More than 150km of pistes, 25 checkpoints, 15 resorts, two days – the 6th annual Snow-Camp Alpine Challenge gets under way in Morzine, in the French Alps on the weekend of 12-15 March.
Over two days of non-stop skiing, skiers and boarders will race around the pistes of the Porte du Soleil, aiming to tick off 25 checkpoints spread out over this vast ski domain that straddles the French/Swiss border, and clock up as many kilometres as possible in the process.
This brilliant charity event attracted more than 80 skiers and boarders last year, and raised more than £30,000 to enable Snow-Camp to support five young people through its apprenticeship programme training them for future employment across the snowsports industry.
If you want to take part, just put together a team of four like-minded skiers or boarders. Entry costs just £200 per person – and that includes return flights and transfers to Geneva, three nights half-board accommodation with Ski Weekends and a Portes du Soleil lift pass. All you have to do is commit to raising £3,000 in team sponsorship. If you’re already staying or working in the resort, registration only costs £100pp.
Teams are free to plan their own route around the pistes, but must ski together as a team. The checkpoints are spread around the farthest reaches of the Portes du Soleil – and it’s to be hoped there’ll be plenty of snow, so that even the lowest-level pistes are open.
Snow-Camp director Dan Charlish said that last year six teams clocked up all 21 checkpoints in the 2014 event, but that they’ve added four more checkpoints for this year, to increase the challenge element. He said: ‘The atmosphere is fantastic, though, with all the teams enjoying the level of competition and experience of navigating around 15 resorts and 100s of kms of pistes. And, of course, there’s the party afterwards…’
Entries close the week before the event, so there’s still plenty of time sign up and start fundraising. snow-camp.org.uk/alpinechallenge
Or just Ski2theMoon!
If you can’t make the Alpine Challenge, you can still support Snow-Camp, wherever and whenever you ski this winter, through its Ski 2 the Moon Challenge - the biggest mass participation snowsports event ever launched. Skiers and snowboarders all over the world can join in – just download the Ski 2 The Moon app, set a personal goal and get skiing or snowboarding. Every mile skied is tracked by the app and contributes to a grand total of everyone’s efforts in pursuit of the target distance – the Moon – 238,855 miles away.
Snow-Camp director, Dan Charlish said, ‘We were inspired by the success of Movember – that wherever you are in the world you can grow a moustache, raise some funds and support a charity. We wanted to do something along the same lines but with snowsports – and the app now makes this possible.’
For details and to download the app, go to ski2themoon.com
