The Blind Leading the Blind
DSES Clinic, January 6-8, 2006

Blind Skier Clinic Group
L to R: Mary Curnow, EL Smoogen, Sallyanne English, Anita Haenni, Greg Hadfield, Carmela Cantisani (the blind clinician),
Ken Klein and in the front row are Gilbert Converset and Lumas the Seeing Eye Dog!

"The thrill of guiding a blind or visually impaired skier comes from opening a door for them to experience freedom."

Over the weekend of the 6th-8th January, Disabled Sports Eastern Sierra (DSES) hosted a vision impairment (VI) ski clinic.

The VI clinic was attended by six volunteers over the course of the weekend. They learned the necessary skills to better teach and guide the blind and visually impaired to ski and enjoy this sport we all love so much.

The clinic was conducted by long time blind skier Carmela Cantisani, who has competed and Gilbert Converset, her partner in life and guide on the snow. Carmela expressed "I used to believe that since I am blind, skiing was a sport that I never dreamed I could enjoy in my lifetime. Thanks to a great number of dedicated volunteers I was able to not only enjoy the sport, but learn to ski well enough to win gold medals in the Olympics; an honor usually reserved for the extraordinary few. My goal now, is to continue training as many guides as possible, so that more blind people have access to this wonderful sport."

Throughout the weekend Carmela and Gilbert led the group through a variety of exercises that allowed us to experience the role of the guide and the role of the visually impaired student, giving "insight" to the feeling of skiing without sight.

Both the role of the guide and the blind skier can be both challenging and thoroughly rewarding. One participant commented, "being responsible for oneself while skiing is difficult enough; being responsible for two people is a challenge."

The weekend was a huge success and we thank Carmela and Gilbert as well as DSES for this opportunity. Due to this clinic there are six more guides for the vision impaired on the slopes of Mammoth.

"To watch an experienced VI skier and guide is like watching a perfectly synchronized dance."