Stade De Biathlon Bessans my battlefield and<br />
prepared to outrun and outshoot the opposition.<br />
But things didn’t work out as planned. Being<br />
a proficient downhill skier hadn’t prepared me<br />
for cross-country skiing. The skis are longer and<br />
narrower than those used for downhill, and only<br />
the front end of the foot is attached to them.<br />
I struggled to pick up speed, and when I did get<br />
moving it was all I could do to stay upright.<br />
Considering I’ve never fired a rifle before, the<br />
shooting part of the event went surprisingly well.<br />
It probably helped that the targets weren’t 50m<br />
away – the standard distance in biathlon – but<br />
more or less right in front of me. As long as I kept<br />
a steady hand, I hit the target. After a little more<br />
practice, we were ready to race. The initially fiddly<br />
cross-country skis began to make sense. The curved<br />
tips made it easy to glide through lumpy snow and<br />
the poles became important not just for maintaining<br />
balance, but picking up speed.<br />
I skied, I shot, the points were tallied up and...<br />
I came second! I’ve sent a copy of my CV to the<br />
Norwegian army just in case...<br />
CHAMBÉRY<br />
lagrangedutraverole.com FLY TO CHAMBERY FROM £31.99<br />
Val Cenis
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