Great Conditions and training in Tignes!

This last week has seen the first block of training for us up on the Grand Motte in Tignes.

With a reasonably small group for week one of 14 and 3 coaches, we had an awesome weeks training with only one day lost due to high winds on the glacier. The rest of the week saw mainly sunny skies and great snow with only one morning starting in the cloud.

One morning starting in the cloud 

One or two courses!!

The conditions worked in the athletes favour, meaning some great work being done, leading to meaningful improvement for all of those training here.
Yesterday saw the departure of the first group and arrival of a small number who are training over the weekend. This morning, we headed up to set slalom for just two trainees and were asked to team up with another club. It turns out they only have two trainees but they're some of the best in their region. The Comite Du Mont Blanc. This gave our guys something to aim for!

Looking down on this mornings course 

Panorama of the course using Photosynth 

Next group arrive tomorrow with 19 trainees from Ireland and two more coaches so it's going to be a busy week, with more snow forecast for mid week to refresh the glacier we're looking forward to it!

New Kit Arrivals

In the last few days we've had a load of new kit arrive for the season.

On Saturday, we picked up a load of brushgrip bases to replace the screw in's on most of our gates. This will make our coaches job easier this winter, and make setting much quicker with no keying in. Thanks to Ski Bitz for these and the discount they're offering for Impulse club members.

Then yesterday, a few boxes of Skis and boots for the coaching staff arrived making us a happy bunch.

A BIG thanks to the guys at Head UK for this lot. Not just race skis in there either. There's a few 'toys'.

Still lots to do before we travel out to the mountains later in the month, including setting up for the London SKi and Board Show at Earls Court next week - Come and visit us on Stand J1 (The Valle D'Aosta Stand), just as you walk into the exhibition hall. We'll also be in Birmingham, the following week at the British Ski + Board Show!

Irish Champs Bursary Winners.

We've just come back from Kilternan, near Dublin, where we attended the Irish Champs.

We've been at these races for a number of years now and this time, we gave away two bursaries to Irish racers, 1 male and one female.

In order to give all the Irish racers a chance, these prizes were drawn, rather than given to winners of categories. 

The two lucky winners were:

Emily Ainsworth and Alex Doogan. These guys won a weeks training package with us over the winter.

There was some great racing at the weekend, despite the weather!

We struggled to see the top of the slope through the fog and rain for the dual on Saturday!

With rain ALL day on Saturday and even some fog later in the day, the Dual slalom was interesting as you couldn't se the top of the slope from the bottom!

The rain eased off overnight and it was reasonably dry on Sunday, with low cloud visible over Dublin bay from the top of the hill.

Cloudy over Dublin Bay

The Mens race on Sunday saw what was probably the tights finish we've seen this summer with only 5 hundredths of a second seperating the top 3.

Tom Hales, 1 hundredth ahead of Gerard Flahive who was 4 hundredths ahead of Andrew Watson.

The slope itself is set in some great countryside and, even with the wet weather, it was a great weekend.

Views from around the slope

Some of the Irish lads modelling the events t shirts

New Training Kit Designs

Today we received the designs for our new catsuits, training jackets and shorts. It was great to se our designs on the new kit just ahead of our trip over to Ireland for their Champs this weekend.

We think they look great. They're now available to order so contact us if you're interested. We will be organising an evening at Hemel to try sizing.

Catsuit back

Catsuit front

Softshell Front

Softshell Back

Looking Forward to the Irish Champs Weekend

This weekend is the last big race of the artificial slope season at Kilternan, Ireland.

We're joint sponsors of the event with The Great Outdoors who have been sponsoring the event since forever! We're giving away 2 training bursaries to Irish racers. This is a continuation of the long association we have with Irish racing, in fact, this will be the 17th year that Phil has attended the event!

T shirts for all competitors

Good luck to all of our racers in Ireland this weekend and those racing at the Ersa Champs at Hemel.

Congratulations to our Bursary winners!

This weekend was the All England Championships, held at Norfolk ski club.
Aosta Race Academy Sponsored the event, giving away four bursaries as prizes.

It was a great day with a really good turnout making for some great racing. The first course was set by Sally Bartlett which saw quite a few of the field have problems. The second course was set by Impulse and ARA head coach, Phil Brown. This course initially looked easier than the first but proved to be as tricky for several athletes.

The ARA bursaries were presented after the main prize giving. Phil presented the main awards followed by these. The prizes were drawn from start numbers. We think this gives the racers an equal chance of winning and opens the chance up to more athletes.
Our winners were:
Mini Girls - Megan Skipper from Norfolk
Mini Boys - Thomas Reidy from Norfolk
Ch and Jnr Girls - Ella Ward from Chill Factore
Ch and Jnr Boys - Simon Wilkins from Telford

The above athletes can look forward to a weeks training out at our base in Aosta this season!

Phil Presenting the main prizes

L-R: Ella Ward, Megan Skipper with their award, Phil Brown

A nice touch! The ARA logo on all of the trophies in recognition of our sponsorship

Landgraaf day 2

Today we got into some gates, albeit stubbies. I've not seen so many teams here at one time before. There were six lanes in use for most of the day with a new start ramp servicing one of the lanes. This was above the snow start ramp that is there for the rest of the summer.

So, we had a tech session first thing followed by a couple of hours in the stubby course on the medium injected part of the hill. This was great training after the tech sessions we've been running over the last day and a bit with some interesting changes to the trainees skiing from previously.

We finished with a short tech session to build on what we'd seen in the gates.
Tomorrow will see a a get session in the morning, a short tech session then we'll be on our way back to the UK.
We've got another Landgraaf camp next month for a couple of days and there are a few places left on it.