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An absolutely fantastic day in the best weather we’ve had in Whistler so far. Bright blue skies, little wind and a warm sun made the effort of skiing until we dropped that little bit easier. Five of the Monster Skiers passed the 150,000 target today and are officially invited into the Monster Ski Hall of Fame. The rest are all very close with special mention to Wynford Harris, Keith Miles, Elise and Graham who have all scorched past their 100,000′ Silver Medal target and are within sight of the Gold Medal – an unintended consequence of their sheer commitment and unwillingness to be defeated by a mere mountain.

Tomorrow is the final day of Monster Ski 2010 and if the weather holds out for us will surely allow the remainder to reach the Gold standard. Everyone who has taken part is pleasantly tired, but elated at the buzz that skiing with a purpose in a group of like-minded individuals has given them.

Check out John Mackenzie’s Monster Ski blog for more reports from our skiers in Whistler!

An absolutely fantastic day of skiing by all groups today in some splendid weather – bright, windless, great visibility and warm. With the bit firmly between their teeth, and a great competitive spirit between the groups, all set out to really break the back of Monster Ski 2010. One group are within touching distance of the target. Even our group doing the Silver challenge of 100,000 vertical feet over the 5 days have skied over 87,000 vertical feet over just 3. They are doing so well, they could try to meet their own ‘stretch’ target of the Gold Challenge.

One of the other groups skied over 50,000 feet while the other managed over 40,000. Special mention must go to Graham and Elise who skied over 33,000 feet today. Two of the 3 groups are within spitting distance of reaching the 150,000 foot target tomorrow, with Tigger Mullen needing to do a little more by getting lost today and slipping behind his group’s total. He has been debriefed!

It was a typical British summer’s day here today in Whistler – rain, wind, low cloud and snow. However, it didn’t put our gritty  Monster Skiers off the task in hand. With their vertical footages well underway, they had to add substantially to them today in case we encountered even worse weather later in the week. All groups battled through rain lower down, a chilly wind all over, and shot-blasting ice crystals and slushy snow to keep the momentum of the challenge going; all their hard work paid off.

Amazingly, one group managed to bag over 52,000 feet which, considering the conditions, was truly amazing; they were ably assisted in this by their Australian Diplomatic Corps ski guide, Max, whose attitude to their pain and suffering was ‘get over it, just think what it’s for’. One of the other groups skied over 31,500 feet with special mention going to Dai and Gareth for some of the pluckiest and gutsy skiing given their level of expertise. The other group also added to their totals.

Sadly one of our group is still in the UK due to the volcanic eruptions and will not now be able to make it out; we’re having Nick stand in for him to ski his totals instead.

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.