MS Trust Monster Ski Home

What a fantastic day!  Another bright day with beautiful sunshine and no wind: Whistler at its absolute best!

We divided into our 3 groups, 2 being led by the Whistler/Blackcomb ski school guides and the other by Nick from Ski-Independence and set off by 9am with our Flaik tracking devices set up.  After a beast of a morning, one of the groups had managed to ski over 32,000 feet - an incredible feat given the snow was starting to melt, even on the tops of the highest mountains, due the the incredibly warm temperatures.

Despite this, all the groups hit their targets and some were able to exceed them with the middle, but highly charming,  group of Tigger, Mike Laver and Stuart Martin managing to ski 37,919 feet in the day, skiing over 40 miles in the process.  The group doing the Silver challenge of 100,000 feet in the week managed over 26,000 feet today - a fantastic amount. The top speed of anyone in the groups was over 44 miles per hour - a bit brisk by any standards.

Tomorrow, the forecast is rain so all the excess feet we managed to achieve today will be very helpful.

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.