The 17th and 18th of May saw the traditional opening of the Galibier road pass between the Maurienne and Romanche valleys. It is also ‘road gap’ time. The principal is simple, the snow plough opens a gap in the snow about the width of a lorry with walls up to 6 meters high.
On the uphill side you build a ramp or ‘kicker’. You then climb up some distance, and assuming you have enough speed you fly across to the other side, get it wrong and you plant into the opposite wall! Add the tricks you learnt in the snow park, a DJ with 1000 watt sound system and a barbeque and you have the annual Alchimy Association Road Gap and Big Air competition. From what we saw all went of pretty much as planned, except for a few crashes, more or less painful.