💡 How the idea came true
I knew about the fundraiser of Lola since mid 2023. By end of 2023 I checked again and saw that was at around 50% but still a big amount was pending.
I thought 💭 that I’m very lucky and grateful to enjoy snow sports like skimo which I do quite often, however ski is not accessible for every one. It can be because the location of mountains with snow is far, the cost of practicing, the cost of the material needed for it… and in some cases the barrier can be even higher and this was the case.
I created a draft 📝 with an idea (The page evolved overtime to this one 
I spend usually time in Blatten-Belalp, however at the same time Tijana mentioned that Grächen was very friendly and they could help better in case it would be there. So… one evening I decided to contact 📨 Grächen through the contact form of their website and shared the draft at that time of the idea.
To my surprise 😮, I got a WhatsApp message the day after supporting the idea and some instructions. The requisite was to visit the head of security for safety reasons.
I visited the head of security and besides some safety tips I got answer to all my questions…
♨️ Check for emergency warm room 🚾 Check for emergency bathroom 👝 Check where to leave the clothes/food
… and support to have the slope groomed as soon as possible.
It seemed all ready and the week of @February 9, 2024 arrived. I had to make a decision and despite willing to do it as soon as possible, the warm temperatures and the forecasted rain was not promising, so finally I decide it to postpone it for the given back up date @February 23, 2024.
If you want a know full details with steps and checklists
🕑 The 24h
Friday I did the last errands like picking up serviced skis, cooking some food 👨🍳, eat 🍝, bring the bags 👝 with what I could need at the top of the slope.
By 13:30 I was at the bottom of the slope waiting for the exact time to start. We did some pictures 📸 with Marco from Grächen tourism and at 14h 🕑 I started 🙂.
I started quite fast, energy ⚡ and adrenaline was high and despite knowing that this was about endure I could not slow down 🤷♂️.
Slope conditions were ok, I could do the whole slope without major issues, however the conditions of the slopes got worse and worse until around 17:30. At that time the snowcats came down. Thank you 🙏 Grächen team for changing the order of grooming that I can have a good slope for as much time as possible.
I enjoyed a lot the first 6 laps 🔃 up and down with some warm food in between and by this time was already dark… the feeling of being sleepy came very early and fighting again thoughts 💭 looked like it was going to be the big challenge of the night.
Lola, Laura and Mathieu were down by the end of lap 7 with warm food 🍝🍟. I definitively eat too much and went into food coma for 2 laps 😅.
Mathieu joined me in the lap 8 and talking I could distract my mind and keep moving with less fighting 👊 with thoughts to have bigger stops. The uphills got slower, however what added more time to the complete laps where the time in between. Food was not that appealing anymore and I needed to force myself to keep eating. At this moment I knew that it was about eating and keep moving as much time as possible.
Mathieu completed 6 laps 🔃 and left at the top of lap 14 to come back with warm tea 🍶 and coffee ☕ in my next lap. I stopped about 20 min to at the top to change jacket, put clothes to dry and try to reset my mind 🧠.
I went down after the reset and started with lap 15, I was looking forward for the coffee and tea so I tricked my mind. I got the reward and Mathieu finally went to sleep at around 4:30am. Big thank you 🙇♂️ for the night laps.
In the lap before sunrise (Lap 16 I think), around 5am, I felt fighting my eyes to don’t close and fall sleep while walking up. One step after the other the eyes were heavier.
I told to myself that I needed to arrive to the top anyway if I wanted to stop in a warm place… so it was my convincing argument… 🗣️ arrive to the top and rest 20 min. Finally I arrived and put clothes and skins to dry and set the alarm in 20 min, after 10 min my body shoke like the moment when you are falling sleep and I did not felt “that” sleepy anymore.
I got the dry clothes on and I went down ⛷️. It was still dark and needed the light 🔦. In this downhill around 6am I found the first person going up. That gave me hope that I would start to see people. I got down, change settings and started going up and sunrise 🌄 started. My sleepy feeling started to disappear and started to see more people going up.
Next laps were a relieve, first I met Lola & Laura that were going up to get ready for the raffle 🎰 and next one Nicole, Clare and Tijana.
I did the last 2 laps 🔃 with Tijana and there was some time left, however not enough to go all the way down and back, hence I went a bit down and went the last bit up with Nicole, Clare and Tijana to finish as close as 2pm as possible.
Some figures
- 21 laps 🔃
- 110+ kms
- 10700 m ⬆️
- Fastest lap (the available segment): 28’ 55’’ (First)
- Slowest lap(the available segment): 53’ 06’’ (Last)
- Top speed: 71,6 km/h
Strava activity
🏁 🎰 The end + Raffle
The end + raffle were the best moment, were people came together and we had time to talk.
A good summary by Laura is in his Instagram post
🎬 Credits
I got the following questions after the event:
🥵 What was the worse moment?
The night was tough… my eyes were closing. I felt my upperbody with the hours… with the time it was more difficult to bend to take out the skins.
🥳 What was the best moment?
The arrival and talk with the people who connected with the cause. The people who was curious, the people who enjoyed the presents, the people who helped to make it happen, the kids who got candies…
Thank you 🙏
Thank you 🙏
🧘 Reflection
During the preparation and with the 2 extra weeks because the postponement I had thoughts about how it will be… if there will be people, if we will raise money if… if….
Now that the event is in the past, independently of how much money has been raised, it was an experience that I would have not like to miss because of fear and/or doubts. People were extremely nice, the rough night is quickly forgotten, and only the good moments remains.