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Blind and Visually Impaired Community

Full History - 2020 - 01 - 09 - ID#eme9t3
9
Adaptive Ski Resorts (self.Blind)
submitted by almaclea
Hi people,

Where are the best adaptive ski programs in North America? Looking to go away in February and I'm having a hard time finding FULL DAY programs. Not Whistler please.

THANKS!
soundwarrior20 1 points 3y ago
If you can try to go to challenge Aspin in Colorado, it’s a ski resort which specialises in all kinds of disabilities including blindness I went there with my school a few years back
AmAsabat 1 points 3y ago
Sunshine mountain in Banff Canada was great for me. I had a full time guide assigned to me and there was very little I couldn’t do with her or my BF.
DrillInstructorJan 1 points 3y ago
I don't want to hijack this discussion, but I've had a couple of bad experiences with skiing. We were going to go to an indoor ski slope (we're in the UK where it never really snows enough to ski) for a couple of different reasons, partly because I liked the idea and partly because one of my padawan learners thought it sounded cool. In the end we didn't do it.

Here's why. A buddy of ours can snowboard fine and we were perfectly happy for him to guide me and teach me the ropes. The problem was that the rulebook said if someone was not happy to go solo, they needed one of the in house instructors, for which there was a fat per hour fee. We were happy to pay for the one hour introductory lesson, so they could be happy we were safe, but their attitude was that since I would always need a guide, I would never be able to satisfy the rule and would always need one of their instructors. This basically meant that the cost of me spending an afternoon snowboarding was going to be huge, tens of times the cost for anyone else, and if we brought my learner along they wanted one instructor per blind person, so double it again.

Obviously we queried this but they started going on about safety rules and insurance and that's always the sign that they really don't want to deal with you. I have bigger problems to solve in my life so I forgot about it. What stung was having to explain all this to my learner, which obviously I did in the context of it being wrong and evil and something to oppose and yell about, but it wasn't a great experience for anyone. Assholes gonna asshole, I guess.
JennyThalia 1 points 3y ago
I'm not a skier but I came across this information while doing research on another topic. Maybe the Canadian Adaptive Snowsports might be able to connect you with a program that suits your needs? Here is their website: $1
NonstopBus 1 points 3y ago
I am going to take a lesson with Stride.org they have people who do it at a small ski place super close to my house and do adaptive lessons on weekends and then as scheduled I think. They have a few mountains they go on in the north east. I’ll be able to report back how they are in a few weeks after my first lesson.
NonstopBus 1 points 3y ago
I had my first lesson this past Saturday and I can say it was AMAZING. It lasted around 2.5 hours and started by going over equipment and helping me get my rentals along with introducing me to the 4 guides. We started just by going down the instruction area that has a little tow rope. Then when I was confident in a wedge and going down a little hill we went up the chair lift. The whole time I had all four guides with me which made me feel so comfortable. On the mountain I followed one guided down who was doing most of the coaching and then two staid to the sides to help me know the edges of the trail and letting me know small changes in slopes and the snow that I couldn’t see. Then one behind helping with traffic.

The first time down I fell a few times but they were all amazing and just helped me feel so comfortable. We went down the mountain (it’s short) like 6 times and by the end of it I was putting together turns and going down with out following just off their voice to guide me.

It was an amazing experience and I absolutely loved it.
saharacanuck 1 points 3y ago
Following this. Totally interested.
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