Val d’Isère hosts the 55th Critérium de la Première Neige

Val d’Isère will host the 55th edition of the “Critérium de la Première Neige” from 11th — 19th December and this winter the resort is going “Brilliantly British.” The ‘British theme’ is part of a conscious decision the famous resort has made to theme this event on a different country every year from now on.

Britain’s number one skier, Chemmy Alcott (27, Twickenham), has today (20 December) produced another good result in Val d’Isere, France with a 16th place in the Super G.

Val d’Isere in France and the Swiss resort of Lenzerheide both open superb new swimming and leisure centres this month for the 2009–10 season. Lenzerheide already has the biggest hotel hammam in the Alps located at Hotel Schweizerhof, but the new H2Lai wellness pool will guarantee further exhilaration after a day on the ski slopes.

Canada suffered its second training accident in as many days after Kelly Vanderbeek crashed at Val d’Isere. Vanderbeek was stretchered off the piste conscious but with her left leg in a splint after a spectacular tumble on a training run for Saturday’s downhill.

Michael Walchhofer tamed a tricky slope to win a men’s World Cup super-G in Val d’Isere and offered a resurgent Austrian team a further morale boost. The 34-year-old Walchhofer used his vast experience in difficult conditions with poor visibility to hand his Alpine nation their second victory in as many days in the French Alps resort after Benjamin Raich’s super-combined win on Friday.

After landing by helicopter in the Val d’Isere resort where he made his big breakthrough, Alpine skiing’s new sensation Carlo Janka could appreciate how much his life had changed in just over a year. “I do notice a lot of things around me are different,” the 23-year-old Swiss, who will take part in a super-combined, a super-G and a giant slalom here over the next three days, said.