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What a great 10 years anniversary for the ExtremeCarving Session and Swoard! It could not be better!
Firstly, the atmosphere was excellent and friendly. The smiles on the faces and good humor were everywhere. 
Then, the conditions for carving and extremecarving were fabulous on Saturday and Sunday, as rarely. 
The pistes have withstood the onslaughts of the participants, about 210 riders!Here is the group photo on Saturday:
- ECS2013_group_Saturday.jpg (54.97 KiB) Viewed 33666 times
Picture in very high resolution: download here (6.5 MB)And the photo on Sunday:
- ECS2013_group_Sunday.jpg (58.15 KiB) Viewed 33666 times
Picture in very high resolution: download here (6.3 MB)The dinner on Saturday ended with a birthday cake,
the screening of the day filming and photos, then the opening of a small bar for the riders who were the less tired, 
all this with music played by a good DJ. It was also the opportunity for the 3 founders of the meeting and Swoard to tell briefly the beginnings of the adventure:
- ECS2013_dinner_speech.jpg (57.69 KiB) Viewed 33666 times
The meeting ended on Monday with a funny anecdote that we could tell during the 20 years celebration!
A big power outage (wire break), which began at 4am, affected the cable. 
Not possible to go up to the slopes of Zinal. In consequence the participants had to go to Grimentz, 10 min by car, where they could take advantage of 20-30 cm of fresh snow fell overnight and enjoy the return of the sun before noon. Four members of the staff and I went up to the restaurant at 2450 m with snowshoes and then snowcats to remove the stand and bring back the snowboards required for some participants who had planned to leave the resort on Monday. The afternoon, for the rescue team, was dedicated to freeriding (we deserved it). The photos of the expedition are shown later in this topic.Many thanks to all the Swoard fans and the participants for the great moments which we shared for 10 years! Time passes but the passion remains!
The surprise gift for participants has been chosen this year in connection precisely with passing of time, and with the idea that it should be useful in the practice of winter sports (and water sports):
- Swoard_sport_watch.jpg (25.47 KiB) Viewed 33666 times
Thousand thanks to all the people who helped Swoard before and during the three days.
Without them, this event would not exist. 
Not in alphabetical order: Julien, Christian, Romain, Franck, Arnaud, Sylvain, Anthony, François, Alex, Francesco, Oleg, Tali, Rafal, José, Valérie, Mallorie, Joerg, Yann, Minh, Pierre (the cameraman), Jean-Manuel (the photographer), Yves (the DJ) and more (sorry, for sure I missed someone).
PHOTOS- Our official photographer Jean-Manuel has shot beautiful pictures, like the ones you can see in the topic below.
All photos are available on Picasa here: https://picasaweb.google.com/1140016767 ... witzerland
In addition the Gallery of the Web site will be repaired soon and finally updated, with a selection of the best pictures.
FILMS- 1. The movie shot and edited by Pierre with the scenes screened during the Saturday party:
on YouTube:
for downloading: https://www.extremecarving.com/films/20 ... S_2013.zip (100 MB)
- 2. Here is the film and report made by the Tourist Office of Val d'Anniviers:
Congratulations to Christophe for his professional work and his perpetual good mood!
The 10 years anniversary is continuing through the Swoard Demo Tour 2013: don't miss the two remaining events in Bardonecchia (16-17 February 2013, Italy) and Courchevel (23-24 March 2013, France). Moreover, we extend the deadline for participating in the Swoard Film Contest till the 11th January 2014. The dates of the Swoard ECS 2014 are already known for sure! Jan 25th to 27th, 2014 ! 
A new cable will link Grimentz and Zinal. Thus it will be also possible to get a room in Grimentz and access the slopes quickly. Zinal resort, with only 300 beds in the hotels, was becoming too small.
See you soon for new emotions!
Patrice Fivat
