by Barry Levine
(Editor's Note: Have you ever thought about taking a winter vacation? What would it be like to go sluicing down a snowy mountainside? Especially for a person who is blind?
Last March, Barry Levine wrote to the ACB listserv to share the story of his family's ski vacation. As talented a humorist as he is a skier, Barry's story inspired many who read it to consider the possibility of learning to ski downhill, and his account of an unwanted vacation interloper made all of us laugh -- always a good way to get through a gloomy winter's day!
We share Barry's story with you here, in the hope that fantasies about downhill skiing in the beautiful Rocky Mountains will brighten the days of early winter for all our readers.)
I am writing to recommend to all who read this, a place, a program and an activity.
My wife, Phyllis, our kids, and I have just returned from a week in Winter Park, Colo. We try to get out there at least once each winter to do some skiing. This is something we've done for a number of years now. I love downhill skiing. The National Sports Center for the Disabled (NSCD) makes downhill skiing easy for people who are blind and visually impaired.
Certainly, you can do some downhill skiing in other places. However, the NSCD is well organized and, in my opinion, has some superior instructor/guides. They also seem to be the most reasonable in terms of cost. Skiing Can Be Expensive, But...
Let me address the issue of cost from the outset. I am acutely aware that a ski vacation may be outside the financial means of many folks. We who are blind and visually impaired inevitably spend a good deal of time talking about unemployment, financial difficulties, and the challenges of living on limited or fixed incomes. I don't wish to seem haughty in this regard. However, I am writing this account of our winter vacation to encourage you to place an enjoyable physical activity, like skiing, higher up on the list of life's priorities. It is a magnificent activity. It might be that some folks simply believe that it is beyond their means, when some alterations in priorities and planning might make the experience achievable.
Believe me, I know how expensive it can be; having just returned from a trip where we paid for a family of five plus a dear old friend of Phyllis', and this dear old friend's new cheap leech know-it-all of a boyfriend. I suppose I could put up with a cheap leech. I suppose I can put up with a know-it-all. But a cheap leech know-it-all is somewhat beyond my ken. If I'm going to subsidize your ski trip, don't waste my apres ski hours advising me on proper parenting, blind skiing, or earning a living when you've never been a parent, I'm the only blind person you know, and you're not earning a living.
Is it just me, or do you all know people who believe that, merely because you are blind, you must be unaware of such things as how you managed to conceive your children, or that gravity plays a key role in getting one from the top of the mountain to the bottom? Talk about a boring, obnoxious jerk -- the only good thing to come from this guy was the reminder to me that disability comes in many shapes and sizes, and blindness is not the worst thing in the world. I'm just glad that the population labeled "jerk" is not a protected group under the ADA.
Do you note a bit of rancor? Well, I'll leave a discussion of the cathartic nature of gossip for another day.
Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, cost. Obviously, transportation is going to depend upon where you live. Using Travelocity.com, we were able to get round trip tickets for $200 each, from Chicago to Denver, which was a pretty good rate. You'll need to get from Denver to Winter Park. Phyllis is sighted, so we rented a van for the week. If there is no driver, you could take a hired van from Denver to Winter Park for a cost of approximately $70 per person. It may be a little more now. I've not checked on those prices for about a year. Once in Winter Park, you can use the free shuttle buses to get around town, as well as back and forth to the ski area. You can actually rent a "ski in-ski out" place, obviating the need altogether to use the shuttle buses, but such lodging is pretty expensive.
As an aside, you may also be able to take a train directly to Winter Park. I know that there is an Amtrak train which goes from Chicago directly into Winter Park. We've often talked about doing this, but never have. I remember thinking that the cost was not very different from flying. However, you would be able to avoid the transportation costs from Denver to Winter Park, which would not be a trivial savings.
Your next major expense will be for lodging. There are wide variations of cost in this arena. Cost, as you can imagine, will depend upon such factors as size of the place, proximity to the ski areas, season, appointments of luxury, etc. We usually rent a house in Frasier, the town just outside Winter Park. We do this because we can get more for the money outside of Winter Park itself. Because Phyllis can drive, being a few miles from Winter Park is not a transportation hardship for our family. However, the free shuttles do service Winter Park to and from Frasier as well. It's maybe a 10- or 12-minute shuttle ride between Frasier and Winter Park.
Our accommodations this year were very nice. We paid significantly more than we needed to. We're a two-income family, with fairly decent individual incomes. So we treat ourselves to a modicum of luxury every once in a while. This is certainly not necessary at all. The luxury of our living accommodations added nothing to the actual experience or pleasure of skiing. We rented a somewhat larger place this year in part because we can, and in part because we needed to provide lodging for a dear old friend and her new, cheap leech know-it-all of a boyfriend. Or have I already mentioned that?
