FUND RAISER
14 May 2008
Hello to all,
We are in the brainstorming stage of trying to do a fund raiser this year. Anyone with an idea to share please e mail me at ken@mountainsformelanoma.com . Also we are making some DVD’s of our world wide adventures and some of it’s amazing footage and pictures.If you care to have them let me know. Thanks, Ken…
LIVESTRONG Day - May 13, 2008
14 May 2008
We were able to attend this event at DU. It was really cool to see Lance in person. We got to figure out how to cure Cancer now!!! Ken White
Lance’s LIVESTRONG Day Tour
Follow Lance as he crosses the country visiting LIVESTRONG Day events from coast to coast. Read postings from the road on the LIVESTRONG Blog.
New York, New York
To kick of his cross-country LIVESTRONG Day event tour, Lance will join New York City’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg and legendary fashion designer Ralph Lauren for a tour of the Ralph Lauren Center for Cancer Care and Prevention (RLC) and will participate in the RLC’s 5th anniversary celebration.
Made possible by a generous leadership gift by the Polo Ralph Lauren Corporation, in May 2003 the RLC opened its doors in the heart of Harlem to provide its neighbors and the surrounding communities with advanced cancer screening, diagnostic and treatment programs. The LAF provided the seed funding for the RLC’s Wellness and Survivorship Program, which meets the challenges patients and their families face as they make the transition from treatment to survivorship.
Columbus, Ohio
Everyone’s invited to join Lance to celebrate LIVESTRONG Day on the campus of The Ohio State University in Columbus. Bring your friends and family as Lance takes to the stage Tuesday, May 13, at 12:15 p.m. at the Medical Center Plaza in front of Rhodes Hall on the OSU campus.
Enjoy music, food and fun as Lance’s LIVESTRONG Day tour comes to Ohio to join the LIVESTRONG Day event sponsored by the James Cancer Hospital and the LAF. Cheer Lance on as he hits the ground in Columbus before heading west to Colorado!
The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute is part of the LIVESTRONG Survivorship Center of Excellence Network, a collaborative effort among 8 comprehensive cancer centers across the country that work to significantly accelerate progress in the field of cancer survivorship.
Denver, Colorado
Visit the University of Denver campus as Lance’s cross-country LIVESTRONG Day tour comes to the mile-high city. Be part of DU’s LIVESTRONG Day event on Tuesday, May 13, from 2-4 p.m. on the Driscoll lawn, in front of Sturm College of Law, near the corner of University and Evans Avenue. Together, we will make our voices heard and help make cancer a national priority.
Las Vegas, Nevada
Lance makes his final stop in Las Vegas, where he will make his first stop at the world-renowned Nevada Cancer Institute (NVCI) to meet with staff, patients and volunteers.
NVCI is the official cancer institute for the State of Nevada as designated by the legislature in 2003. NVCI is poised to develop a comprehensive cancer research institute staffed by the finest scientists, clinicians and caregivers, to provide hope for the community through research, prevention, detection, education, support and patient-centered care. In addition to the flagship facility in Las Vegas, NVCI has outreach offices in Sparks (near Reno), Fallon and Elko, Nevada. In 2004 the LAF funded the Lance Armstrong Foundation Cancer Survivorship Center within NVCI’s patient and information library, which offers resource materials, Internet access, translation and interpretation services, navigation services and general support for people affected by cancer.
Later in the evening, Lance will join Wolfgang Puck at his newest restaurant CUT at the Palazzo Hotel for a fundraising and awareness event to support the LAF.
LIVESTRONG Day is the Lance Armstrong Foundation’s one-day initiative to raise awareness
Seventh Continent Done!
19 March 2008
Victoria did it!
In front of friends and family, Victoria skied Winter Park on Sunday, March 16th 2008 to complete her quest to ski on all seven continents in less than a year. It took 51 weeks. She did not feel well and is still sick but managed to ski a couple of runs and do a few interviews before mom took her home.
We still have to get everything adjudicated to make it official and I will be working on that this week.
