The DSES Experience
What It Means To Volunteers And Students

  Biathlon Eye Opening Experience

"It was eye opening to be able to participate in such a wonderful camp with the Biathlon."

"It is so awesome to set a goal and be able to achieve it and even surpass it! I thought if I hit one target I would be happy with my performance. I never ever thought I would get nine out of ten and a medal."

"I can not express how much it means to me, my family and all my friends. You change lives with what you do and you make me and everyone else feel like CHAMPIONS."

Brigid Salamon, 2012 Biathlon Gold and Silver Medalist

  The Gift - by Jeremy McGhee

“Being paralyzed is a gift.” The words leave my lips and the person I’m speaking with invariably stares back blankly, as if I’m crazy.Yeah, I’m crazy all right. I can’t feel my legs, and I’ll still huck bigger than most. But that has nothing to do with my statement or that blank look. I ski and it inspires people—that’s my gift. Let me rewind....

In September 2001, while riding my motorcycle, a white car swept in front of me. I remember my face smashing into the car’s side. Inertia buckled my bones and sent me skidding against the pavement. My limp, broken body grated to a halt, and as I lay powerless in the street, cold crept up my arms as crimson, life-giving blood flowed onto the warm summer asphalt. I knew I was dying, but in that moment, my fight began. I was not ready to die, but splintered ribs knifed through my lungs. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move. A desire to sleep consumed me. My arms, face and lips grew cold, and all I could muster was a simple, repetitive thought: “Keep your eyes open! Whatever you do, DO NOT close your eyes!”
» Read The Article in Backcountry Magazine (PDF)

  To the Volunteers of DSES by Dave Owings

We all do things for other people, and working with the disabled community makes us nice people. But to actually be a better human being, means that you bring some element of the human spirit that is not often seen or heard of. Giving your own free time to something and watching it grow and develop means you give up one of the most important things you own; your time.

Giving money is nice, and believe me, everyone in the world could be nicer, but money is something that you can always make more of. Give it away, just make more. But time, time is something precious, something we can’t just give away freely and get more to replace what we gave away. When you give away your time; that is a selfless act many people cannot do. For that, I salute you.
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  An Incredible Day with Anthony by Kathy Copeland

Anthony called Disabled Sports Eastern Sierra numerous times to bug them for a reservation to go skiing. To date this proud adaptive organization had never said "no" to anybody…they'd always found a way to accommodate all the different disabilities out on the snow.

But Anthony was different….much different from their other students. He has a C2 quadriplegic spinal cord injury ~ similar to Christopher Reeve ~ and he uses a ventilator to breathe for him....to keep him alive....like Christopher did.
» Read More - Pictures

  Vincent Van Dyk by Katherine Landau

There is a magical phenomenon that happens at Disabled Sports Eastern Sierra (DSES). Miracles of love, hope and volunteer dedication happen every day in the lives of disabled children and their families.

I have witnessed the therapeutic value of skiing for children with special needs. I have seen the thrill and exhilaration of gliding on the snow awaken a joy of living in our students with special needs, time and time again. Perhaps the most incredible student I have had the privilege to work with is a little boy named Vincent.
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  Trent and I Were Supposed To Die by Ken Yegan

I was supposed to die in l965. Trent was supposed to die in l994. We did not die. Chronologically, this story starts in my senior year in high school. I was captain of the varsity swim team. I wanted to go to the United States Air Force Academy but I could not pass the physical examination. Seems as though my heart waves are opposite of everyone else's heart waves.

When the technician/nurse at Castle Air Force Base near Merced California saw the waves, he checked all the electrical leads on my chest remarking that he must have made a mistake in hooking me up. I wasn't worried. He ran it again with the same result. The next thing I knew, there were half dozen technicians/nurses and doctors hovering around me.
» Read More - Pictures

  Ariana Sandoval writes - "I have made new dreams
    and memories in Mammoth… YOU ALL ROCK!!!!"

Thank you for getting me up on the chair lift. All of the face plants made me feel so strong. I know that sounds strange but the more I fell the more I grew in confidence.

I did not die! I lived. I am not just living anymore. Once I came off the snow, I can say for certain that I am now truly ALIVE. I want to try so many things. I want to climb and ride again. I will drive again. I hope to see all of you every break I get. I look forward to all my winters, springs, falls and summers! I thank you all for your friendships. I feel that I have met people of greatness.
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  Paralyzed Skier Returns to the Slopes by Wally Hofmann

Jenny was sweet 16, with dreams of dancing at her upcoming high school prom. She loved her family's regular ski trips to Mammoth. Like many teenage girls she imagined her wedding day when she would be escorted down the aisle to her waiting prince. But all these dreams came crashing down after a ski accident left her partially paralyzed below the waist.

Fast forward five years. Jenny Priest is 21 and she's sitting in a café at Mammoth's ski lodge. Above her on the wall is a 1955 black and white Sports Illustrated cover photograph that featured the reigning champion and Olympic-hopeful skier Jill Kinmont.

