A Winter Paradise: National Ability Center, Park City, Utah By Josh Stern
This past February break, I went skiing for the first time in my life! Now, I’m not an avid sports person, except for dabbling in a bit of adaptive ice hockey, so this was an exciting, amazing opportunity.
How was this possible, you ask? An organization known as the National Ability Center (NAC), based in Park City, Utah, provides access to sports and therapeutic recreation for people of all abilities, in keeping with the mission of This Ability Not Disability. NAC is active year round, providing access to winter sports such as skiing and snow tubing on pristine fresh snow as well as summer sport and recreational opportunities. NAC offers the only completely accessible outdoor adventure park in the United States as well as an equestrian center. This trip, we skied and engaged in other activities such as an adaptive indoor biathlon and rock climbing (which was personally a favorite part of the trip, second only to skiing). The adaptive biathlon features professional laser rifles. To climb NAC’s rock wall, you either have the option of doing so in the typical way, or if you feel so inclined to be seated in a chair-like contraption you can pull yourself up with assistance by utilizing a handle on the rope. Being at the top of the rock wall was particularly fun, as it seemed to be a third of the way higher than the rock-climbing wall located near my home in New York City at Chelsea Piers. There were windows located at nearly the roof level which provided a spectacular view of a freshly snowed on mountain. The view was incredibly enjoyable to look upon, so that I declined to come down the wall for several minutes. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring a camera along in the chair, so if you are taking the seat up, my advice is to bring one.
Skiing was incredibly fun, especially considering the amount of work put into making sure that I felt comfortable and that I did what I wanted to do. During the four sessions (two per day, one before lunch and one after for two days) I was lucky enough to have the same instructor, Dale Hentzell. Dale was amazing, taking me wherever I wanted to go at incredible speeds, and there truly were no barriers. For the first part of my time skiing during both days, I held one “outrigger,” which is a type of handheld ski that can be placed in the snow and pointed in a direction to turn. On my left side, due to my different abilities, a fixed outrigger was placed that served to provide balance. The whole time, Dale was tethered to me by a pair of bright orange, well, tethers, or he held directly onto the sled using an attached bar. I participated in the skiing by adjusting my outrigger when I held it or leaning in the direction of the turn when I did not.
We made it all the way up to the top of the mountain, about 9200 feet, and skied down the 3 mile run in 12 minutes. Virtually any run that I wanted to try, I could, with the exception of only the black diamond level runs. It was amazing flying down the powdery slopes at a very high speed, and feeling like I was gliding on air. The process of getting on and off the ski lifts was quick, simple, easy, and safe (so quick that we ended up doing three 1½ mile runs in roughly 20 minutes). While skiing, it was a day of amazing nonstop action, and I definitely want to return to do it again. It was the highlight of my time at NAC.
Now, we move on to the other stuff: facilities, in-house services, etc. The array of facilities located on-site at NAC was great. The grounds include: two baseball diamonds, a soccer field, a tennis court, an all-accessible outdoor adventure park (with a zipline and a flying squirrel), an administrative building also containing the rock wall, and a lodge. The lodge is completely accessible, and a very nice place to stay. Upstairs (accessible by elevator) there is also a lounge where there are video games, which you probably will never have time to play or even think about given the astounding variety of sports activities offered (please consult the website for a full list of facilities).
The NAC staff are amazing. They are kind, caring, thoughtful, experienced and well trained, and will try the hardest in the world to accommodate you. As an example, one of the sports on our itinerary was snow tubing. When we first arrived, we were put into snow tubes so that we could be pulled up a snow-covered hill to the beginning of the tubing runs. On the way up, I noticed that because of my position in the tube I was having back pain from passing over even the smallest bumps and did not want to injure myself by going over a huge bump. I therefore decided that I would sit out on the activity, but then, thanks to an idea that Josh (a great intern) had, it was decided that I would try sitting in the middle of a double tube (a single snow tube that can seat two people) on the fabric which separates the two seating locations. Because of their wonderful ingenuity and their authority as recreational therapists, we were able to obtain permission for me to go down the run in that manner. I ended up going down with the entire team tied together, and it was a huge amount of fun for me. I thank the NAC Staff for their quick thinking and desire to go to incredible lengths to accommodate someone of any ability.
I had an amazing experience, and wish to say a special thanks to everyone who made it possible, especially the Wheelchair Sports Federation Sled Rangers, my sled hockey team, who, thanks to generous donors, made it possible for me and my parents to make this trip. Thank you also Bill Greenberg, John Stieler, Chris Decker, the other parents (including mine), Coaches Rox and Steph, as well as Luke (a NAC Staff Lead) and Josh (a NAC Staff Intern), who were always there to help me or answer questions when I needed it most.