Some story links below:
http://www.skinet.com/article.jsp?ID=1000057298
http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=88246
http://cw2.trb.com/news/kwgn-seven-continents-skiing-cancer-awareness,0,2042516.story
Our seventh continent, North America
12 March 2008
The record breaking attempt will be at Winter Park March 16th at 10:00AM. We are excited to get this accomplished. This project will have taken us 51 weeks from start to finish. 75,000 miles covered by air and 3500 miles by sea. We have raised approximately $5000 dollars so far and we anticipate much more. We are in the planning stages for a fund raising event. I will post is as soon as the arrangements are worked out. Hope to see you at Winter Park, Ken and Victoria
Asia, our sixth continent
26 February 2008
Victoria skied at Beijing Huaibei international ski area on February 22, 2008. This completes her sixth continent. We had a great day of skiing in China. All with the great wall in view from the ski slopes. An amazing place to see. After a half day of skiing we did go to the great wall for a long hike up hill. Very steep and uneven. It was a great feeling to walk on something I have heard about all my life.
The city of Beijing was very busy. Beijing was very clean and the air seemed clear and crisp except the afternoon we arrived was foggy. Everything looks very modern.The subways and buses were very clean and new looking.All the people seemed very friendly and most spoke some English. We did go to the forbidden city and walked through that immense place. Built 600 years ago it has housed sixteen emperors since its inception. To say this place is the biggest thing I have ever seen is an understatement.
Beijing Huaibei Ski Resort
Notes: Largest ski resort accessible from Beijing
Location: 70km outside of Beijing
Season: Dec 1 through Mar 1
Lifts: 4
Trails: 6
Skiing Market: Beginners to Advanced
Cost: Skiing from US$50/day
Getting There: About 1 hour by car from Beijing to the resort
Asia our sixth continent
4 February 2008
We will leave for China on February 20 2008. The trip will be just require three days in China. We will ski the Beijing Huaibei Ski Resort.
Notes: Largest ski resort accessible from Beijing
Location: 70km outside of Beijing
Season: Dec 1 through Mar 1
Lifts: 4
Trails: 6
Skiing Market: Beginners to Advanced
Cost: Skiing from US$50/day
Getting There: About 1 hour by car from Beijing to the resort
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Looks like Winterpark will be our last stop on March 16 2008.
planning for China
15 January 2008
We have been planning for a trip to China. Nepal is out. The people at Heliski, Nepal, told us no one under eighteen is allowed because of the extreme high altitudes (17,000 feet) they have to fly up to ski able terrain.
Looks like we will fly to Beijing, China, in February and ski the Beijing Huaibei Ski Resort. It’s about 35 miles from Beijing and the great wall runs through the ski area.
We have flown 62,000 miles so far in the last ten months for this project. We have about another 12,000 miles more to go for the China trip. We have used many types of transportation.
Some of the types are as follows: Planes, trains, taxis, ships, boats, ferry’s, and a donkey. Also every conceivable type of ski lift: High speed quads, 5 man Palma lifts, conveyerbelts, gondolas, snow cats, incline trains, and trekking up the mountains on foot.
We made it home
30 December 2007
Hello to all.
After an amazing trip to Argentina, Uruguay, the Falkland Islands, and Antarctica we finally came home on the 29th of December after flying for two days from Ushuia to Buenos Aries to Dulles, Virginia, and to Denver. Round trip was 14109 miles in the air and about 3500 miles cruising the South Atlantic.
I forgot to say last time that we had just made the landing at Half Moon Bay and skied the glacier when the landing operation for the Zodiacs was canceled due to high seas. Just what I had feared may happen. We were lucky to get out in the first boat in the morning to be able to ski that Christmas day.
An interesting fact to note is the temperature in Antarctica (40degrees) was a lot warmer than the temperature we came home to at our house in Colorado, (!8 degrees) Keeping in mind it is the Antarctic summer may explain this.
The flight from Ushuia to Buenos Aries was on Aroelenas Argentines on an old MD80 jet. The worst looking aircraft I have ever flown on. As an aircraft mechanic I was a bit worried. Everything was falling apart. The plane did make it and we did make it home okay thank God!
