Hi kickstarters!
I'll be sending out rewards this week. Let me know if you need anything special! The snow thanks you - the project has now generated over 100,000 media stories on saving our snow, in almost every major language around the world. What an accomplishment. THANKS!

Hi Backers!
I'm still mostly on planet Copenhagen, but wanted to thank you all again! Next I'll be headed to Washington in February, to continue the work I started with US delegates, envoys, and congress. Tomorrow its time for a break - skiing into the Friends hut for a four-day xmas in the woods! I definitely need to recharge the batteries!

A very short video on our walk:

http://www.youtube.com/watch...

THANKS!!

http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/2009/science-tech/news-us-charm-offensive-at-copenhagen-climate-conference-will-it-work/

I'm at Cop15 - kicking ass and taking names. The media exposure of dragging my skis around has been beyond imagination - I have been doing about 20 interviews a day - China, India, Scotland, US, Canada, France, Ireland, Switzerland......... and on and on. I was even interviewed on the official COP15 station yesterday, just before the President of Mexico!

Here is a link to my special thankyou to you all...
http://www.youtube.com/watch...

Wow - this event is really exceeding my expectation. My skis just drew the attention of one of the key mediators of the WHOLE UNFCCC event - H E Mr Michael Zammit Cutajar Chair of the Working Group on Long-Term Cooperative Action. HOLY #$%*. He is soooo huge, and I had to ask him who he was and what he did. Embarrassing but thrilling. Also today - interviews with a zillion folks, and got my whole calendar filled with interviews for tomorrow. I made the New York Times this morning!!

Optimism is high here with Obama, China and India leaders changing their plans to attend next weeks critical talks.

UNFCCC http://www.climate-change.tv/april_2/michael-cutajar.html

Holy shit, sorry for my language, but we made it to Brussels today!! My body and feet feel quite great today, but I'm glad this leg is over. The most depressing thought is that we could have taken a train from London and gotten here in 2 hours, while it took us two weeks to walk. But quite an accomplishment. Roz and I are presenting for the United Nations at a press conference tomorrow, and we are very nervous. This sets the stage for the whole Copenhagen hoopla for us... wish us luck and THANKS again for helping save our snow and our planet.

I can't believe it - so many goals happening today - we are a mere 10 miles from walking into Brussels - so close we can taste it! And it looks like the pledge goal was reached today. The planet thanks you. My poor sore feet thank you. The snow thanks you.

Agh! Walking is difficult. Long days, hard days, NO hills, which can make it so much harder. I got sad the other day when someone told me they could drive in 45 minutes to Brussels, and we were going to take 5 days to get there. But alas, 250,000 steps or so will get us there. It is an interesting analogy that each small step seems so insignificant, but added up they make a huge difference! thanks backers!!!!!!

One country down, England, and two more to go. We are on our third day in Holland, and have had gale forced winds and rain. The good news is that my body has adapted to this walking thing, and I was feeling quite chipper today during our daily epic. Last week in England was brutal for me on so many levels - bad weather, no sleep, jet lag, work nightmares (literally), blisters, and an aching body that isn't used to walking for 10 hours a day for days on end. Today I felt so peppy that I jogged the last three kilometers, HEAD skis and fully loaded Osprey Pack and all!! We have some incredibly hard days coming up from Holland to Belgium - tedious days on concrete and pavement cycle paths that pound the feet to shreds. At the end of the day, I sometimes feel that someone is whacking each foot with a wooden paddle at a high velocity. For a strange reason, running feels better on the body than walking - less jarring and more use of muscles. I yearn for a hill, let alone dream of how great it would feel to scale a mountain. We are now almost 135 miles into the journey. The team is holding up pretty well, all considered our different backgrounds and training. One ocean rower, one businesswoman, one mom, one student, and one skier! I am getting some fabulous press around the world and in the US. I am thrilled that the message is getting out there. Small steps really make a difference - both on this walk and for solutions to climate change. Just like one small step feels so insignificant, add up a lot of them and you really have something - a quarter of a million steps will take us to Brussels. Get your friends to take the first step and calculate their carbon footprint today, http://www.carbonfootprint.com. You can't manage it, if you can't measure it!!

One wonderful pledge today - $50 from Dave C. THANKS!!! 11 epic days to go on my walk and 11 days to raise just a few more dollars for this project.

45 miles down, 205 to go!!! I'm soooooooo sore. This walking thing is really hard. And no sleep due to jet lag for almost three nights now. I've posted a full blog here:
http://www.alisongannett.com/Alison_Gannett/Blog/Blog.html

Thanks for your support, it is soooo appreciated, when my hips seize again (which is when I stand up after writing this), I'll think great thoughts of all your great help in saving our snow and our planet.

