MS Trust Monster Ski Home

Another great day with the weather, despite storms being predicted. The sun was out and the snow was good. Things were beginning to get slightly competitive after yesterday’s achievements and everyone was working hard to get in as many vertical feet as possible.

Mid morning we had a casualty – Tony had a fall from his board and injured his shoulder. He was rushed down the mountain on a sled and taken to the medical centre where he was put back together again.

He’s now strapped up and is in pretty good spirits, despite not being able to get back on the slopes. The rest of the team have decided to make up his vertical feet by skiing extra themselves over the next few days.

With regards to today’s vertical feet, incredibly the team have done better than yesterday! Every group beat the 25,000 target, with John Nicoll and team just edging past yesterday’s record result with 49,000 vertical feet in the bank!

An interesting fact about our Monster Skiers – ages range from 20s to 70s, with each of the six decades represented by at least one person.

Tomorrow: Copper Mountain

What a day! The sun shone from first lift to last. The team split up into three groups in the morning and set off with the aim of achieving at least 25,000 vertical feet per person.

The actual distances covered surpassed anyone’s expectations. The average distance skied/boarded was 35,900 v. ft. with one group (led by the unstoppable John Nicoll) actually achieving a phenomenal 48,000 vertical feet!

Everyone was elated and exhausted by the evening – a great start to Monster Ski.

We have just come to the end of our first day in Vail, a chance for everyone to find their feet and have a practice before the challenge begins tomorrow. We had a long day of travelling yesterday but got a pretty early night, so all were up bright and early this morning and itching to get out on the slopes.

The snow here is fantastic, with lots of fresh powder. Today started out with bright sunshine but after lunch got pretty windy with freezing cold snow blowing around. Brrr! The group had a good day’s skiing, despite two members of the party getting separated the minute they stepped off the lifts – we’re hoping to see them in the bar shortly!

Tomorrow: the 150,000 vertical feet challenge begins in Beaver Creek…

On 24th January, 18 skiers will travel to Colorado, USA with the aim of skiing or boarding 150,000 vertical feet over six days, at six different resorts – the equivalent of skiing the height of Mount Everest every day!

This is the first time the MS Trust has held a fundraising skiing event and we’re really delighted to have a fantastic and dedicated group of people involved. The total raised for this event so far (after costs) stands at just over £73,000!!!

This sum is enough to fund one of our full time information professionals for a year, PLUS the cost of publishing and sending out 10,000 copies of one of our publications, such as the newly revised ‘MS: What does it mean for me?’. In 2007 our information professionals dealt with almost 8,000 personal enquiries from people affected by MS and sent out 76,000 publications.

We’ll be keeping this blog updated while we’re in Colorado so you can follow our progress. If you would like to make a donation towards our total, please visit www.mstrust.org.uk/donate.