Adaptive ski improvments

A snowHead

Hi,
I am what are some of your biggest issues with adaptive skiing? Though I am not an adaptive skier myself, my sister who has Cerebral Palsy uses adaptive skiing. I want to design a product to help those people who adaptive ski for an engineering class if you have any ideas tell me, thanks!

A snowHead

I have a daughter who I ski with in a sit ski who can assist with transfers. However transferring in to the sit ski on your own would be difficult so somethign simple that supports a sit ski upright so the person riding the sit ski can help their buddy would be really helpful. Something with an easy release once you have finsihed loading. Even better if it holds up the sit ski enabling an active sit skier to get themeselves in and has an easy release.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

For me its getting on gondolas as a sit skier. In a few resorts i have seen little trolleys with wheelchair wheels on that i can slide on and be pushed on by the lifties but havd only ever seen it at two or three resorts and only on one or two lifts. To have a system where the sit skier could do it themselves would be amazing but i have no idea how it could work but again i am not an engineer! Or a cheap easy fix for each resort to design/build a system so could be rolled out accross multiple resorts. I also understand some old gondolas will never be accessible tho due to age and design!good luck with your project!

You need to Login to know who's really who.

Having skied with dozens of sit skis over the years, on & off the snow, both the above have credit - although with all adaptive skiers their issues can be simple or complex. The more recent skier in Bulgaria, she could make the few steps between wheelchair and sit ski, whereas on the dry slope some of our skiers would not be able to slide between the two - if they could by removing the wheelchair side and slide over the wheel to drop into the sit ski).
Hannah Lucy's comment has merit as well. Having been caught in Le Plagne with two skiers and yet the gondola only had one trolley. So we had to wait for the trolley to make the round trip before the second skier could ride the gondola - losing us nearly 40 mins as they had to unload the first then return the trolley back down.
A similar system would aid sit skis getting into restaurants. A few times we've been in whiteouts / high winds and had to lift sit skis into restaurants and even transfer them to a chair then carry the chair inside - to get them warmed up or just share a warm meal with their team. Sunny days are fine, being able to sit out on a terrace or even on the snow propped up with a bench or table.
So some sort of skate that could manage the two, would be an advatage.

Help!!

Adaptive ski improvments

snowHeads Forum Index >>> Disability Snow Sport