We offer classes that cover everything from beginner lessons to advanced tips for seasoned skiers and riders.

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Full Day: 10 - 3

Half Day: 10 - 12 or 1 - 3

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What are adaptive skiing and snowboarding?

Not much different from regular. All of us require some type of adaptive equipment to have fun on snow. For example, skiers use skis, bindings, boots and poles, which did not come as a standard equipment on our bodies. The same rule applies to all snowsports—we all need some kind of adaptive equipment to ski, snowboard, and snowshoe.

While much of adaptive ski or snowboard teaching concerns the actual mechanics of both sports, it is important to remember that all lessons must revolve around the student and his or her goals and needs. An adaptive skier or snowboarder is a person who requires adaptations to equipment and/or teaching methods. For individuals encumbered on earth by a physical or mental impairment that may make mobility difficult, the act of skiing or snowboarding becomes a rite of passage. This passage allows skiers and snowboarders to do something they never thought they could do, and perhaps do it extraordinarily well. It allows them to be a part of a world that believes there is more to life than work and rehabilitation.

Our adaptive snowsports program work with a wide range of disabled people to provide the unique exhilaration of this sport. To be truly effective, our adaptive snowsports instructors must be versatile and knowledgeable about disabilities so that the experience can be both safe and fun.

Using specialized knowledge and tools, we work from a blueprint established by our students' desires and capabilities and help build a whole new world for those who have never tried skiing or those whose disability has curtailed participation in the sport. Along the way, we help our students build confidence and physical dexterity.

Throughout this web site, we use the terms "instructor" and "student" because this is the most common situation. However, the reality is much different. Often, the people with whom we share all or part of our day at the slopes already have impressive physical skills and unbridled courage. What they may lack, however, is the ability to ski or snowboard alone or to use standard "off-the-shelf" equipment. In those case, we are not so much an instructor as a guide, and they are less students than guests, clients, and partners.

Just as often, we find that we are the students. Our key to success, and that of our students or guests, is to treat each lesson as an opportunity to learn about the person and the disability, how to best build confidence and understanding, and what combinations of teaching tools and progressions can most effectively lead to the common goals of fun, safety, and realistic skill development.

Adaptive Skiing

The "Intellectual Disabilities" category encompasses techniques for working with people who need special behavioral or educational assistance.

The "visual impairments" category addresses the adaptations of behavior or equipment that enable the blind or partially sighted student to ski.

Standing skiers with disabilities may use one, two, three or four-track skiing techniques. These techniques often use "outriggers" for balance and are named for the number of tracks left in the snow. Snowboarding is also available.

All skiers benefit from using appropriate and properly fitted equipment, but it is especially important that adaptive skiers be outfitted correctly because their equipment can help compensate for their disability. We carefully examine, assess, and modify student's equipment and clothing because proper outfitting is the key to both comfort and the ability to move efficiently.

The other categories relate to the type of equipment that the skier will use and the special teaching progressions that may be warranted. Three-track and four-track refer to stand-up skiing using either two skis (four-track) or one ski (three-track), along with two outrigger poles. Mono-ski and bi-ski refer to types of sit-skiing equipment in which a molded seating apparatus (or "bucket") is mounted to either one (i.e., mono-ski) or two (i.e., bi-ski) skis. Outriggers are used for sit-skiing as well.

Adaptive Snowboarding

Athletes with disabilities have found success in many winter sports, including downhill skiing, nordic skiing and hockey. Now, kids and adults with disabilities are also experiencing the joys of snowboarding.

What is adaptive snowboarding? Some adaptive riders use outriggers to help balance themselves while they board, but many don't use any special equipment. Also bindings on the board can be moved to help with balance. Participants include riders with spinal cord injuries, amputations, visual impairments, head injuries, multiple sclerosis and other conditions. Improved balance and increased leg and trunk strength are some of the benefits of riding.

As with adaptive skiing, a wide variety of specialized equipment is used for adaptive snowboarding. Choosing from among these tools is dictated by a rider's strengths and weaknesses. We use these aids merely to assist a rider and not to make him or her dependent on them. The goal is to develop independence from accessory equipment through effective riding.

The following list of props and methods is by no means comprehensive but is a starting point to help us provide you the best opportunity for learning and progressing:

Please note that most—if not all—adaptive lessons are taught on a one-to-one instructor-to-student ratio (although sometimes instructors will team up to teach one student).