THURSDAY 10TH FEBRUARY 2005
SUN, SNOW, SMILES....but no wind : THE SEQUEL...


We almost believed it !!!
In fact, when we arrived at the spot there were plenty of kites already in the sky.
Almost all the riders were out on the spot warming up, some final training, all well fired up. Nice to see the Juniors out on the field after their ‘official’ arrival, only natural they ant to get straight out on the snow.

At 10.30am Mathias Charton decides to start the proceedings with the men’s ski discipline. That brings Fabio Ingrosso, Bjorn Kautang and Erling Lefsaker onto the field just in time for the wind to drop and leave the race director no choice but to abandon the heat.

With no competition to watch it’s time for some sunbathing, chill out, chat and chuckle about the big Red Bull do the night before.
The wind is playing tricks, building and dropping off just as quickly. Given the conditions the riders take their time over building the kickers and placing the slide rails kindly lent for the occasion by Snow-box.

Everyone’s trying to polish their style and trying out their latest tricks before it’s for real in front of the judges. And there are a lot of the local riders’ kites up and flying all over the spot.

At 3.00pm, with the wind never above at 5 – 7 knots, it dies away altogether and the race director declares the day null and void. That means all freestylers on standby from 9.30am tomorrow, ready to show Simplon their stuff when the wind arrives...


 
While everone else is busy sorting out and packing their gear away, Guillaume Chastagnol seems more fascinated by the mountains surrounding the spot at Col du Simplon. He told us he could see amazing potential in this spot, plenty of scope for amazing treks between the rock formations, to get you to even higher spots and, eventually, the summits themselves :
“I came here a month ago, there was more snow around and much more wind and I got to really explore these beautiful mountains. Now, these two days, not much wind but still enough to go check out some of the slopes. I think this is a fantastically beautiful place, the perfect place for snowkiting in this region.”