City Ski Championships 2020 in Courmayeur

Meet:

Pasta and pizza galore, in true Italian style, started the proceedings at the Thursday arrivals evening get together, for both old friends and new teams, discovering the best ski weekend in the Alps.

On Friday, the legendary City Ski race paddock came alive to the commentary of the inimitable Chemmy Alcott and BBC Ski Sunday presenter Graham Bell, as well as a live DJ, against the backdrop of Mont Blanc, offering warming freshly-made minestrone and buffet from Maison Vieille, chocolates from Swiss International Air Lines, all washed down with drinks led by Knight Frank with their (not so!) secret recipe for Bloody Mary cocktails, plus Heineken beer from the American Bar in Courmayeur.

Schoen Clinic offered advice, sports massages and injury management, whilst Snow+Rock, together with Völkl, provided a myriad of racing and all mountain test skis, as well as ski tuning and boot fitting on site to ensure all racers were ready and raring to race.

Later on Friday, for this year’s Financial Times Alpine Forum, presented by Schoen Clinic, the panel moderator Ravi Mattu, the FT’s Deputy Asia News Editor, lead the discussion on navigating turbulent times ahead, on the day Brexit became a reality. Panellists were Frank Gardner, BBC Security Correspondent, Reena Virdee, Director of Business Development at Schoen Clinic, Alex Koch de Gooreynd, Partner, International Residential at title partners Knight Frank and Frederic Hufkens, Executive Chairman and CEO of A. S. Adventure Group, who operate Snow+Rock. The Forum was preceded by a marvellously Italian “aperi-dinner” in the elegant alpine environment of the Grand Hotel Royal & Golf.

Saturday’s awards dinner and lively prize giving ceremony rewarded all the top racers over the 2 days across a multitude of award categories, with Chemmy and Amin Momen, MD of Momentum Ski, hosting the evening.

​Compete:

Friday 31st January, Brexit Day, saw an epic Giant Slalom, in near-perfect conditions, with most racers completing a second run, and absolute winners from Knight Frank, Maseco Private Wealth, RK Harrison, Hurr Collective and Savills.

Some of the competing teams included Lloyd’s of London, Knight Frank, Lighthouse Financial Initiatives, Maseco Private Wealth, Magenta Partners, HSBC, Prince (event partner), KPMG, and new teams from the Optio Group, Mountain Base and Naef Prestige Knight Frank.

Full results can be found here.

Saturday’s racing was dedicated to our charity partner Snow-Camp’s Team Distance Challenge, a team GPS race to cover the maximum distance on the skiing domain in 60 minutes, with an impressive Le Mans start, seeing the teams run for their skis as they set off, followed by the Capco-sponsored Team Parallel Slalom. Capco incidentally won the Team Distance Challenge but couldn’t fend off Lloyd’s Ladies who beat them to first place in the Parallel slalom. Skied in epic wind conditions, this proved the most exciting competition to watch and finished just as the wind slowly closed the resort and led the participants to après ski.

Après:

Two very different live performances for the City Ski legendary après ski sessions, were both held this year at SuperG après ski bar. A roaming electric guitarist and singer, followed on Saturday by a fabulous touring UK band, with the mountain echoing from the very best party cover tracks.

And for those with stamina still remaining after the day’s exertions, the evenings continued at event partner Bar Le Privé and Courmayeur’s iconic nightclub, Club Haus ‘80s, into the early hours of Sunday morning, dovetailing into another day’s skiing and departures.

Repeat:

Don’t miss next year’s City Ski Championships in Courmayeur Mont Blanc, 28 to 31 January 2020!

jessica@momentumski.com
Tel. +44 207 371 9111