On my way back from New Hampshire in August I met a fellow wheelchair user named Sean and his girlfriend Liz on the plane.  It turned out he is also an athlete, so we chatted, exchanged contact info, and parted ways.  He is somewhat of an ambassador for adaptive cross-country skiing, so I thought of him when planning my trip home for Christmas and got in touch.  With short notice, he arranged for a ski for me, a place for me and my mom to stay, and an overall awesome experience.

I had better luck with XC than downhill skiing in my able-bodied days.  My mom and I used to ski at the nearby golf course on snow days.  But that was probably 15 years ago.  I love downhill skiing and trying new sports is like my drug (or maybe my anti-drug.  Remember those cheesy ads?), so I was psyched to give XC a try.

The setup is similar to downhill sit-skiing- you’re strapped into a frame that’s clipped into two skis.  You use two short poles- though not as short as I expected.  It’s quite strenuous, but not as bad as it might seem- and it’s a worthwhile workout.  On cross-country skis you can go places that you couldn’t get to in a wheelchair, like in the middle of a snowy field next to a rushing stream surrounded by mountains, which is just where I ended up.  It was beautiful and quieter than anything in my daily city-bound life.

We rigged up a tether system for ascending big hills.  Sean, who must have amazing arms, was able to basically pull me uphill with my ski tethered to his.  Another big (if unlikely) help was an apple slicer duct-taped to the back of my frame.  This allows someone to ski behind you and give you a boost with tip of their ski pole in the center of the apple slicer.  Whoever came up with this makeshiftly awesome idea should get a million dollars.

Me and my rig:

Sean and I in action:

More on my flickr.