MS Trust Monster Ski Home

The first day of the Monster Ski 2010 challenge got off to a great start with beautiful blue skies and some real spring sunshine and warmth.  With it being nearly the end of the season, Whistler is comparatively empty whilst still having plenty of snow.  Amazingly, we had virtually all the pistes to ourselves.

Today was a great chance for a warm up, and to check that our distance measuring equipment was working – the challenge itself starts tomorrow.  We skied as a single large group in the morning and were able to cover a fairly gentle 12,000 feet in 3 hours before stopping for lunch.  The groups managed another 12,000 feet in the afternoon before a unanimous vote for early beers drew it to a close.  By the end of the day, the temperatures were way up at over 15C in the village.  The 30,000 daily target for those doing the gold challenge is going to be manageable, while those wanting to do its little brother silver challenge found that the warm up day showed them that they too would make their goal.

Despite some tired legs and a minor coming together  for a couple of Monster Skiers on the slope, everyone will be attending the welcome reception held tonight in Whistler village.

Monster Ski begins!! This year we have 17 participants and we would like to say a huge thank you to them all. We will be posting updates and photos  from the team as Monster Ski progresses, so keep an eye on this blog to find out how the Monster Skiers are getting on.

Our Monster Ski team arrived safely in Canada after flying out on Wednesday, narrowly missing the Icelandic ash cloud! Unfortunately, one member of the group who was due to join them on Friday is still stuck in the UK as his flight was canceled. Fingers crossed he manages to catch a flight out soon.

Good luck Monster Skiers, from everyone at the MS Trust!

More daily reports can be found on John Mackenzie’s Monster Ski blog

Find out more about some of our skiers: Pontlliw Ski Team

Huge thanks and congratulations to everyone who was involved with making Monster Ski 2009 such a success.

Thank you to our 16 Monster Skiers, who were great fun and who all worked hard to ski as far as they could each day.  Our team has raised over £30,000 for the Multiple Sclerosis Trust and this total looks set to double once all outstanding pledges have been collected in.

The MS Trust would like to thank Ski Independence for organising the trip. Thanks also to Engelberg-Titlis Tourismus AG and Prime Ski School for their support during the challenge, as well as Satski and HTC who provided us with GPS tracking technology.

So thanks again to our Monster Skiers… Richard B, Alun C, Michelle C,  Kevin D, Judy E, Philip G, Claire G, Dan L, Mike L, Jane L, Richard L, Adrian P, Jon P, Katie S, Edd S and Mark S.

We hope you will join us again for Monster Ski 2010!

What an absolutely fantastic day!  Brilliant blue skies greeted us as we awoke and, without a breath of wind, the day was simply perfect for skiing.  The snow conditions were absolutely perfect throughout the day with powder lasting on some slopes until into the afternoon.  We again divided into 3 groups to allow each to set their own pace and went up Titlis mountain to start day 3, our final day of Monster Ski 2009.  We were able to ski fast and long with some of the Monster Skiers achieving some unbelievable totals.  Comparing totals at the end of the day in a bar for a little apres ski showed that all participants had managed to achieved their total distances over the 3 days – a stunning success for all.

Special mention, however, must go to all those participants with MS who, in taking part, have shown to themselves and to others that MS need not prevent you doing anything you set your mind to.

A better day today in terms of weather and light levels, which made it easier to crack on to bag some miles!  We split up into 3 groups (one fast, one medium and one gentle) and set off at our own individual team paces.   Snow conditions were reasonably good throughout the day, with some light flurries of snow but thankfully no rain.  We all at least stayed dry.

Some of the Monster skiers had a couple of moments where they had to be dug out of the snow after somewhat dramatic faceplants (but no injuries!) and all came back to the Hotel at the end of the day tired but pleased they had managed to do so many miles.

The weather and conditions tomorrow are predicted to be good (certainly better than they have been yesterday and today) so the Monsters’ morale is high for the final day of the challenge.