1st good luck:
Alegra, at just 13 years old, already became the Swiss U16 champion in sprint ski mountaineering on the 7th of December in Davos. This discipline will be part of the Olympics for the first time in 2026 – we are all excited!
Noé (15) had a flue and still managed to be on 8th place. Our friends Rolf and Claudia invited us to stay in there apartment in Davos. Thanks to their hospitality we were relaxed at the start Saturday morning after a long journey from Norway. Many thanks goes to Rolf for lending some ski pols and Beda for lending some skins. After the race we stayed with our friend Andi in Zurich before we continued to Engelberg.
2nd good luck:
In Engelberg Sabine joined us with Mia and Vital. Finally all TOPtoTOP – Teams were united for Xmas: Dario + Sabine, Salina + Andri, Noé + Alegra and Mia + Vital. On mountain Titlis we found perfect conditions with a lot of snow and sun for the next races. Many thanks to our outfitters Fritschi bindings, Colltex skins and Stöckli skis to belief in us.
3rd good luck:
10 TOPtoTOP members took part in the “Nightattack” race on the Flumserberg. Alegra battled against the 19-year-olds and took a good third place in the juniors and, despite a fall in the starting crowd the following day at the Silvesterlauf in Zurich, she still finished in a good 8th place.
4th good luck:
Already a tradition and great blessing to meet our friend Christian, a dentist from Geneva whose great passion is dental care for the nomadic peoples of Mongolia. He performs small miracles with a lot of improvisation and creativity at more than minus 50 degrees Celsius. He had a great influence on Salina, who helped him repair the teeth of homeless people among other patients during her vacation. Salina now has an interest in dentistry as well as indigenous peoples, which is reflected in her Matura thesis.
5th good luck:
Other angels before Christmas were certainly Bruno and Dorothea together with Peter and Mr. Gerbig, who made sure that we were checked out like we do with the Pachamama before a big sea voyage. – A funny anecdote at this point: Bruno prescribed laxatives for the gastroscopy, which we took during our annual meeting with Victorinox for scheduling reasons….Everything went well :-).
6th good luck:
We were all able to see each other again and celebrate Christmas with the whole family and meet friends.
FIrst challenge:
Unfortunately, Noe tore the outer ligament of his knee shortly afterwards, having only been able to return to full training after a long injury break from January to September.
At the Swiss Vertical Championships in Morgins on the French border on 27 December 2024, only Alegra was therefore at the start and took around half an hour to cover just over 500 meters of altitude, which meant fourth place. At her young age, however, she still has plenty of time for more podium places.
Jean-Pierre, the CEO of Isover, who donated the insulation material for the TOPtoTOP Arctic Base, was also there in Morgins. We were then able to spend the night with him and his wife Sandrin in Leysin.
Second challenge:
On the way back to Engelberg there was another bitter blow. Someone stole Alegra’s rucksack with all her ski touring equipment at the stopover in Bern. A big loss and another bitter blow for her after her ungrateful fourth place, where she was unable to collect any Swiss Cup points.
Now we hope that we can somehow organize the ski touring equipment for Alegra so that she can attack again at the Gindelwald Idividual Race on the 5th of January 2025. May you have some spare equipment and can help her out?
Alegra is missing now the following: a black Dynafit duffel bag, Dynafit ski touring backpack light blue/turquoise, 2 new skins green and yellow, skin wax, Dynafit down pants black/yellow, down jacket pink, windbreaker, Hestra gloves black/white with leather, thinner Dynafit gloves, avalanche transceiver Mammut, avalanche shovel, EarPods, rescue blanket, probe pole, 50 franc voucher CrossFit, water bottle, pillow, cap, headband, helmet.
= = >> The essence of life is to overcome challenges. < < = =
Now we want to thank everyone for the year 2024 and wish you all a Happy New Year 2025, … and that you find time to join us on the TOPtoTOP expedition.