Actually, if you wish to take a page out of this guy's book of travel, you can find your lodging for free. He did. He paid nothing for his wonderful accommodations; private bedroom, private bath, queen-size bed, maid service, his own television/VCR, hot tub, a complete kitchen (including food), and a vibrating heated Lazy Boy in his room. He paid zip, zero, nada, nothing! Of course, he didn't need the food in the kitchen because we ate out each night, for which I paid. I take that back. In all fairness I have to admit that he did purchase some of the food for the kitchen. Some organic apples, oranges and potatoes. He doesn't eat mainstream "chemically enhanced" produce, and couldn't trust that Phyllis and I wouldn't foul his unsuspecting body with supermarket fruits and vegetables. In this week's Webster, under the word "sucker," you will find a picture of me.
Please excuse me for a moment. I feel the need to punch a wall. I'll be right back.
Let's see ... I seem to have derailed myself again. We were discussing cost of accommodations. In season, you will not be able to find anything much under $150 per night. You can spend up to $700 or $800 per night. It just depends on what you want, and where you want it. The four-bedroom house we rented in Frasier was $440 plus tax per night. It actually turned out to be less than that because Destinations West, the travel agency we have used out there for the past several years, had a special. If you stay more than five nights, you get one night free. Come to think of it, that must have been the night that the cheap leech know-it-all paid for. Boy, did he get lucky! The one night for which he planned to pay turned out to be free.
(You know, I didn't punch all the way through the drywall. Please excuse me while I correct that.) The Skiing
All righty then, on to the NSCD and the skiing itself. A half day of skiing will cost you $45. A full day will cost $90. Obviously, these rates can and will change. They seem to go up each year by a few bucks. This may seem like a lot. But, if you're familiar with lift tickets and equipment rental, as well as instructor time, you'll recognize this as quite a deal. That $45 or $90 will buy you your lift ticket, equipment rentals, and a dedicated instructor/guide. If you go with your own sighted guide, he or she can save a good bit, through NSCD, on lift tickets, making the excursion less expensive. But I would strongly advise that you don't go that route.
If your guide is someone with whom you have a relationship off the slopes, particularly if your guide is also your significant other, your relationship may not last the first run of the first morning. I used Phyllis as a ski guide only once, for only one run several years ago. It wasn't pretty. She's not unsophisticated when it comes to blindness. After all, she's been married to a blind guy for 19 years now. And she's an excellent skier, even having spent some time on ski patrol. But, her sophistication and skills notwithstanding, the experience didn't enhance our marriage . . . at all.
(As an aside, I'll share with you our favorite T-shirt sayings for this year. As in any resort town, you can't swing a dead cat by its tail anywhere in Winter Park without hitting a store selling T-shirts with cute and pithy things printed on them. Phyllis still enjoys seeing herself as some sort of hot shot, cute little 25- or 30-year-old ski patrol type snow bunny. She's not, and in her more lucid moments, knows it. I'm telling you this because on her choice of T-shirt were printed the words "The older I get, the better I was.")
I'll give you some insight into my psyche by telling you that my favorite choice of pithy T-shirt this year was . . . "If a man is alone on a mountain slope, with no woman around to hear him speak, is he still wrong?"
Aside from the issues of cost, I'm sure that many blind folks shy away from downhill skiing, believing that they cannot do it. Balderdash and poppycock! I usually hate it when someone says, "If I can do it, so can you." But I'm going to violate my own ethic by saying just that. Perhaps I'll modify it a bit by saying, "If I can do it, so can most of you."
I would be falsely humble to say that I'm a beginning skier at this point. I'm not. But I'm certainly not an advanced skier, and I never will be. For those not familiar with downhill skiing, the runs are graded by difficulty. "Green runs" are the easy and gentle slopes, "blues" are intermediate in their difficulty. There are "blue/black" diamonds which are a bit more difficult than straight "blues." Then there are "black diamond" runs which are steeper yet, usually involving some bumps or "moguls." There are "double blacks." These "double blacks" are for the very advanced skier with a death wish. The most difficult slope I've skied has been a "blue/black." I doubt seriously that I'll ever graduate to a black diamond run, simply because of the bumps, the irregularities in the slope face.
That doesn't mean that a blind skier cannot do a black diamond. Some of the younger blind kids do these runs. Having been raised in the "can do" era of the '80s and '90s, they have not been propagandized into believing that they cannot develop the skill set necessary to ski at an advanced level. Therefore, they believe they can develop the skill set necessary to ski at an advanced level. Therefore, they ski at an advanced level. I hate them. They should all be exiled to some glacier above the arctic circle, where they can ski to their hearts' content; alongside the teenaged and twenty-something snowboarders, who should also be exiled to the same glacier.
