Rett Syndrome Resources – Activites

Skiing! From the RETTNET mailing group.

Mt. Sunapee, in New Hampshire, offers adaptive skiing. It’s WONDERFUL!!!! We took Abby, 9, there last year, and I don’t remember our family ever having a better time. The lessons are thru NEHSA-New England Handicpped Sports Association. If you can get there, they’ll get you skiing. We saw kids with Down Syndrome, kids with one leg, kids with no arms, kids who are blind–anyone. And it’s not just kids, it’s grownups too. We saw an 85 year old woman skiing with a walker! The program is entirely volunteer run, and they are HIGHLY trained. There are always two instructors with each skier. Abby tried standup skiing first, but since we were only there for the weekend, we switched to sit-down, so she could have more fun and not work so hard! She headed to the top on her first run, and you should have seen her face when she came down. Definitely saw a touch of heaven there. When we go this year we will stay longer, and she’ll try both standup and sitting. The instructor skies with her in a sled with handles–like a dogsled. If the skier begins to get the “feel” of things, the instructor will begin to let the sled move ahead on tether lines, feeding them out until the skier is pretty much on their own. The instructors brainstorm to figure out how each individual skier can have the best experience. It’s a real bargain, too. The family joins NEHSA, for about $40 a year, and then the entire family can rent equipment and buy tickets through them at a fraction of the regular cost. I remember rentals being 15 dollars a day. And Abby paid $25 total. skis, tickets, and lessons. You can’t get a hamburger at a mountain for $25!! The people were the nicest–every single one of them.