I wrote this and forgot to publish back in June. I am now preparing to enter my second 24 Hours of Stratton. If you would like to help go to the link below, and I will do a run in your honor.

https://www.crowdrise.com/Team-F-O-T-H-/fundraiser/jayberg925


As I sit on my deck on a warm summer night, I think back to the awesome Ski Season we had. It started with the 24 Hours of Stratton (details below), and it finished with an amazing day in early April with my daughter at Mount Snow (Mom was home sick). I got close to 20 days on the slopes this season, with some quality days with family and friends.

My first blog post was about a charity ski race I entered in memory of my brother Tom, and I thought I would share how the event went.

Joining me on the team was my wife Suzanne, daughter Marissa, my sister Kate and sister-in-law Jen, who was married to my late brother, Tom and sister, Anne-Marie who was our base lodge support. I raised $2,410 for the charity and our team raised a total of $5,266. I was truly touched by all of the donations from family, friends and co-workers because the charity is about helping families in need, and I consider you all part of the greater Berg family (whether you like it or not). This year's event raised $201,377 and over $1MM to date.

OK, now onto the race results:

• I skied through the night, taking two 1.5 hour breaks during the wee hours for quick cat naps on the floor of the base lodge, so I skied a total of 21 hours. I now know how it feels to sleep in an airport, the photo below shows some athletes sleeping in the lodge, the snowboarder is sound asleep, sitting in a chair with all his gear on, and another is half under a table. Suzanne, Marissa and Jennifer came back to join me and ski in the morning before sunrise.

Sleepy Snowboarder

My Team at Sunrise

• Out of 300+ entrants I finished 31st, 4th in my division, with a total number of runs at 55 (matching my age BTW) and a total of 47,810 vertical feet skied

• Our little team of five finished 25th out of 50 teams, not bad for our first attempt

• Now this is the stat I am most proud of; my wife took the Silver Medal and my sister-in-law the Bronze in their division. Tom would be so proud of the girls and how they kept on going

                                                                   

                                                                    Jen and Suzanne

• Marissa (our only snowboarder on the team) fought through some pain and finished out the morning with a couple great runs to see the sunrise from the chairlift

The experience of skiing as the sun set, through the night, and then to see the sunrise the next morning was something that is hard to put into words. I felt that Tom was with us the entire time and kept us all safe throughout the 24-hour event. I made badges (see below) for our team to wear during the event with his photo and an expression on the back that he liked to use to end his emails with "Onward and Upward".  I thought it was rather fitting for the event.

                                                                     Our team badge

Thank you again to all who donated the bottom of our hearts.

Jay Berg

Team F.O.T.H. Captain

(BTW, the position of Team Captain was a self appointed one)