It's peak ski season, and as every powder hound knows, the right equipment is everything on the slopes.
"He had a hole in his liner where he was losing suction and his leg was falling off," says Lucas Grossi, volunteer coordinator for DREAM Adaptive Recreation's backcountry powder camp.
And yeah, he said his leg keeps falling off.
"We just patched it up. I have a barrel-full of snowboard prosthetics I've collected over the years," Grossi says.
Nicky Ouellet: You Macgyvered his leg!
Lucas Grossi: More or less, yeah.
For more than three decades, DREAM Adaptive Recreation has been working to get people with physical and cognitive disabilities outside to recreate in the Flathead Valley.
Cheri DuBeau Carlson is DREAM'S executive director. She says her organization works with every ability skier whether they're in a sit-ski, on one leg or riding a snowboard with a prosthesis. But powder camp is something special.
"It is an opportunity for them to get out and challenge themselves and an opportunity they wouldn't get on an everyday basis," Carlson says.
Powder camp is the most extreme program DREAM offers in the winter — three days of cat skiing in the Whitefish Mountain Range with Great Northern Powder Guides. It's also one of the only programs participants pay for — a steal, at $800 per camper. Carlson fundraises to cover the rest of the weeklong camp's $14,000 price tag.
Participants must be advanced-level riders, both to keep up with the group, and also for their own safety. This year, three sit-skiers, three adaptive snowboarders and one tri-skier are participating.
On day one, they get a visit from Mark Dundas, an avalanche specialist with the Flathead Avalanche Center:
"We've had a very interesting weather season in northwest Montana. Very unusual."
Dundas says unusually cold temperatures in December and January made some areas in Montana more prone to slides:
"So what has happened is our snowpack, which is normally a deep, warm, stable snowpack, is resembling more of a snowpack you'd find in an avalanche-prone area, like Colorado."
Recently, a blizzard blew through northwest Montana, causing a state of emergency on the nearby Blackfeet Reservation and triggering multiple avalanches in the mountains around the valley.
But today, avalanche danger for the area is pegged at "considerable" — a 3 on a scale of 5. Dundas gives a quick presentation and then the group heads outside for some on-snow training.
Odi Pierce rides a sit-ski, a small, bucket-seat mounted on a massive shock-spring on a single fat-powder ski.
"Ideally when you fit into a sit-ski, you fit into it like a ski boot," Pierce says.
After we hop on the chairlift to the top of the mountain, Pierce says he took to skiing quickly:
"That's kind of my big draw to it, is not the speed, but the idea of floating on snow and the freedom from the chair is really important."
Pierce was born missing part of his spinal cord, so when he learned to ski four years ago, it was in a sit-ski. He says that compared to other sports, skiing and adaptive skiing aren't really that different:
"The biggest thing with skiing, what's so great, is that you're skiing and I'm skiing, and we're doing the same activity, skiing the exact same run. It's so inclusive," Pierce says. "It's not like there's this huge adaptation that's like yeah, you're doing it, but really you're doing something else. We are doing the exact same thing, on the same runs, on the same snow, same way, on the same skis!"
Near the summit, campers test out gear, like avalanche probes and beacons. Now, they’re ready for the slopes.
Early morning on the group's last day, I check in with them to see how powder camp is going.
"Oh, this week's been amazing," says Jason Sellers.
Sellers served two tours in Iraq before suffering a traumatic brain injury. While buckling into his ski boots, he tells me he skis with veterans a lot at his home mountain in Idaho, but spending a week with adaptive skiers has been inspiring.
"It's amazing to see the aspect of a mono-ski," Sellers says, "how they have to turn, to flip to switch to get down the same terrain … I definitely shouldn't have a problem on this one, they're squirting through the trees no problem."
The group is down two adaptive athletes. Lucas Grossi, the volunteer coordinator, tells me it’s normal for a few to drop out during the week. The five heading out this morning, like Jason Sellers, are all smiles.
"There's really no limits to what we can do, we're a testament to that, that's for sure," says Sellers.