18 days to go and $240 left to get pledged. Know of anyone who needs Smartwool socks for a $50 pledge, or a cyber presentation of my Global Cooling Show for their business for $100 pledge? ($500 value).

Holy Sh@#$% I'm here! Still $240 to go - anyone know someone who needs a group ski clinic with me? Backers thankyou SOOOO much - and our planet does too!

Day one!
Actually slept last night, and woke to a car alarm outside my Notting Hill Hostel. Quick breakie, lots of tea, and off to meet Roz Savage at Café Nero, across from Big Ben. As a champion ocean rower, Roz coordinated this adventure, and I’m joining her, a few of her friends, and a film crew for this 250 mile walk from London to Brussels. For almost three hours we goofed around with greetings, fussed with our gear, shot photos and held press interviews with our inflatable globes and my SAVE OUR SNOW sign, and gathered signatures on my HEAD fat skis and my Osprey Stratos pack.

Around noon, we set off with 15 miles to walk, with barely four hours left of daylight. We practically ran through the National Gallery and along the Thames River. Jane, our navigator specatacularly planned our route through the back tow path canals filled with old barges coverted into unique housing units covered in plants. I did have a sad moment when my inflatable earth was ripped from its teher on my pack and floated away on the river. You can flag me for not being able to save it (25 foot retainer wall) and put me on the green hit list. It was fairly symbolic as we all only have one earth, yet we keep acting like we have 20 more backups waiting at the store.

Lunch was at full sprint at Wapping, and the gang was moving so fast that I lost them while helping Nora fix her pack when she joined the film crew. I then ran down the Thames path at as brisk a pace my skis would allow me and still no bright orange jackets in any direction. With not one person’s cell phone, no route map, and no idea at all where we were headed for the night I began to panick a bit and then luckily spotted a flash of hunter orange down the alley.

Hours later, darkness fell and we had many miles to go, but we kept on, still a fairly cheery group, except that Mary’s Knee was starting to go bad, and Roz’s pack was so heavy that her hips started to fall apart. We had hardly stopped for a bathroom break all day, and certainly never for food or water. At 6pm, after a few extra half mile detours in the difficult suburban landscape, we arrived at the County Hotel, for some welcome whiskey and pizza.

Sounds like its a joke, but it is really true. Forecasts - Hurricane winds, 50 inches of torrential rains, closed airports, and floods.

Thanks Kate for the wonderful blog you wrote about my adventure! This is what this stunt is all about - generating positive PR in the US about solutions to climate change. Obama has been notoriously weak on this subject, and we need our voices to be heard! Frankly, I think Gore and gang have wrongly politicized this issue. We need to talk a language that all parties will understand - "we can save money on our energy bills, while saving our snow and our planet". Lets stop arguing the problem, and instead present a win-win situation. It is time that the US leads with a business plan for sustainability. Get viral everyone, spread the word!

http://nemoadventureanywhere.blogspot.com/2009/11/london-to-copenhagen-on-foot.html

In my quest to walk the talk, I sought out a local-fresh-food establishment in London. I struck gold down the street from my Notting Hill hostel. I wanted to buy the cookbook, as they had great winter squash salad recipes, but it looked WAY to heavy to carry for 250 miles. Food was displayed in one room, with one table in the other small room. I read the cookbook while munching delicious aubergine and carrot salad, trying to figure out what languages everyone was speaking. 10 non-english, non-european languages, of which I could only ascertain Japanese and Lebanese. www.ottolenghi.co.uk

Well, I wish I could say that I didn't just emit 2 tons of Carbon, that I swam here or something cool like that. But alas, I'm very excited to have made it to London. My skis arrived with my bag torn, the skis hanging all the way out, and the luggage tag missing. How did they make it here? I will never know. The snow gods are blessing us.

We have a new backer today - a mysterious "Jen" - I know a ton people with that first name, so thankyou sooooo much whomever you are. We are now sooooo close to the goal.

Anyone know a group of folks that have always wanted a rippin chix ski lesson from me? For a mere $500 pledge, you and four friends get a custom ski camp with me, at the locale of your choice. A $2000 value!

Fun link to a story on this project by the SKI CHANNEL - title is "A freeskier and the Russians are calling on the world to save our snow". http://www.theskichannel.com/news/skinews/20091116/A-freeskier-and-the-Russians-are-calling-on-the-world-to-save-our-snow