Veteran's Winter Sports Clinic Cranks Up the Good Times in Snowmass
Joseph Hineman, PhD, has 15 years of experience carving up ski slopes. By itself, that's not very big news. But if you consider that Hineman is a transfemoral amputee, a veteran of World War II, and his first run down a mountain came at the age of 70, his skiing history takes on new meaning.
Hineman was among the first to take part in the National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic, the largest disabled ski clinic in the world, and he has no plans to stop now. "The challenge is always there. You get up on that mountain, and it's a long way down," says Hineman, who recently celebrated his 85th birthday and lives in Des Moines, Iowa. "The camaraderie makes it fun, too. You get to meet and know people from all over the United States."
Now in its 22nd year, the adaptive sports clinic, held March 30 to April 5 in Snowmass Village, Colorado, and surrounding areas, set a record with nearly 400 participants from 44 states, all veterans of the United States military with service stretching from WWII to the current wars in the Middle East. And there was more than enough to do, from adaptive skiing, rock climbing, and sled hockey to educational workshops, rock concerts, and free massages for sore muscles.
In addition to old hands like Hineman, clinic organizers said more than 60 percent of the participants were taking part for the first time, including 29-year-old disabled Army veteran Bobby Lisek of Billings, Montana, who brought his wife and young child along on the adventure. "I want to try to do the impossible on the slopes," Lisek said before his first run. "I can't wait to go snowboarding with soldiers like myself."
Among the many "Miracles on a Mountainside"--the clinic's motto--was a spring snowstorm that dumped about six inches of fresh snow early in the week. But activities weren't restricted to skiing. Popular favorites included daily trips to the hot springs in Glenwood Springs, fly fishing excursions in Carbondale, archery and sport shooting in Basalt, curling in Aspen, and even scuba diving lessons in a swimming pool just a few yards from the slopes in Snowmass Village. Also on the agenda was cross country skiing, snowshoeing, snowmobiling, trapshooting, wheelchair fencing, a gondola ride, and a biathlon event. The evenings brought a combination of entertainment and education, including a self-defense lesson by a special agent for the U.S. Secret Service.
The Winter Sports Clinic was started in the mid-1980s by Sandy Trombetta, who works for the Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center in Grand Junction, Colorado. "It started with one individual more or less on a lark, but even way back [then] I knew I was onto something," he says. Since 1987, the Winter Sports Clinic has played host to thousands of U.S. military service veterans with orthopedic amputations, traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, visual impairments, and other disabilities.
Photographs courtesy of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
--Brady Delander
