Adapting on Skis
Volunteers guide people with disabilities on the slopes

By JULIE KIRKWOOD
The Eagle-Tribune, Tuesday, March 29, 2005

reprinted from author

A man recovering from a stroke came to the adaptive ski program this winter at Bretton Woods in the White Mountains. The stroke hit him at a relatively young age: His instructor, Janice Lamm of North Andover, guesses he was about 50.

The man told her he hadn't skied in about 20 years. His family members watched as she showed him how to use the specialty gear that would allow him to, regardless of his body's weaknesses.

"When he got back on skis and made his first turn, they all stood there crying," Lamm said. "We were all crying."

Janice Lamm and her husband, Paul, both have witnessed scenes like this for more than 20 years, but they still cry. It's that raw emotion that motivates Janice, a paralegal, and Paul, a sales engineer, to drive to New Hampshire every Friday after work. They spend every Saturday and Sunday from November to May teaching people how to ski, for no pay other than the emotional reward.

"It's a great way to spend a ski season," said Paul Lamm, who skis with a custom-made prosthetic ski foot in place of his left foot, which he lost in a car accident when he was 19. "It's not really a job."

Ski programs for people with physical and developmental disabilities have spread like wildfire through the ski resorts of New England in the past decade.

Kathy Chandler, a woman who started an adaptive ski program for Waterville Valley Ski Resort in 1991, formed a nonprofit called AbilityPlus in 1997 to set up similar programs at other resorts. So far about 10, including Bretton Woods, have started through AbilityPlus, Chandler said.

At the same time adaptive ski equipment has gotten much better. Sit-down skis are available for people who lack strength in their legs. Amputees can ski on one ski with "outriggers," which are like poles with mini skis on the bottom. Some programs say they can now accommodate any skier no matter the disability, be it spinal cord injury, autism, amputation or blindness. As the programs grow, so does the need for volunteers. Adaptive ski lessons are almost always private, usually with two or three volunteers assigned to each student. The volunteers come to the New Hampshire resorts from as far away as Cape Cod, Chandler said, and many drive up from the Merrimack Valley.

Bob Halpin, president of the Merrimack Valley Economic Development Council, started devoting his weekends to adaptive ski instruction five years ago at Nashoba Valley Ski Area in Westford. He and his wife now drive nearly two hours to Waterville Valley Resort in New Hampshire on the weekends to teach adaptive ski lessons.

"We just became very, very connected to it," Halpin said. "It's about teaching families to ski together."

Once a disabled person learns to ski, the whole family can ski on the same trails, using the same lifts and often at the same speed. A person who struggles to walk may be able to ski circles around able-bodied siblings and friends on adaptive equipment.

Cris Criswell, who supervises the adaptive ski school at Bretton Woods, walks with two crutches because of post-polio syndrome, but on a "mono-ski," a chair atop one ski blade, his friends can't keep up with him.

"He flies down and he's spinning around like a ballerina," said Janice Lamm, who teaches in his program. "He does ski dancing in it. It's so fluid, so beautiful."

Lamm, who specializes in teaching and guiding blind skiers, said adaptive skiing gives people a chance to be independent. Sometimes, when the slopes are empty enough, she likes to step back and tell her blind student he's clear to take 10 turns by himself. The skier gets to experience the exhilaration and independence that sighted people experience when they drive a car or ride a bicycle. For other skiers independence means a chance to be left alone with their friends.

Lamm got choked up this winter when she found herself riding the ski lift behind three teenagers with Down syndrome. She and another volunteer were tagging along just to make sure the teens didn't get on the wrong lift, but the skiers were essentially on their own like any other group of friends.

"Here they are skiing by themselves," she said. "Twenty years ago that didn't happen."

The adaptive ski programs take on different flavors at different resorts, but generally the first lesson is free or as little as $20, including lift ticket, adaptive equipment rental and a team of instructors. Follow-up lessons typically cost about the same as ski lessons for able-bodied skiers. At Waterville Valley the cost is $50 for a half-day and $75 for a full day. Scholarships are available, and nobody is turned away because of money.

Volunteers are typically asked to commit to at least 12 days a year, and the training can be extensive. Some resorts are planning to extend adaptive sports through the summer, which will require even more volunteers.

Waterville Valley is starting a summer program this year with training days in June and an eight-week program starting in July. Chandler will be heading into that program pumped up from the success of several recent ski weekends.

One weekend earlier this month was devoted to soldiers wounded in Iraq, most coming directly from Walter Reed Hospital.

"They loved it," Chandler said. "It got them out of that hospital environment. It got them back into society, back into life, and helped them to realize that their life isn't over because they lost their limb."

That's what keeps Paul Lamm excited about spending his weekends volunteering.

"A lot of cases you see lives turn around," he said. "People have given up doing stuff. It gives them that boost to control their lives."