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When I signed up for Monsterski 2008, I knew it would be great fun and some hard work, in some great skiing locations. It has been all that, but I have learned a lot more about these type of challenges! I love skiing, and have done ski weeks in the past, but never have I thought of skiing in terms of vertical feet! That concept has put a whole new slant on skiing for me!

Skiing from the time the lifts open until they close with only a half hour (average for our group!) for lunch, means your skis (and legs and lungs!!) are working really hard! There haven’t been the chats at the side of the slope, nor the long hot chocolate breaks… all skiing time was very important! Calculating how fast a lift gets up a mountain was a new concept, but it makes a difference if you need to maximize time doing the vertical runs!

To non-skiers, this challenge may have sounded as a great “holiday in the ski resort state of Colorado”. Well, some of that is true, it has been a great experience of many of Colorado’s ski resorts, but actually, other than the ski runs that gave us most vertical feet per descent, we didn’t really see much of the resorts. We found our “best slopes” and skied or boarded them! It will have to be another personal trip to explore these resorts further!

To skiers, again this could have seemed a great holiday, however, there is the knowledge of some of the dangers and risks that go with this hazardous pursuits sport! Throw in altitude, cold and wind, and whereas on a holiday you would just take longer hot chocolate breaks, that wasn’t an option! Just get your ski legs set, and go!

So Monster Ski has been a great experience, and one that I hope to repeat in some form. I will need to have that happen in about a year so my knee injury (Tuesday - Keystone) can heal! I have had great fortunes in that this is the first ski injury in my 35 years of skiing, and I was doing it for a worthy cause! So once physio is completed, I will definitely pursue this again, but with the increased awareness of what a charity challenge is all about. My fellow skiers and boarders are a great team, and I’ve really been privileged to get to know all of them!

Official totals are constantly being added up, I’m hoping that one of the team gets just one more run for me…I may be at my total, but it may be close!

This has been a great experience, not a holiday, but I feel refreshed and enthused about what people can achieve, so maybe that’s the Holiday Spirit!

Thank you Monster Ski 2008!!

Stacy