Skiing Downwards

I never knew skiing would be possible for me until I was in high school, and I watched the reality show “Push Girls.” “Push Girls” featured four women who were living in California, had spinal cord injuries, and used wheelchairs. I had never seen a TV show feature women who use wheelchairs. In one of the episodes, the girls went skiing and it looked like an absolute blast. I told my mom one day I wanted to ski.

Living in Georgia, there is no snow, so I knew I would have to travel to make this dream a reality. Years went by, COVID passed by, and my friends on Facebook were getting into adapted sports. Sports were never really my thing as it was too much effort and competition. In 2022, one of my friends on Facebook went skiing and their parents helped run the volunteer training. My friend is unable to move his arms and legs, so if he could ski, I knew I could too. I reached out to him and found the closest ski resort was in North Carolina. The ski resort partnered with a nonprofit to offer lessons during a certain timeframe.

I decided to choose a half-day lesson instead of a full day because it was my first time skiing. The slots were filling up, so the only options were in February. With working full time, I chose a Saturday and asked my mom to join me on a little adventure to Beech Mountain, North Carolina. On her birthday,

Living in Georgia, I had to rent ski pants, a jacket, goggles, and a helmet as none of my clothing would suffice in the mountainous snow. The day came and I bundled up in layers. I put on thermal pants, leggings, jeans, then my ski pants. I had on a million layers for my top. My mom is from Russia so she also knew how to bundle me up well. I decided to not drink any water or eat breakfast because going to the bathroom would be a hassle with so many layers.

If you have any experience helping someone who uses a wheelchair, or you’re a wheelchair user yourself, you know how difficult going to the bathroom can be. Let alone with five layers on. As our minivan ascended up the mountain, the air got thinner and the temperature got colder. Snow appeared.

I met with the ski instructor and I was assigned five volunteers to ski with me. The volunteers travelled from all over the U.S. to give their time to help people with disabilities experience skiing. How incredible is that? We transferred me into one seat called a bi-ski. It’s a seat that sits on top of two skis. After several attempts, we realized that seat wasn’t going to work out for me. It was too small and I felt cramped. My energy started to go down because all the moving around was exhausting. The extra weight of all my layers didn’t help either.

Then I threw up. Literally. Vomit coming out of me. Apparently, you can get altitude sickness. I had no idea this was even such a thing. I asked so many people and friends how I could best prepare for skiing and not one person mentioned altitude sickness. In fact, I did the opposite of what is recommended. I should’ve eaten breakfast and hydrated.

So, things went downhill. I had to rest, drink a Gatorade, and stop vomiting. My breathing was also shallow and my oxygen levels were decreasing. So we waited. I started to cry because I had made this huge journey and my body was betraying me. I paid money, these volunteers travelled to help me, I took off work, and all I wanted to do was ski. The volunteers cheered me up and we decided to try skiing a bit.

We stayed on the practice field and didn’t go up the lift, but that minute of skiing was exhilarating. When I moved my arms, I got to control where I was going! I was sliding super fast, weaving in and around people. A volunteer was behind me, holding on to me and two were in front clearing the pathway of people for me. Then one volunteer was on each side of me.

Even though it didn’t live up to my expectations, I still got to cross it off my list and said I did it. I had a ton of fun anyways. Would I do it again? That’s up in the air still. Sometimes, life is just about saying you did it. That’s a big enough of an accomplishment. Don’t beat yourself up if things didn’t live up to your plans. Besides, from the pictures, no one could tell anyways. Only if you read this blog you’d know the full story.