Mindy Leary, Nederland. There’s nothing quite like going down a beautiful mountain on a sunny day with the wind at your back and your future in front of you. There are those at Eldora who do it everyday and help others do it no matter their abilities or special needs.

On Friday, April 2, 2021, Ignite Adaptive Sports hosted a Ski Sports Clinic for disabled veterans at Eldora Mountain Resort (EMR) located at 2861 Eldora Ski Road, Nederland. The sun was out and the temperature was a balmy 35 degrees on the third day of the clinic, which started two days prior.

Ignite Adaptive Sports is located at the base of picturesque Eldora Mountain, just 21 miles outside of Boulder, Colorado. Ignite Adaptive Sports harnesses the heart and dedication of the Front Range, surrounding mountain, and Northern Colorado communities to provide children and adults with disabilities access to Colorado’s amazing outdoor winter sports.

Ignite provides alpine and cross-country skiing, snowboarding, ski biking, and snowshoeing lessons for special needs individuals. Their dedicated team of trained volunteer instructors share their love of outdoor snowsports by providing winter sport lessons that are individualized to each student’s unique needs.

Stacey Lunn is the Equipment Director at Ignite and showed me the various equipment available including sit-skis, mono-skis, bi-skis, outriggers and snowbikes. Lunn has been volunteering for 25 years, 16 years with Ignite. She has several different models to accommodate different disabilities, depending on balance, upper body control and arm strength.

The National Disabled Veterans Aspen-Snowmass Winter Sports clinic has been canceled for the past two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic and so Ignite decided to pick it up to provide veterans with an opportunity to get on the mountain and have some fun.

Lunn said, “We wanted to do something special for our Colorado vets and everybody’s having a blast.”

She said most of the vets for this particular event are more of a blue-level skier/rider but generally they can range from never ever having skied to green, blue, or black. Caregivers are allowed to ski with the lesson if they would like.

The clinic hosted about 15-20 veterans and their caregivers. Vets are given three instructors on each lesson, with one in front, one with the participant, and one in the back.

Chet Marshall, 46, of Monument, Colorado, said his injury was two years ago and that he really enjoys the clinic these past two years. “The people are amazing. The instructors take it a step at a time so you don’t feel rushed. It’s amazing what it does for confidence, just clearing your head, getting away from the day to day stuff and getting on the mountain. You’re not thinking of the world’s problems when you’re out there, you’re thinking of just that.”

Marshall said he definitely plans on doing the clinic again in the future.

Special thanks goes to Dan Ball of the B&F Market for providing water, sports drinks and two days of  lunches for vets and caregivers, along with EMR for also providing lunches for vets and caregivers and lift tickets for participants.

(Originally published in the April 8, 2021, edition of The Mountain-Ear.)