Ready & Able

Sandra Hansen loved to ski. Then, in 2000, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. What used to be effortless became too difficult to enjoy.
"I tried, but my balance was gone. It was really weird, knowing how to do something and not being able to do it."
Hansen gave up skiing for two years before she tried the alternative - foretracking. Essentially, Hansen uses ski poles with little skis on the bottom. These can also turn, helping her navigate down the slope. It took a while for the Little Harbour resident to adjust to the switch. Now, there's more to the activity than just a ride down a snowy hill.
"It gives you a sense of self-worth," Hansen says. "You don't feel like there's a disability when you're doing this. It's freedom."
This route back to a normal activity level does take its toll on Hansen. She gets fatigued quickly from the skiing, and just getting her ski gear on and arriving at the hill is enough to prompt a rest. But the same old rush makes the effort pay off at the bottom of the hill. Naturally, all this wouldn't be possible without the outriggers at the bottom of her ski poles, but she also says the technique is something completely different.
"I only just grabbed on to the concept last year, when I met an instructor in British Columbia," she says. "After that, it all started to click."
Hansen also participated in the CADS weekend, calling it a "wonderful time for any type of disabled person". She encourages like-minded folks to get involved with the program, even if they're new.
"Sometimes it can be scary, but what isn't?"

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When Jennifer Pos took up snowboarding last year, some of her fellow boarders treated her differently.
She doesn't know why. All they have that she doesn't is five fingers and a length of flesh and bone, hardly something worthy of coddling.
"It's a cheap disability," jokes Pos, a 17-year-old Green Hill resident. "Sometimes, people try to treat you nice, almost too nice - it doesn't stop me from that much, or really change my life."
Pos was born without a left arm, just past the elbow. There's been no adjustment. She's a music lover, playing both the piano and trumpet.
She wears a prosthesis, and says there's virtually no difference between her snowboarding experience and anyone else's - no extra equipment, no added risk or danger, and no excuses. Pos doesn't want to be seen as special, just another person trying to learn a new sport.
"(Snowboarding) is a little easier, because you don't need poles," Pos said. "When I first learned, it took me a full day to get down the hill without falling. That's about standard, really."
Pos recently attended the Canadian Association for Disabled Skiers' first Atlantic festival weekend recently at Ski Wentworth. She had lessons from top-level instructors, and had a great time. There, the blind, the deaf and amputees faced a similar challenge in very different ways. To hear her say it, the sensitivity around some disabilities is rarely asked for my the object of those sentiments.
"I'm not the best snowboarder in my group of friends, but that has
nothing to do with by arm."