Sharing the slopes, sharing the fun: Disabled athletes get their shot

The combination of man-made and nature-made snow covers the gentle slopes of Snow Creek Ski Resort this time of year in a sparkling blanket of crystallized energy.

When skis, snowboards and inner tubes cross its surface, the snow emits an audible creak, not unlike the friendly sound of a back porch screen door on a warm summer evening.

The sound blends pleasantly with the squeals of children on the inner tube hill, the chatter from the lift operators and music pulsing from the outdoor speakers of the lodge where a roaring fire warms skiers and their onlookers.

Zipping down the hill through this cheerful scene with a plume of snow as his tail is Tyler Rohr of St. Joseph, rocketing past his wife, Chelsea, who is left literally eating his snow.

“Nobody likes a show-off!” she shouts as he passes. And everyone smiles.

If anyone is allowed to show off at Snow Creek, it’s Tyler Rohr.

When he was 17, Rohr fell out of a tree while trimming limbs. Until that day, he had been an athlete, aggressively participating in everything from football and basketball to golf. On that day, he became paralyzed from the waist down.

“I think I’m a little more competitive than a lot of people,” said Tyler Rohr, 30, who works as an underwriter for American Family Insurance. “I really enjoy pushing myself to the limit to see what I can do.”

That’s why, in the winter of 2012-13, when Tyler Rohr first attempted adaptive skiing at Snow Creek, he went from the bunny slope to the intermediate trails in the less than three hours. He chooses a narrower mono-ski for his sit-ski because of its ability to make sharp turns and other maneuvers that result in his wife calling him a show-off.

“I’m on two skis and he’s on one and he out-skis me,” said Chelsea Rohr, 28, giving her husband of two years a good-natured punch on the shoulder.

Chelsea Rohr has skied since she was in the fourth grade, but her husband had never been on the slopes until he started in the adaptive ski program at Snow Creek. The couple has since taken several ski vacations to Winter Park, Colo., and Park City, Utah.

The Rohrs’ story is one that makes everyone associated with Midwest Adaptive Sports smile and work just a little harder to improve sports opportunities in all seasons for people with disabilities.

Formerly a chapter of the National Sports Center for the Disabled based in Winter Park, Colo., Midwest Adaptive Sports, based in the Kansas City area, became an independent nonprofit organization in 2011. In addition to snow sports in the winter, the program offers a number of warm-weather sports camps that include baseball, football and soccer, as well as water sports on Smithville Lake. Throughout the winter season, as many as 100 disabled participants take part in programs.

When the ski season opens at Snow Creek, those with disabled family members drive for an hour or more each Sunday morning to participate in the adaptive ski program. Tuesday nights are reserved for skiers from the Kansas School for the Blind.

Snow Creek offers a deep discount on lift tickets and rental equipment. As many as 30 volunteers show up to teach in the adaptive ski program or assist in whatever way possible.

Stan Weston, a retired physical education teacher from St. Joseph, is one of those volunteers and a member of the Midwest Adaptive Sports board. In 30 years as an educator, he recalls working with very few disabled children. When his now 10-year-old grandson was born with cerebral palsy, his began to look at physical education and fitness from an entirely different perspective.

“When you’re personally involved with someone with disabilities, you learn so much,” Weston said. “Right away, I realized how much he simply wanted to do what everyone else does. They all just want to get out there and have a good time.”

On a recent Sunday morning when the air temperature was a crisp 3 degrees, Weston worked with 18-year-old Ryan Robinson of Olathe while his parents and twin sister, Natalie, watched from the warmth of the lodge. Natalie tried skiing with her brother but just doesn’t enjoy the sport. Instead, she does her homework while he skis. Natalie Robinson boasts that she is the scholar and creative spirit of the two; her brother is the athlete and comedian.

Born with cerebral palsy, Ryan Robinson is known for telling puns and cracking jokes with the lift operators as they help him on the lift chairs and striking up a conversation with anyone he meets. He has been taking lessons through Midwest Adaptive Sports for six years.

“I learned the first season that it’s OK to crash,” said Ryan Robinson. “Everybody does it now and then, and it’s nothing to be afraid of.”

One of the reasons Ryan Robinson likes to ski is that it prepares him for his dream career as a sports commentator. It also builds his overall body strength and helps him become more independent. That’s exactly why his parents, Steve and Marsha Robinson, spend almost every Sunday morning in the winter at Snow Creek.

