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Accessible ski season: a success story

Accessible ski season: a success story

Around November of 2024 I got it in my head that I missed skiing and I wondered what options there were for accessible winter sports. I discovered the Canadian Adaptive Snowsports (CADS) in a random google but unfortunately, they had already booked up for the 2025 season. I did get them to add me to their mailing list though so as soon as they opened their rosters for 2026, I applied.

Because I didn’t want to take a spot from another participant, I asked The Eldest to sign on as a volunteer with me. She was happy to sign up because a> she would get more volunteer hours to put towards the hours she needs to graduate high school[1]; and b> she absolutely hated teaching skiing. Like, really, really, really hated it. So she was happy to keep skiing as a volunteer as long as she didn’t have to teach multiple kids. FAIR. She did her time. We applied and were accepted into the program!


The snow machine in full force over the hill

What surprised me the most about CADS is the cost: it was only $250 for 8 weeks of skiing! When I expressed shock about this the volunteer I spoke with thought I found it too expensive – but really, I found it super cheap! As someone who grew up skiing and who has two kids who did skiing and snowboarding since they were in kindergarten, most years it’s been three times that amount and only went down when we bought them their own equipment when they stopped growing[2]. It used to cost between $600 and $750 per season, per kid and so I was so used to that price that I just ended up donating $500 to the program on top of my fee because that’s what I had budgeted for! I get it though: most disabled folks don’t have a lot of money, not only is being disabled wildly expensive, most of them also live on incredibly small incomes.


Early morning mist on the hill

Early in the new year Mr. Tucker and I went up so I could get fitted for a sit ski. I had justjust met the weight requirement for not only the equipment but also for the tethering. Because every participant requires two volunteers and with a sit ski at least one of them has to be certified to tether with a sit ski, it limited the amount of people who could participate in the program because they are also limited by their own weight and their own training. While there is a lot of variety of the types of disabilities CADS folks have, the physically disabled people have a bunch of different equipment types they can use depending on the severity of their mobility challenges. Because I have no balance, I wasn’t able to just tether standing up or use a “slider” which is similar to a walker on skis.


Gearing up first thing in the morning

Our Sunday mornings were pretty chaotic for the 8 weeks of the season. Mr. Tucker would drive The Youngest to catch the bus for her Snowboard Instructor job, then as soon as he got home, The Eldest and I would hop into the car and head north into Quebec for our ski day. Because they prefer that their volunteers stay all day, she did both the morning and the afternoon sessions that ran from 10-noon and from 1-3 with an hour lunch in the middle. I just sat in the chalet in the morning and read books and then I did my session in the afternoon after we ate lunch together.


Balaklava, heated socks, handwarmers and a helmet…oh my!

The Eldest was paired with a couple of different folks at the beginning but after week three, she had the same skier and the same head volunteer for both the morning and afternoon sessions. Her skier had an intellectual disability so she just needed some help with guidance but generally was great on her own. My kid really enjoyed working with both the participant and the other volunteer and actually enjoyed the entire experience much more than she expected to!

What was surprising is that they give the volunteers a free season’s pass to the hill (which apparently also includes the tubing, which is rad!). So on Family Day The Eldest took the car up to the hill by herself and did some skiing on her own, which is a nice little bonus!


The Eldest and her team on top of the hill

The sit skis are absolutely wild in the fact that the volunteers unlatch it, lift the seat from the ski part and then you basically sit on the chairlift in the sit ski as it sweeps you up. Getting off, they click a button that releases the seat back down towards the ski and then you glide off of the chairlift like you would if you are standing. It’s a terrifying experience and you have to give up complete control to the volunteers (who know what they’re doing! I had zero issues with the chair lift!).

