Vermont Adaptive Ski & Sports is changing lives one skier at a time

Pico Mountain is the permanent home of Vermont Adaptive, Turtle Ridge Center at the Andrea Mead Lawrence Lodge. (Jeb Wallace-Brodeur)

There are several adaptive sports centers in New England, providing snowsports instruction to adults and children living with physical and cognitive disabilities. 

“Adaptive sports are a game changer. It builds confidence and levels the playing field,” said Kim Jackson, director of communications and marketing for Vermont Adaptive Ski and Sports, which operates the largest program in the Northeast with several locations, including adaptive facilities at Pico Mountain and Sugarbush.

Compared to just a decade ago, there is more visibility and awareness about the advantages of adaptive sports and recreation.

“People understand the benefits of being outside, for both physical and mental health, and this transfers into the adaptive sports community,” Jackson said.

Vermont Adaptive serves 16 disabilities, ranging from physical to cognitive to visual impairment. Last year, the organization led more than 5,300 outings, serving more than 1,200 participants.

“It doesn’t matter what the disability is, Vermont Adaptive can handle and offer one-on-one instruction,” Jackson said.

The group provides users with the tools that are needed. Normal lesson rates are $150 for a full-day ski lesson and $100 for half-day, which includes a lift ticket, lesson, instructor and adaptive equipment.

However, Vermont Adaptive never turns anyone away based on their ability to pay. In fact, last year, $210,000 was given in scholarships to help individuals offset the cost of participation.

“Anyone can benefit from outdoor recreation. We just have to sometimes adapt an adventure or lesson to an individual’s abilities, and that is easy to do,” Jackson said. 

Vermont Adaptive has about 400 volunteers who make it all happen year-round. More than 200 volunteers are at the core of the ski and snowboard program, and they go through extensive off- and on-snow training in November and December.

Building community

One such athlete who has benefitted from the organization is Kyle Robidoux, who has retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative eye condition that gradually limits an individual’s field of vision.

The Boston resident discovered Vermont Adaptive about a decade ago when he attended the Blind/Visually Impaired Winter Festival, which the group has hosted for 16 years.

“It revitalized my love for skiing and introduced me to so many of my closest friends,” he said, explaining that the connection happened only because of Vermont Adaptive. 

“Up until then, I’d go skiing with friends and family but was not overly enjoying it. It was frustrating and I felt it wasn’t 100 percent safe for me to be out on the hill,” he said. 

He explained that he would follow someone, but he couldn’t “just rip down a hill like he wanted.”

This all changed when he connected with Vermont Adaptive. Robidoux was skiing with the guides and after his second run, his wife, Jill Kimmel, said, “If you could only see the smile on your face — I haven’t seen a smile that big.”

Robidoux said it has been “a game changer,” and that skiing with guides allows him to ski to his ability.

“It allows me to do something I love doing. I can make the turns I want to make,” he said.

Robidoux spent a couple of winters ski bumming at Sunday River and is an expert skier who likes to ski hard and challenge himself. “The guides allow me to do that,” he said.

Vermont Adaptive has highly qualified instructors who can accommodate different needs, plus a huge fleet of equipment for winter and summer pursuits to also help out individual’s needs. Equipment ranges from “snow carts” for people with limited mobility to monoskis with bucket adjustments to adaptations for boats and bikes.

“Every person’s needs are completely different, and our equipment accommodates each unique set of needs,” Jackson said. 

Fundraisers have allowed Vermont Adaptive to increase the amount of gear in its fleet, the variety of events it can host and the individuals it can serve.

In 2013, it opened its first permanent home, the Turtle Ridge Center at the Andrea Mead Lawrence Lodge at Pico Mountain. The 6,000-square-foot facility was the first of its kind in Vermont, with an accessible design for better program flow, easy fit-up inside the lodge prior to skiing and private spots for participants and volunteers. 

At Sugarbush, Murphy’s Annex Adaptive Sports Facility opened for the 2021-22 season, offering a 4,000-square-foot adaptive sports facility with elevator, quiet sensory rooms, a large level dedicated to athletes and more. Vermont Adaptive also operates programs out of Saskadena Six and Bolton Valley (including cross-country skiing and snowshoeing), and has worked with Middlebury Snow Bowl and Mad River Glen on request.

As Vermont Adaptive Ski and Sports has grown, so has its variety of events. In addition to skiing, Robidoux competes in the group’s ultra-running races, which he took up years ago when he got frustrated with skiing.

“It’s become full circle,” he said. “Now I am supporting them to raise awareness around athletes like myself.”

In 2017, Robidoux first competed in the Vermont 100 Endurance, which continues to be a large fundraiser for Vermont Adaptive. Running in Vermont Adaptive events and participating in mountain biking and kayaking activities in the summer allows Robidoux to stay active year-round with the community he has found at Vermont Adaptive.

“Their impact empowers an individual to find confidence taking on new sports,” he said.

Vermont Adaptive also has a large Veteran Ventures program, run by Misha Pemble-Belkin, who has taken it to the next level. The retired Army staff sergeant started as a client, before progressing to volunteer and intern, now serving as the program coordinator. Since he arrived in 2017, the program has served 601 individual veterans with 8,258 individual activities.

Indeed, Vermont Adaptive continually strives to go above and beyond to provide the best for its clients and to bring awareness to the adaptive sports community. It plays a pivotal role in shaping the future of accessible outdoor recreation at the state and national level. Last fall, it participated in a roundtable organized by REI and Move United to discuss ways to reduce barriers to outdoor recreation for people with disabilities.

Not only does Vermont Adaptive welcome individuals with disabilities to participate in its adaptive sports opportunities, but also it encourages individuals to get involved in the organization as a volunteer. For more information, check out vermontadaptive.org.

Beyond Vermont Adaptive

New England ski resorts are home to several adaptive sports centers, although most of them are run independently. If a resort does not have a formal adaptive program, you can check with the ski and snowboard school to find out if there are instructors who are experienced in providing adaptive lessons.

Like Vermont Adaptive, many of these organizations have grown to promote year-round activities for individuals with disabilities. 

Based at Loon Mountain, New England Disabled Sports is a nonprofit organization that provides year-round adaptive sports instruction to adults and children living with physical and cognitive disabilities. It has more than 250 trained volunteers who instruct students in more than 3,000 lessons each year covering snowsports, rock climbing, cycling and more.

The New England Healing Sports Association was established in 1972 by a group of returning Vietnam War veterans and originally was called the New England Handicapped Ski Association. As the program grew, a lodge was constructed at Mount Sunapee, and it expanded to include year-round adaptive sports and recreation opportunities for veterans and civilians with physical and cognitive disabilities. The year-round programming includes kayaking, paddle boarding, skiing and snowboarding and hiking. 

Maine Adaptive is headquartered in Bethel and has snowsports programs at several locations including Sunday River, Sugarloaf, Pleasant Mountain and Mount Abram. It also has a large Veterans No Boundaries by Maine Adaptive program with seasonal camp opportunities. The goal is to encourage veterans to return to sports or try them for the first time.

In southern Vermont, the BART Adaptive Sports Center offers ski and snowboard lessons at Bromley and Stratton using specialized adaptive equipment. In the summer, it offers lessons in swimming, tennis, cycling, hiking, golf and more. 

When it comes to gliding and sliding on snow, these organizations are set up to help get individuals started on a journey that could change their lives.