Before Christmas a few of the Carnethy boys decided to book a French Alps trip and (for some of us) experience what an organised race in these parts feels like. Graham has been there many times of course, and despite spending a lot of time skiing in the Alps, Mike, Neil would be (foot) racing for the first time. Jim, of course, is very familiar with Toblerone, so we were all on a level playing field at this stage.
We opted for the Ultra-Trail du Haut-Giffre series of races and based ourselves in the pretty village of Samoëns. Graham decided on the 53km/3,700m Trail des Frahans, and the rest of us the 33km/2,150m Tour de Bostan. Both races shared the last 20km, with Graham starting at 05:15 in the second wave of runners and us starting at 07:15 in the second wave. Graham had entered as Nash Graham. Either because his French was pish or he wanted to avoid being barred from the race after that unfortunate diplomatic incident last time.
But first to arrival and acclimatisation. We landed in Geneva and made our way to lunch with Françoise, a friend of Graham’s that he had met during the UTMB when she gave him assistance during a particularly tricky shaving assignment. They had stayed in touch and Graham regularly helped to bash her back doors in during the winter at the chalet she owned near Verbier.
Arriving in the apartment in Samoëns, we unpacked and had a wander around the village. It was noticeably quiet aside from the noise of the village farm animals. We’d heard there was a big black cock next door, and so it proved. We saw and heard a lot of this over the duration of the trip.
The next day we decided to get some acclimatisation in, so took the gondola up to the first station at Samoëns 1600, then spent the day hiking at far as the edge of the Flaine ski area at Tête de Véret. Here, as part of the Green Runners Pledge, we burned a Grand Massif Friends sign to keep warm, used one of Jim’s turds to keep a marmot alive and descended from 1600 in our 4L turbo injection Hummer that we’d hired at Geneva Airport (joking! It was a Mercedes).
We all had early starts, so a night of Neil’s 1,000 decibel snoring didn’t help. The poor guy couldn’t help it when always seeming to sleep with something in his mouth. But it obviously didn’t harm him too much, as he was first ‘Britannique’ in the 33km race, with Jim just behind and me a bit further back. Graham was 3rd V50-54 Gorilla in the 53km race. Everyone was a winner. The final runners in both races were around 12 hours and 16 hours respectively, which made you wonder if we’d perhaps missed the free champagne and pole dancers at the feed stations.
The 33km course: Bostan is already an established name for hiking and ski touring enthusiasts, shared by a Col, a Refuge, and a Tête. We reached a peak at 2,400m offering a panorama of the Dents Blanches, the Dents d’Oddaz, the Jura and the Mont Blanc. We passed the Refuge de Bostan at 1,763m on the way down (on the Swiss border). The course was a mixture of rocky, technical descents, forest trails with lots of tree roots, snow cover, some grassy meadow and slippery trail. You had to keep your focus and ignore comments from a nearby female runner about my ‘jolie batons’.
The 50km course started off with a tough climb up the Bourgeoise, then on up to the Pointe de Chamoissiere, before a short respite between the Col de Joux Plane and the Nyon lake, a climb up to the Point d’Angolan followed by a severe descent. After that, it touched the Swiss border for the first time at the Col de Coux. Next, it crossed the Col de la Golese, before starting the ascent to the highest point of the Frahans Trail (shared with the Tour de Bostan race and thereafter the same as the TdB).
After the race we enjoyed beers and sunbathing next to the finishing lake, Lac aux Dames (Lake of the Bikinis), before enjoying our free meal (the 33km race was €40 to enter – this gave you the race, including two feed stations, a meal afterwards, a race beer, a race wicking cap, a medal – exceptional value).
Graham’s idea for a recovery day on the Sunday was a 6 hour round trip hike up from Sixt Fer à Cheval to Lac de la Vogealle at 2,001m, taking in two refuges, two coffees, a dalliance with some French tarts (a common theme over the weekend), two ill-considered dips in the semi-frozen lake and a lost MasterCard. Some stunning scenery made up for quad muscles screaming for respite. We then headed back to the village and up the (newly tarmaced for the Tour de France Stage 14) road to Col de Joux Plane for another hour’s hike to Tête du Vuargne at 1,825m.
In conclusion – a great long weekend with some racing at the centrepiece. A memorable trip with a sealed vault of exceptionally bad chat and bodily functions. To be repeated.
Results:
Trail des Frahans (53km/3,700m) – 724 finishers
Graham Nash (Nash Graham) – First Britannique in 8:27:11 (83rd overall/3rd Male 50-54)
Tour de Bostan (33km/2,150m) – 899 finishers
Neil Burnett – First Britannique in 4:59:07 (127th overall/6th Male 50-54)
Jim Hardie – 5:02:43 (140th overall/18th Male 45-49)
Mike Lynch – 6:04:40 (396th overall/28th Male 50-54)
Mike Lynch