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Veteran’s Winter Sports Clinic; Pistorius’ Appeal Heard
By Brady Delander 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 
Table Of Contents - May 2008
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