Hipperholme students plan snowboard challenge for Haiti

Feb 16 2010 By Neil Atkinson

TWO girls will tomorrow take to the snow – to do their bit for Haiti.

Snowboarding stars Katie Ormerod and Sophie Nicholls will do their bit for Haiti this half term with a challenge to snowboard the length of Mont Blanc at SNO!zone in Castleford.

Katie, 12, and Sophie,15, who are cousins, decided to take action after seeing the devastation caused by last month’s earthquake.

The challenge will see the girls, who are both award winning snowboarders, ride SNO!zone’s 170m-long main slope 161 times to cover the 17 mile length of Mont Blanc – France’s tallest mountain.

They are being sponsored by friends, family and classmates at Hipperholme Grammar School and are hoping to raise as much money as possible to benefit those whose lives have been torn apart in the aftermath of the earthquake.

Katie, who lives in Brighouse, said: “When Sophie and I saw what had happened in Haiti we really wanted to do something to try and help.

“We thought that the best way would be to hold a sponsored snowboarding day and chose to ride the length of Mont Blanc as it’s the tallest mountain in the Alps.