Though I did a small amount of downhill skiing years ago as a visually impaired person, I have really learned to ski as someone who is totally blind. This is an activity where I do believe that a little bit of vision may be worse than no vision at all. If you have some functional eyesight, but it's unreliable, you're not going to be able to ski all that reliably or safely. Since I cannot see the difference between a mountain and a molehill, I must use sensory modalities other than eyesight. Trusting your guide is key to the joy and safety of the experience.
Trust is an issue, indeed. Since I've been skiing out there for a number of years, I've naturally gravitated to a select few guides. I've gotten to know them. They've gotten to know me. The trust issues have been worked out. Though I will confess that I have some anxiety just prior to the first run of each year's skiing. The instructor/guides of NSCD are very aware of these issues and will not be reticent to discuss anything with you as it relates to your skiing in general, feelings about skiing blind, abilities, disabilities, fears, anxieties, etc. That is why I enjoy Winter Park so much.
I've skied other places. Vail, for example, has wonderful skiing, probably better than Winter Park as far as the slopes go. But Vail doesn't have the NSCD. You can certainly arrange for a guide for blind skiing in Vail or any number of other ski resorts. But my opinion is that you won't get the breadth of experience or organizational advantages that you'd get at NSCD. It is a very comfortable place to be blind.
Even at NSCD, there are ski instructors who have more or less experience with blind skiers. Remember that NSCD caters to all disabilities, not just people who are blind.
The services of NSCD are becoming more and more popular every year. If you're going to plan a ski trip up there, you'll be best served if you arrange for a guide/instructor well in advance of your arrival; perhaps weeks, particularly if you've got some preferences as to who that guide is. In years past, when I've failed to make arrangements far enough in advance, there have been times when I've had to take whatever guide was available. This has worked out well for the most part. However, I'm someone who likes to ski with female guides. Call me heterosexual. As you might imagine, while blind skiing you're going to have a fair amount of contact with your guide. For me, a female guide/instructor simply makes the experience that much more enjoyable. Besides, with a male guide, I tend to get that testosterone thing going on. I sort of start skiing more for a display of skill rather than for the sheer joy of it all. Further, there is something of a sensual element to this whole experience. The more your skill builds, the more you become in sync with your guide, and there begins to develop a relationship which is not often experienced in other activities of life. Obviously, it is a relationship belonging on the mountain slope, and that's where it stays; very legitimate, very safe.
As a downhill skier, you'll need a modicum of balance and fair proprioceptive senses. But you certainly don't need to be Mr. or Ms. aerobic-body builder-Universe. Being in shape will add to the enjoyment, but you don't have to be fit as a fiddle.
If you're a flat-lander, such as I, it is good to allow yourself 24 to 36 hours in the mountains before skiing. I can usually acclimate to the altitude enough in the space of a day to enjoy the skiing. Further, if you are significantly out of shape and have been sedentary, it might be wise to limit yourself initially to half days of skiing. It is my opinion that fatigue, much more often than blindness, will cause injury. This, too, is something that your NSCD guide will keep an eye on.
The last point of advice I will offer is, obvious as it sounds, listen to your guide at all times.
I've tried cross-country skiing. I'm not crazy about it . . . too much work, not enough thrill. I'm not knocking it. Many blind folks enjoy it very much. In fact, there was a "Ski for Light" group out in Winter Park just last week. It just seems to me that one of the most enjoyable aspects of recreational cross-country skiing is the scenery. So, unless you have a great describer in your ear, much of the enjoyment is lost. Though it is great for keeping in shape. And there are some wonderful social aspects to it. Is Skiing Blind Really Skiing?
Arguments rage about whether or not blind downhill skiing is really skiing. I wonder about this where many adapted athletic activities are concerned. Is one's guide the person who is actually having the athletic experience in certain sports, I wonder? In fact, I got hung up on this kind of speculation as regards skiing in the beginning. However, these speculations no longer bother me. It doesn't even occur to me that my guide may be having more of the "downhill experience" than I am having because I am, indeed, skiing; under my own power, with my own skill. As skill increases, and trust is built between blind skier and guide, you will find yourself skiing with more and more independence. Besides, I've gotten to the point where it is not so much independence I seek, as it is involvement I desire.
Gosh, I'm getting preachy. That is not my intent. I only wish to share with you the feeling I get through this speed and grace in motion. It can be a truly joyful experience. As blind people, we do not often have the opportunity to engage our bodies in such a manner. We cannot run free. We cannot cycle other than on a tandem. When and how do we experience the freedom and joy of the wind through our hair, the sun on our faces, and under our own power? When do we provide ourselves the opportunity to move our bodies through space with speed and grace?
I do not view blind skiing as a vacation I can ill afford. I view blind skiing as fuel for the soul which I can ill afford to deny myself.
If I've piqued your interest, you can take a look at the following web sites: http://www.nscd.org and http://www.skiwinterpark.com.
I've got nothing to do with any of these services, other than being a consumer. The snow is snowing, the wind is blowing. Don't you need a vacation? Why not give downhill skiing a try!