Les Houches and the Coupe du Monde - Day 1

Early in February we went to Les Houches to see the men's downhill event of the Alpine World Cup.  Prior to moving to Geneva we didn't see many ski competitions on TV, mostly just for the Olympics.  After ski season started here, I noticed skiing on TV every weekend and many of the events were being held right in Switzerland.  So we decided to check out one of the events being held close to us in Les Houches.  Les Houches is located about an hour from Geneva in France and is a part of the Chamonix ski area. 

We got to the finish line just in time to see the first skiers.  One of the crowd favorites was Dider Couche (he's Swiss) and we also got to see Bode Miller ski.  It was pretty amazing to see how fast they went down the piste.  Later I heard it takes the crew a week to groom the slope and they spray it with water so it ices over.  Yikes!  If they don't get enough snow after the race, the slope can stay closed for up to two weeks because it's too dangerous for the public to ski on. 

Didier

Bode Miller

Team America!