Ski Spectacular

So I am in my second day of ski spectacular which is a huuuuge program we do in Breckenridge at the Beaver Run Resort. This program invites the wounded warrior program to come out and ski or board. All of the people we are working with are previous soldiers or their family who want to learn to ski and snowboard. A lot of our lessons are adaptive lessons for amputees or paralyzed soldiers who have been previously hurt in war. My current student is a guy named Eddie who has all of his limbs but was injured and is now a T7. He is paralyzed from just above is belly button all the way down to his toes. Eddie has an awesome attitude and is a really great guy. He is from Arizona where his wife and 2 yr old daughter live. He has been working his butt off trying to get his mono skiing down so that he can move up to more difficult runs. I am doing some instructing myself but mainly a lot of getting him on and off the lift and picking him up when he falls down which has been quite a bit since he is still learning. The head instructor for our group is a guy named Kevin who is the US paralympic ski racing coach. Kevin is an awesome guy and really cool to work with. He has been trying to talk Eddie into being a racer for them but first he needs to learn how to race. The setup the racers get is pretty awesome because everything and I mean EVERYTHING is paid for...housing, food, gear, etc it sounds legit! I have really been enjoying my time so far and hope that I stay with this group the rest of the week. I was told last night that I was going to be leading a lesson out of our ski office (separate from ski spec) with a young man with autism and it scared the bejeezers out of me. Here I thought we weren't teaching until February and I'm already on a lesson..WHAT THA??!?! Either way it was super cool that they put me on the lesson so last night I studied up and did my homework on working with this population. This morning I grabbed my gear from up the hill and skied down in the powder which was awfully difficult. I was stoked on powder until my skis decided to super suck and not go anywhere so I got stuck and it was a long haul. Once I got to the office I was told I was moved off the lesson and my boss told me I needed to haul ass back up the hill with my 30 pounds of gear to make it to a staff meeting. It was a nightmare to get up there...ugh! Anyways I got that all sorted out and we were good to go except I couldn't find my student today for a good while then we couldn't find his ski and well it was just a mess.... Once we got that sorted we hit the hill and he kicked but making TONS of progress! After today I am soo pooped out and ridiculously tired I don't know how I will do this everyday but I can honestly say even though the days are long and I don't get paid....I friken love my job!!!

miss you all!!

xoxo

-Leah