It's a cruel irony that it's the 50th anniversary of Kinmont's career-ending accident when she too was paralyzed from a near-fatal ski accident at Alta, Utah.
» Read More - Pictures

  Sara Chavez Writes About Her DSES Experience

I have recently moved to Mammoth Lakes and started working as a physical therapist at Mammoth S.P.O.R.T. Clinic. I had the opportunity to ride with the support crew for Terry Smutney on the High Sierra Fall Century. We spent about 12 1/2 hours on our bikes as Terry made his way through the tough Sierra terrain on his hand cycle.
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  A Two Day Camp THAT CHANGED MY LIFE by Bill Steinle

For the last twenty years I have been a sedentary single leg, amputee. I had no idea that there was an organization that explicitly helped people with disabilities. When I was told that it did, in fact, exist in Mammoth, and that I could participate, I jumped at the chance. I signed up for the two day camp called the Paddle and Pedal.

On the first day of the campout, we pedaled custom made hand-cycle bikes from McGee Creek campground to Crowley Lake store and back. A great combination of exercise and fun. The volunteers were an especially great group of people, and they gave a great deal of their time and effort to make sure that we had a great and safe day. I also commend them on their great sense of humor.

On the second day of the outing we went kayaking on Crowley lake; what a blast!
» Read More - Pictures

  Tyler and Sean Stern at Freedom In Motion by Diana Proemm

Tyler and Sean Stern participated in our Freedom In Motion Horseback riding trip. The kids were given small challenges such as the ring toss from the horse, riding side saddle and backwards on the horse.

I think the personal favorite of Tyler was the petting zoo where the kids got to feed the 400-500lb pig, pet the goats and the baby donkey. Tyler is in a red t-shirt and Sean is the other one.
» Read More - Pictures

  Volunteerism At Its Best by Rick Wood

Think about it. It's not just little League and AYSO coaches. It is also firefighters, hospital and Cast Off workers, library workers, educators from elementary school through college, to name just a few. Do you know anyone who doesn't volunteer for something?

This organization, headed up by the tireless Kathy Copeland, provides volunteers who give their time to instruct persons with disabilities how to ski and snowboard. Without these kind and generous people, this underserved community of people who are challenged physically and intellectually would not have the opportunity to experience the thrill of the wind rushing past their faces as they make their way down the hill.
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  Diary of a DSES Volunteer by Mickey Pease

It was near the end of March and my love for skiing had been denied for too long. With a window of time available, I loaded my Subaru and drove the 5 hours to Mammoth Mountain. Just as I turned off the highway it began to snow and I had an adrenaline high.

I'd hooked up with Disabled Sports Eastern Sierra in the past so volunteered to give them half of my days. Tuesday morning I was introduced to Nate, a 20 year old, blind, Stanford University student. He was open about his disability. His goal is to become a radio announcer and you should hear him mimic the radio stations across the dial from classical to news, sports, rock, Christian and country. I said I liked the Christian stations. As we talked we discovered we were both believers. Nate made awesome strides in his skiing and blessed me to pieces. I'll never be the same after meeting Nate.
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  By 10 Year Old Student, Grant Dewey

I was born with a mild form of spina bifida with my spinal cord tethered to my spine. I had my first surgery when I was 7 months old to remove the tumor around my spinal cord.

The doctors told me that I should not play sports like soccer and baseball as I could break my leg. They did say that it was OK for me to learn how to ski on a bi-ski as my legs should not break if I was sitting in a chair on skis.

I learned to bi-ski with the Disabled Sports Eastern Sierra gang at Mammoth Mountain 3 years ago. They always told me that I could do it. And I learned, after falling a lot at first, that I actually could and that I was pretty good at it.
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  Alexander Asawa - Super Success Story!

Letter from the Asawa family - January 2006 - "My husband and I are avid skiers and had hoped that someday we would be able to ski together as a family. Because of the challenges with sensory integration disorder, skiing was extremely difficult for our son. Everything about skiing seemed to trigger his condition. After last year when we attempted to have him take a group ski lesson, we had all but given up on the dream of skiing together as a family. The lesson was a disaster and left him completely insecure about his ability to ski and depleted of his self-esteem. He was sad that he could not keep up with the class and was scared to make new friends and try new trails on the mountain. After we picked him up at lunch completely in tears, he declared that he would never take another ski lesson, ever!"
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  Thank You Letter from Thomas Rakow

I wanted to take a moment and share a few experiences I recently had with members of your staff. Usually when customers send letters there is often pause for concern. In this case, I want to share with you the graciousness, warmth and encouragement I received while at your facility last weekend.
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  Anna Allen's Story

I will never forget the day the doctor told me that he was going to amputate my lower right leg. Six weeks earlier on March 31, 1982, I, Anna Conrad Allen, was buried in a horrific avalanche at Alpine Meadows Ski Area near Lake Tahoe. For five days I was entombed in snow and the debris of the building that was home to most of the employee lockers.

Outside my tomb, rescuers from the Alpine Meadows Ski Patrol, search and rescue and members of the WOOF dog team were frantically searching for any survivors while doing their best to avoid being injured from the additional snowfall that was accumulating. Their searches were successful only in finding victims; seven people ...
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