He was supposed to complete this challenge in March 2022 but the lack of snow and poor weather conditions had necessitated its postponement. Tony Moggio, from Toulouse, quadriplegic since 2010 after a rugby accident, will descend on January 31 in tandem ski the Vallée Blanche, one of the most prestigious glacial off-piste slopes in the world, located in Chamonix at an altitude of 4,000 m. A first for a quadriplegic person who will have to keep up with the descent of around twenty kilometers to almost 4,000 m altitude.
Intensive training
“I can’t wait to be there after these two years of waiting, I am physically and morally ready even if I know that there are going to be complicated passages, with a small mountaineering session on an ridge where we are going put me in a carrying chair, says Tony Moggio. I’m going to have to trust the people around me. This challenge, or rather its postponement, is also an opportunity to raise awareness of climate change, to show that the mountains are suffering the consequences.”
For the former rugby player, the difficulties will be the cold, the shaking, the dizziness and above all the altitude and the lack of oxygen. To face all these obstacles, he prepared for his challenge by training for four to five hours per week, alternating with boxing coaching sessions for cardiovascular work and bodybuilding, and weekly muscle strengthening. He swam twice a week at the Saint-Alban swimming pool, north of Toulouse, to improve the synchronization of his limbs.
