Team Inov-8 Ladies win Salomon Mountain-X Race

Last month Team Inov-8's ladies teamed together to challenge for the super competitive Mountain-X title. After a week of racing in the Haut-Savoie region of the French Alps, in the shadow of Mont Blanc, they emerged clear winners.

Heather Dawe sent in this report:

Team Inov-8 win MountainX!

The MountainX race is a five day adventure race held annually in the French Alps. This year Team Inov-8 entered an all female team of three – Anna Frost, Chez Frost and Heather Dawe.

The MountainX race is a pretty unique adventure race- the format is a different alpine sport every day followed by a running race in the evening. This makes for faster racing than the more traditional continuous adventure race format. It is still a gruelling event – 8-10 hour days fell running, mountaineering or mountain biking followed by a fast evening fell race soon leads to tired legs!

Teams from all over the world race this prestigious event and we were rubbing shoulders with some of the best and most experienced adventure racers. It was a really friendly event and great to meet so many international racers.

The race started in Bourg Saint Morzine and travelled to finish in Morzine via some classic alpine terrain. Each day had one or more different disciplines - high level mountaineering, mountain biking, canyoning, via ferrata, rock climbing, white water canoeing and adventure running.

The weather was fantastic throughout the week and we had a great time doing all the different sports. The evening running races played to the teams’ strengths – Anna won every time and Chez was often 2nd with Heather getting a few 4th places.

It was a close race throughout the week against the American team Salomon Crested Butte but in the end we pulled it off and won :o) It was fantastic to win such a great race and we all really enjoyed racing together – we had some real adventures up in the mountains and on the white water that we’ll all remember for a long time!

It was great to race for Inov-8 and use some of the best adventure race equipment on the market we really got the most out the awesome trail shoes and race packs! Thanks also to http://www.planetfear.com/, Mule Bar, zym, gpstraining.co.uk and Mountain Hardwear for their kind support.