“We want Ryan to develop a healthier lifestyle, and this is just one of several steps in that process,” his mother said. “We noticed he is using his arms much better and he just keeps progressing more every season.”

Each summer, Ryan Robinson attends a junior wheelchair sports camp at the Iowa School for the Deaf in Council Bluffs. He also lifts weights at Olathe South High School, where he and his sister are seniors. But skiing at Snow Creek is the sports program where he is most physically active.

He maneuvers Snow Creek’s 12 runs on a sit-ski, which is basically a chair attached to two skis. He is strapped in at the knees, waist and shoulders. Ryan Robinson’s lessons began on the bunny hill with Stan Weston or other instructors standing at the back of the sit-ski to guide him down the hill. As he became familiar with the movement, the lessons moved to intermediate runs.

This season, Weston takes Ryan Robinson about two-thirds of the way down the steepest part of the 530-yard run, and then Weston steps off the ski and tethers himself to the sit-ski for the last 100 yards or so.

“At this point, Ryan is learning how to balance himself, to safely stop when and where he needs to, and to take a few turns on his own,” Weston said. “His goal and ours is to get him to the point he can do it on his own.”

With each disabled skier going down the hill, at least one or two additional volunteers ski nearby to ensure that other skiers keep plenty of distance. All volunteers and participants in the adaptive ski program can be identified by their bright yellow and red vests. Although the numbers vary, usually between 75 to 100 participants and volunteers in the program hit the slopes each week at Snow Creek.

“These are some of the best trained, most professional instructors I’ve ever seen,” said Darin Pond, guest services manager at Snow Creek, which is near Weston in Platte County. “I’ve lived near and skied at resorts around the country, and the Midwest Adaptive Sports program just takes it to the next level as far as energy and enthusiasm.”

As gently as the instructors take it and as mild as the 300-foot vertical drop at Snow Creek is, it’s still too much for many individuals with physical or mental disabilities.

That’s why one of the big winter events coordinated by Midwest Adaptive Sports volunteers is a free night of snow tubing at Snow Creek. For most of the winter, the Tornado Alley Tubing Hill is open only Thursday through Sunday. But once a season on a Wednesday, those six lanes on the west side of Snow Creek are filled with the screams and laughter of families who otherwise would not be able to enjoy this type of winter outing.

“Tubing is not as scary for many people because they can do it with family,” said Robin Jones, a volunteer from Highland, Kan. “If a disabled child can hear mom’s voice and hold her hand as they slide, that makes all of the difference in their willingness and ability to try something new.”

Volunteers with Gator utility tractors help take tubers who cannot manage the moving carpet to the top of the hill. Additional volunteers help get everyone secured in their tubes before sending them down the 700-foot slide where more volunteers help get everyone — even able-bodied tubers — out of the inner tubes.

“Parents with disabled children rarely get the chance to really play with their children,” Jones said. “That mom and dad get to do this, too, creates so much excitement with these kids. Everyone lets loose and has a great time.”

At this year’s event, nearly 150 people were treated to hotdogs and hot chocolate at no charge. Some of the food and services were donated, and a $2,400 grant paid for the rest.

Kari Taylor and her daughters, Seagan and Kinsey, were excited to participate in their first snow tubing this winter after recently moving to Lawrence from Phoenix. While in Arizona, the family would occasionally participate in the adaptive ski program at the Durango Mountain Resort in Colorado.

The Taylor family also lived in Denver for a few years, which is where the girls first participated in the adaptive ski program at Winter Park. Seagan, 21, has autism, and Kinsey, 18, has a chromosome disorder known as 22q.

“Between both of the girls’ disabilities, we are limited in the types of activities we can participate in, but we’re fortunate that they both really enjoy winter sports,” Taylor said.

After numerous frustrating and disappointing outings, Taylor said, she and her husband cried the first time Seagan skied.

“You could see that something about the motion and the activity reached her,” Taylor said. “She is so happy when she is skiing.”

Seagan, who now volunteers with Midwest Adaptive Sports, is able to ski the most challenging black diamond runs in Colorado.

“But she’s not able to ride a bicycle or live independently,” her mother said. “That’s why this program is so important to our family.”

This story was originally published February 2, 2016 at 12:00 PM with the headline "Sharing the slopes, sharing the fun: Disabled athletes get their shot."