Next I will plan the trip to Asia and the finally in Winter park Colorado. Its been an amazing adventure we will always remember. KW…
Antarctica Done!!! Merry christmas
25 December 2007
Merry Christmas, Marco Polo at sea 4:00PM Antarctica Done!!!
Wow — what a great Christmas. Last night Santa somehow found Victoria and gave her the best present we could think of: she skied Antarctica at Half Moon Island. It was by far the worst skiing conditions she has ever experienced. The snow was very deep but crusty and icy and the landing was a rocky beach. She was a trooper getting up at 5:00 AM on Christmas and getting ready for skiing. We had to get on a Zodiac boat to the beach and hike up the glacier to ski on the worst conditions imaginable. Also the first time any of us snow skied with a life jacket on. For fear of it blowing away everyone left them on while hiking around the penguin rookery.
We had a lot of crew on the boat take a liking to Victoria buying her gifts and singing happy birthday and other songs to her. She has been in her glory. I think she has been handling all the attention very well.
The afternoon yesterday gave me scare as an announcement was made I only caught the last part about the Leiremer Channel was iced in and we were turning back north from there. I thought the last chance at skiing was over. But it turns out that the channel was just a sight seeing area and ship would turn around there anyway after going in the channel a few miles.
The location of Half Moon Island is at 62 degrees and 40 minutes south and 60 degrees west.The area south of the 60 degree parallel is considered Antarctica. We did walk on the continent proper at Paradise Harbor (Water Boat Point) the previous day but the conditions their were deemed unsafe for skiing by the expedition crew.
The ship is rocking very much now as we are crossing the the Drake passage just behind a low pressure system and the swells are the biggest i have ever seen.The swells have whitecaps on them. The wind is at 30 knots from the south but the waves are hitting us from the port side. We have another full day at sea tomorrow and arrive in Ushuaia, Argentina, on the 27th of December. Merry Christmas to everyone and next stop will be Asia sometime this season. Hopefully Nepal area then back to Winter park for the big finish in North America.
Paradise Harbor Antarctica, December 23 2007 2:00PM
23 December 2007
Paradise Harbor Antarctica, December 23 2007 2:00PM
We stepped on to the Antarctic continent this morning at “Water Boat Point”, the Chilean Arctic research station. Penguins everywhere sitting on their eggs. At the beach the land is exposed but just a few hundred feet of land. Then the snow there was at least 100 feet deep but the expedition crew said it was too dangerous to ski here as it was steep and the snow could slide off at any time. We should have two more opertunities in the next two days. The weather has been fantastic. I bet it was close to 50 degrees today and no wind. We saw some crab-eating seals swimming through the area and also a hump back whale. Hard to explain what this place really looks like when you come here and see it all up close. Very bright even with the sun behind the clouds.
The ship brings aboard some of the 16 Chilean Airforce and Navy men stationed here as a goodwill gesture. They have no fresh fruit or vegetables and are treated to a nice lunch on board and hot showers which they greatly appreciated. They even took some provisions back with them when they got off the ship. We could hear some of the glaciers calving in the distance with a thundering boom. A huge russian ship passed us by this morning when we awoke and there have been a few small sailboats from all over the world here. They look to be about 35 feet long. I could not imagine coming here in such a small boat.
We did get a tour of the engine room while we were underway. Very unsuual to let anyone down there and the ship was moving at 10 knots so the engines were turing at 98 RPM’s. No typo here: just 98 RPM’s. They have two 10,500 HP seven cylinder turbo diesels made in Poland. They are 40 feet long and three stories high each and at 10 knots consume 52 tons of fuel per day total. The engine room is five stories high and quite noisy but it was not very hot. We went all the way back aft to where the shaft drives the propellers and we were about 21 feet under the water line at that point. Very interesting to see for an Aircraft / Simulator technition such as me.
Well we hope to write next about the skiing we have done but at this point we have walked on all seven continents in the last nine months, Just not skiied them all yet.
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