British Disabled Ski Team

Working with the British Disabled Ski Team

This season I was given an amazing opportunity to work with visually impaired ski racer Jade Etherington. We worked together for two weeks out in Hintertux and I learnt the ins and outs of how to be a ski guide. Jade is 22 years old and is working towards the 2014 Paralympics in Sochi with the hopes of getting a medal or two! She has less than 5% vision in both her eyes meaning her vision is severely limited. This was a difficult concept to get my head around at first but through asking LOTS of questions it came to surface that she can see colour and movement, and not very well at that. When we skied together if I was more than roughly 4 meters away she would loose sight of me and her field of vision would just be white from all the snow. Even skiing within the 4 meters all she could make out was a black blur from my salopettes contrasting against the white.

British Disabled Ski Team

Photo: British Disabled Ski Team in Hintertux, Austria

The two weeks I spent with the team proved to be a huge challenge but also a really great experience. I learnt so so much in such a short space of time and became aware of things I never would have given a second thought to before. For instance, the main training slope we used had a T-bar uplift, I had to instruct Jade when to slide forward and whether she had to nudge to the left or the right so that she didn’t get hit by the tow, count down when the T-bar was approaching (as well as grab it for the two of us), then on the way up if there were any bumps in the ground I would have to dictate when they were coming up and how big they were and finally a count down along with exit direction when we reached the top. And that’s only for going up the hill!! These are all things which are common sense but as they come second nature to me I never would have realised just how much was involved. Luckily for me Jade had an amazing memory and within three or four repeats of the same lets call them ‘obstacles’ she knew exactly what she was doing.

As for skiing down the hill that was a whole other challenge in itself. Although I’ve done many a train or snake with ski school kids they were all capable of looking out for danger and as humans its a natural reaction to slow yourself down when you get too close to someone else. But when you can’t see danger slowing down doesn’t come into the equation. Jade is a fantastic skier and I take my hat off to her for skiing as fast as she does. If you’ve ever tried skiing with your eyes closed or your goggles taped you’ll know just how terrifying it is. If not, try it. I dare you!

We worked with bluetooth headsets and I would dictate when to turn (it still amazes me that she didn’t crash into a single gate when we trained in the courses! I must have been doing something right) and she would let me know if she was comfortable to go faster. The entire time I would be looking over my shoulder to make sure she was still there and still in range of vision. In addition to ensuring Jade was on my tail I also had to plan my turns ahead and be aware of the people skiing around us. On one occasion I could see a skier turning from the other side of the hill in a long sweeping Super G type turn, but as he came across the hill he was looking straight at us and I was sure he was going to make his next turn. It was like slow motion, we were slaloming down the side and as he came closer and closer I waited and watched for the inevitable edge change. I waited and we got closer and it was getting too close to wait any longer I didn’t want to but I had to shout our safety word, “ABORT”. Jade hockey stopped instantly and the guy turned by our side with centimeters to spare.

As an instructor we teach kids to always allow other slope users lots of room for involuntary movements. Until that moment I hadn’t realised just how important that really was. The guy probably had no idea Jade couldn’t see, especially with how well she skis but that was definitely a lesson learnt!

Comments

One response to “Working with the British Disabled Ski Team”

  1. Snowshoe Ski Vacation Packages avatar

    Wow! You guys are so amazing! You make me feel very proud to all of you. I can’t imagine how good skiers are you while me is so afraid of skiing that I might fall or break my legs or what. but trying to be tough on it. You are my new inspiration guys.