The spirit of skiing

We have all met the occasional person who likes to put down, insult, denigrate. Fotunately, there seem to be few of these in snowsports, maybe just the odd one on J2ski. Because of their love of the sport, most ski people I have met have a true understanding of the spirit, essence, and love of the mountains.

One such person is Simon Kynaston, a British instructor that lives in Niederau. Sadly, last year, he lost his lovely wife, Lizzie to the most horrible disease. As a tribute to his lady, and to recognise the illness, Simon is walking from Niederau to Glasgow, the place of her birth, a distance of 2200 miles. At the time of writing, I believe he has carried out his mission in London, and will be heading north soon.

If things go well, I intend to meet up with Simon, and walk some of the Scottish end of the journey. Then, moving on, I will ski with him in January, and again, in March.

Please take a moment to read his moving story on http://www.lizzieswalk.com/english.html

Then, if you feel like putting in a fiver towards Ovarian Cancer, click on http://www.justgiving.com/lizzieswalk

The Spirit of Skiing.

This is something quite close to my own heart with my oldest school friend losing her mum to the same disease 19 years ago.

My friend has since been diagnosed with having the BRCA1 gene which she inherited from her mum and has had a double mastectomy and recently had her ovaries removed to reduce the risk of her getting cancer.

She was one of the lucky ones. I have made a small donation x

Donation made. I always admire people who take up these amazing challenges.

I have now donated my sheckels. This guy is amazing. Today, he crossed the border into Scotland. When he reaches Glasgow, he will have walked 2200 miles in a journey of love.

I still hope to walk some miles with Simon. if that does not happen, I will split a Zipfer or two, and share some runs with him in Niederau.

This is the spirit of skiing.

Nice to see he has raised over £4000 as well. I was happy to donate to his cause.

I've been following him on Facebook, that's quite a trek.

Hope you get to join him DM.

NellyPS wrote:I've been following him on Facebook, that's quite a trek.

Hope you get to join him DM.

Well I certainly did, Nelly! With some late night messaging, Simon gave an estimated time at when he would be at a certain bridge on the Clyde River. I drove a couple of hours across Scotland, found the bridge, parked, and Simon was walking towards me, just 50 yards away!
We had some lunch, coffee, and then walked together beside the river. After a while I turned back, leaving Simon to carry on with his route towards Glasgow. On Thursday, his sons fly out from Austria, and walk the last section with their father.
We packed a heap of our joint knowledge of Niederau into a short time, and there was an odd tear shed on each side of the table.
Simon expressed his gratitude to the J2skiers that have made contributions to Lizzieswalk.
In addition to the money raised for Ovarian Cancer on Just Giving, (almost £5000, and rising), there are posters in two locations in Niederau, and late summer visitors have put another £3500 into a trust account in the Niederau bank.

Thank you, kind J2skiers.