We were delighted to be Charity Partner at Lambert Smith Hampton Ski Challenge 2020

The Switch180 team touched down on the 19th January for the start of the Lambert Smith Hampton (LSH) Ski Challenge in stunning Courmayeur. This was our second year as the official charity partner of the event, and once again we were organising a charity Team Distance Challenge for all attendees.  

The Lambert Smith Hampton event kicked off with attendees ascending to over 3400 meters above Courmayeur to the Skyway Pavilion for the LSH Business Forum. With direct views of Mont Blanc, it was a beautiful start to the day, surrounded by breath taking scenery in all directions.   

During the Business Forum attendees heard from business leader Daniel Levy of Tottenham Hotspur, and leading industry experts in the property field such as Emma McKenzie from NewRiver and Jason Hawthorne from Vu City.   

Following the forum, everyone headed out for an afternoon of skiing and clinics before our patron Chemmy Alcott reminded attendees during après ski to sign up for our Team Distance Challenge taking place the next morning. Our Founder Dan Charlish then said a few words about the charity and the logistics of the challenge.  

LSH CEO Ezra Nahome added his encouragement for everyone to get involved – and 24 teams signed up! 

It was another bluebird day on Tuesday morning as the team prepared for the charity Team Distance Challenge taking place that afternoon. Marco, our tracking expert from Trac Trac, prepared the GPS trackers and teams collected bibs and trackers from our stand.  

As always, the Le Mans start was great fun and got the event off to a fantastic start. Chemmy Alcott rallied the teams and gave a brilliant count down and commentary as everyone scrambled to find their equipment to set off down the mountain. One snowboarder took to laying on his board and sledging head first down the slope, enabling a snowboarder to lead the Challenge for the first 30 seconds! It was brilliant to watch and a fantastic start to the challenge. Each team then had one hour to ski or snowboard as many KMs as possible before returning with their tracker within a 15-minute window. 

It was close right until the end as teams battled it out to ski the furthest in the time allowed, and when the hour was up, teams returned to the race paddock to receive medals for their efforts. 

The Lambert Smith Hampton Ski Challenge awards dinner commenced that evening at the Royal e Golf Hotel. The evening celebrated the many ski races that had taken place over the event. To present our Team Distance Challenge Award, Chemmy Alcott presented the cup to winners Neavo’s Amigos 2 who skied a fantastic 22.5km. Team Azzurri came a very close second, just 0.7 km behind! 

Dan Charlish said: “Once again, the LSH Ski Challenge was a fantastic event and we were delighted to be involved. It was great to see the Team Distance Challenge so well received and we enjoyed meeting so many new people and having the opportunity to introduce our work to new supporters. Huge thanks to Ezra, Mass, Katka and all the LSH Team for making us feel so welcome and helping us raise the profile of our charity.”  

Thank you to everyone at Lambert Smith Hampton for welcoming us as charity partner once again and for hosting an incredible Ski Challenge event.