SearchWheelchairs, Snow and Ski
I have always loved mountains and snow, probably because my parents did, so they have always been part of my life. That was until I became too unwell to enjoy them. Snow was now something I saw from a window and mountains were for movies. However, that all changed in March 2023 when, after years of planning and one cancelled trip, I finally got back to my favourite place and a sport I thought I would never do again. I went skiing!
I originally learnt to ski when I was younger and family ski holidays were a highlight of my year. However, as I got older the pain and symptoms of EDS started to make the scales tip from fun to severe pain and injuries. That was that, just another thing that had to be let go of.
By 2018 I was too unwell to work, I moved home so that my parents could be my carers and I became a wheelchair user. I grieved for all of the things that I had lost, skiing not even making the list. Then as I started to rebuild my new life I started to wonder if any of the things I had stopped doing could be done differently? With a lot of help from my parents I discovered two charities that helped people with disabilities ski.
The first charity is Disability Snow Sports UK (DSUK) who have instructors in different areas of the UK. They offer adaptive skiing lessons at snow domes, on dry ski slopes and also run full package accessible ski holidays. I had a 1 hour lesson and by the end of it I was completely exhausted but exhilarated. This was something I wanted to do.
The second charity I made contact with was Ski 2 Freedom who support families to plan an adaptive skiing holiday. In November 2019 I spoke to Catherine about my needs, travel and the kit that would work. I was then sent a spreadsheet of resorts, kit and accessible accommodation. After doing lots of research we chose a French resort on the French Italian border which ticked all the boxes. We booked everything to leave in the middle of March 2020.
Five days before we were due to fly, lockdown hit and once again skiing became an unattainable dream. In October 2022 we decided to try again and looked at achievable flight times, spoke to the original holiday company, looked into car rentals and how to manage my medical needs. Once we had done as much research as we could, my parents called the travel company and booked the holiday for exactly three years after the cancelled trip.
After months of planning, prep work and lots of lists, March of 2023 arrived and it was time to get up way too early, pile my whole family and all the bags into the car and head to the airport. I was feeling anxious about both the assistance and my body’s reaction. However it all went remarkably smoothly. With a lot of strapping, medication and airport assistance we got to our resort. We checked in and headed up to the apartment. By this point I was very tired and just needed to sleep so you can imagine my face when we opened the door to discover that the apartment was over two floors with all of the bedrooms upstairs! Enter the obligatory return to reception. It transpired that in spite of all the information we gave the holiday company and the fact that they booked my sit skiing lessons, they hadn’t booked the accessible room. The staff on reception had to explain that the only option available was for me to sleep in a separate 1 bedroom apartment which was not ideal as my parents are my carers but we managed to make it work.
The next day was going to be my first day skiing. We had booked my lessons 12-2pm so that the slopes would be quiet and so that I had lots of rest time. We arrived at the meeting point where the very awesome instructor Tom and the tandem ski I would be using were waiting. A tandem ski is a seat with a full height back and headrest, two skis and a bar that your instructor uses to steer. I also had two outriggers (also called stabilisers) which look like short crutches with skis on the bottom used for balance and steering. With some help we managed to get me into the seat. It has to be a tight fit. I was then strapped in and with a wave we were off.
Any “Handy Ski instructor”, as they are called in France, has to have completed every other level of ski instructor training before they can do the adaptive ski instructor training, so they are very highly qualified and are passionate about getting people of all need levels out on the slopes. To start with, Tom was doing all the work while I learnt how to balance. It is a weird sensation as your support base is so much smaller than you are. Then the first challenge of the day. How on earth was this giant seat going to get on a lift? I had tried straps on a button lift but that wasn’t going to work with a chair lift. What I didn’t know was that sit ski seats can be lifted with the skis still on the ground. By pushing a lever and lifting the bar at the back, the whole seat with me in it was lifted up and forwards. Now at standing height Tom guided me onto the lift and pulled the safety bar down.
The views from the chair were amazing and I looked like the Cheshire cat. I was back in the mountains and snow. What could be better? Well, skiing back down! With a pull from Tom I was off the lift and at the top of the first run. As we slowly worked our way down Tom carefully talked me through what he was doing and what I should be doing and feeling. How I should be leaning and turning my arms to steer, how I could feel and adjust my speed.
Your dream may not be skiing but whatever it is, see if there is another way of doing it. It may look and feel different to how you remember it but it’s still you doing what you love and for me that is where I found some of the joy I lost. Ellie Ovens
After we had done the run twice I was feeling pretty tired and needed a break so Tom said he would ski for the next run. I had assumed that, as with my wheelchair, I would be limited to the smooth marked paths. So, when Tom asked “shall we go off piste?” I was more than a little surprised. If you haven’t been skiing, this is turning off a path and flowing through soft deep snow that puffs up around you. Think of the magic in Frozen. Of course I said YES and off we went. It was the first time in five years that I had been off the main path anywhere. It was amazingly exhilarating and with Tom skiing all I had to do was enjoy. I just giggled the whole time and remembered skiing when I was little.
By the end of the lesson I was exhausted but felt amazing. Later in bed my body ached but I couldn’t wait for my next lesson. The next day I switched to a Dual ski which still has two skis under it and a bar for Tom but only has a half back so gives a larger range of movement. It was lighter and easier to steer. As the week progressed, I got more used to my ski and how I could control it. My lessons became a blend of Tom skiing, independent skiing and us skiing together. On challenging slopes, when I was tired, when we were adventuring off piste or through busy areas Tom would take the controls and I would relax. I had a few “wipe outs” but they got less as my confidence grew. By the end of the week I could ski large sections of blue run on my own and even managed a few patches of red – blue are intermediate and red are difficult.
After a little scheming we planned that on our last day the whole family would ski over the border into Italy for lunch at a little mountain cafe. After a few warm up runs and the very long lift up to the border, we met up with the rest of my family. To be able to participate in an activity where everyone is together and I don’t feel like I’m holding someone up was brilliant. All six of us at the top of the mountains were smiling and laughing. I still need adaptations, I still have the same disability and struggles I have everyday but none of that mattered. At that moment we were all having a wonderful time. Getting into the restaurant was a challenge but between Tom and my parents I got to a table and we had our end of holiday meal. It was a wonderful way to spend our last day. All too soon it was time for the last few runs and lifts back to France and our resort. We said our final goodbyes to Tom, hugs all round and everyone felt a little emotional.
Ellie getting back to what she loves on her Dual Ski
We had done it. I had been on a family ski holiday and I had not just survived but I came away with a sense of joy in the freedom, pride in what I had achieved and deep gratitude for the amazing Tom who had enabled me to do so much.
The next morning we travelled back to Turin to fly home. All of us talked about next year. Then it was back through the rush of the airport and before we knew it, we were home. Okay skiing isn’t cheap and my health conditions are already expensive but for me it was worth it. A little bit of that person I had lost was found again in the mountains. The person who would laugh with joy just because, who went off the beaten track, loved, felt free, isn’t a list of diagnoses and able to look at the world with a sense of wonder.
For many people with EDS as your body changes and your needs become greater it is inevitable that you lose things you once did and the person you were and that is incredibly hard. Skiing didn’t change that for me but it did give me back small parts of what I had lost. Your dream may not be skiing but whatever it is, see if there is another way of doing it. It may look and feel different to how you remember it but it’s still you doing what you love and for me that is where I found some of the joy I lost.