WOODLAND HILLS : Ski Program for Disabled Tries to Stop the Skid

The crumbling ramp--once used to train skiers with disabilities--stands nearly forgotten behind the Pierce College football field, like an archeological oddity.

The fenced structure is a reminder of better times for the Disabled Ski Program at Pierce. A decade ago, amputees, blind and other disabled athletes came here to gain confidence in their ability to ski before hitting the slopes for the real thing on Pierce-sponsored trips.

But when the college began to receive less public money during the early 1980s, it cut funds for repairs and bus and equipment rental, said Lynne Haile, who founded the Valley’s only ski program for the disabled in 1973.

“Now we are surviving on private donations,” Haile said. “But we’re only taking about six trips a year, so a lot of people are missing out.”

During the program’s heyday, about 30 busloads of disabled skiers and their escorts took day trips to the mountains each season.

“Something happens when someone who can’t walk very well gets on skis and starts to glide down the slope,” Haile said. “As a guide, you can feel how liberating it is. It’s exciting just to be able to share that feeling.”

Usually, a disabled skier is tethered to one or two volunteer guides. Most use poles with “outrigger” mini-skis, and blind skiers wear vests alerting others on the slope to their condition. Paraplegics use sleds.

“I saw disabled people skiing while I was in the hospital, and I wanted to go for it as soon as I got out,” said Kristine Kirsten, a Pierce student who lost a leg to bone cancer three years ago. “There’s too much to do out there besides sit and feel sorry for yourself.”

Kirsten said she hopes $15,000 can be found to repair the ramp, and that more private donors step forward to give others with disabilities a chance to ski.

“I get better every time I go,” Kirsten said. “By now, I’m faster than most of my two-legged friends.”