MS Trust Monster Ski Home

We will be returning to Tignes for our fifth Monster Ski challenge and we hope you can join us! Monster Ski will take place from 22-26 March 2012 and is open to skiers and snowboarders who are confident on a red run.

Please see the information on our website to find out more and to download a registration pack.

Find out more about Monster Ski 2012

Andy Plews, Monster Ski group leader form Ski Independence, has posted a blog piece on his experience of Monster Ski. Check out his blog for more from Tignes and a great video of our team!

Andy’s Monster Ski blog and video

The Eagle has landed. All 9 Monster Skiers today completed their last day of Monster Ski 2011 in Tignes and all were successful in reaching the huge, no, the really huge, total of 90,000 vertical feet over the 3 days. One group of Jon, Alison, Andy and Victoria stretched themselves to pass the 100,000 foot mark, while the other group of Sarah, Louise, Siobhan, Robin and Mike took the slightly more economic approach and passed the target by the late afternoon.

For some, and especially for those with MS who took part in Monster Ski 2011, this was a superhuman achievement and something they should take great pride in achieving. The Monster Ski 2011 Coupe du Monde goes to Siobhan for her fantastic effort.

Collectively, all Monster Skiers, plus their guide, ‘Woody’, a remarkable skier who gave excellent tuition throughout, managed to ski over One Million Feet – a truly enormous amount of skiing with an immense area of Espace Killy covered (and it is vast). There were tears of joy for some at reaching our target, and tears of laughter as we guffawed our way through the 3 days. A perfect tonic. We have had such a good time, met some truly great people and made some fantastic and lasting friendships.

Mike

Monster Skiers - challenge complete!

Awesome, just awesome. What a day in Tignes today! Up with the larks and onto the slopes by 9am in perfect sunshine and blue skies. We were joined by our new guide, “Woody”, another excellent skier, who led one of the groups, while Andy from Ski Independence led the other. Again we had the runs to ourselves and quickly racked up the footage.

By lunch, both groups were nudging 20,000 feet. We met at the Aspen bar in Val Claret for lunch and, after a quick intake of calories, headed back to the slopes to plug away for the daily target of 30,000 feet. It was bliss, sheer bliss, to be on the slopes in the company of some truly great people – all Monster Skiers. One group had 4 people with MS taking part and this group just kept on going, surpassing the afternoon total of the other group by sheer determination.

Special mention needs to go to Siobhan for a really plucky day’s skiing, where she easily achieved over 30,000 feet. Special mention needs also to be made of Victoria who has kept us amused throughout with her American blonde moments.

After an epic day where we can see the 90,000 foot total being in reach tomorrow, we retired to the Grizzly bar for a cup of tea (not) and laughed and laughed and laughed; what a great event it is proving to be and, for some, a life changing one too.

Mike

What a fantastic day’s skiing. Being a Friday, Tignes was virtually empty today yet the snow was perfect and the skies blue with hardly any wind. It gave us a perfect start for Monster Ski 2011.

After splitting into 2 self selecting groups and meeting our guide ‘Amigo’ (yes really), a Dutch/Austrian man of indeterminate age but awesome skiing ability, we started the challenge with Andy from Ski Independence leading the other group. The pistes were wide open and encouraged fast, pacy skiing – exactly what was required for Monster Ski and by lunch both groups were over half way to their daily total. We skied the entire resort with hardly revisiting a run and virtually had the place to ourselves – perfect. By the end of the day the group with Andy, Jon, Victoria, Alison and Mike had done 32,720 feet and the group with Louise, Robin, Sara and Siobhan had completed 31,360 feet – well on our way to success.

Tomorrow, the weather is forecast to be brilliant again and the plan is to start ever earlier to bag a couple of runs down the Grand Motte glacier before anyone else has realised the conditions there are so good.

And now it’s time for another fantastic dinner.

Mike