The person I was paired with weekly was a guy named Jeff who has to be the kindest man on earth given that he volunteers almost every day of the week with either training, guiding various programs or doing lessons at various hills in the region. He is the king of the dad joke but you can tell he is just a really outgoing, giving guy. In many ways he is the backbone of the organization and while many volunteers keep the entire ship afloat, more than one person mentioned that CADS would be lost without Jeff’s dedication to it. Along with Jeff I had a few other volunteers – all wonderful, lovely people.

Also, Jeff also only lost me once in the woods – on the last day, no less! Some kids cut in front of us so we turned but then they saw us and they turned which lead us onto a collision course that Jeff narrowly missed by letting me go off the side of the hill. Sadly, the other volunteer, Andrew thought Jeff was going to stop and when he didn’t Andrew tried to grab me and then ALSO went off of the side of the hill and landed in some trees. We were both laughing so hard at the absurdity of it all as I dangled half on/half off of the hill that Jeff had to come take Andrew’s skis off so that he could climb out of the woods – and the soft powder of the woods was so deep that he was waist deep standing up [3]! Thankfully, one of the other volunteers, Greg saw us careen off of the hill and came and helped Jeff and Andrew haul me back up. That was the last run of the season for us!


It’s as comfy as it looks

Driving home early in the season we were chatting and my daughter said, “I like volunteering way better than I like teaching. People actually appreciate you and are grateful for your help where with teaching I never felt like that. Also, the people are all so nice and welcoming and with teaching I never felt like I fit in.” It’s so true, too: I didn’t meet anyone in the CADS community who wasn’t just absolutely welcoming and kind. On our last day, we brought one of my best friend’s kids with us and even he was amazed at how welcoming everyone was to him. Although, you could argue that people don’t get involved in volunteering with an organization like that if they aren’t the most kind, amazing folks around.


Our friend’s kid drove up with us and at lunch him & The Eldest did some runs together

Yesterday was the last day of the season. After 8 weeks of skiing, I feel like it’s time to hang up the sit ski. The birds are singing and it is brighter in the mornings so I am happy to enter into the spring season after a very successful first season of doing adaptive skiing. The Eldest may go up on March break and take advantage of her season’s pass one last time, but overall we had a great year and are ready to have our Sundays to ourselves again.

I am not going to lie: even though I was brought up skiing and was a skier my entire life, adaptive skiing was a whole new ballgame for me. I had to give up control to the volunteers and learn an entirely new way of navigating the hill. I was never afraid of heights or the hill in the past but this year it took me a little while to find my bearings in the sit ski. I was scared the first few times I fell (and one of those times I rolled right over like a bad car crash – much to the horror of my kid who was there at the time!) and I hit more moguls and icy patches than I would have liked to while I learned how to navigate. I won’t say I became a great sit-skier this year but I managed to feel a huge amount of anxiety and do it anyway.

The Eldest ended up enjoying it so much that she plans to come back and volunteer again next year. I ordered an official CADS jacket for her as a thank you for doing this with me. I think she initially did it so that I could do it but was surprised at how much she enjoyed the people and the skiing community they’ve created (and the ability to ski for free was a nice bonus she didn’t anticipate!). I hope to be back again next year but even if it doesn’t happen, I am grateful I did it this year at least. It’s so easy when you are disabled to just give up so many things because it feels like you are climbing a mountain to just do the things you used to do. It’s just nice to know that there is an entire world of people who are out there volunteering their time to help you be able to do things that most folks don’t even think twice about just doing. I am eternally grateful to them.

[If you have a few extra dollars to spare in your budget, a CADS donation is certainly appreciated. Many of these programs run on fumes so every dollar helps. Thanks, friends!]


The last day was costume day! Here is The Eldest as PB sandwich.

[1] She had a few hours already logged but needed a few more. I absolutely hate that this is a requirement to graduate from high school. I think it turns volunteering into a chore instead of a great community building exercise, and because it needs to be done outside of school hours, it punishes kids who need to work to help support their families.

[2] When your kids are young it is so expensive to outfit them that it just made more sense to rent until they grew all that they would grow. In fact, my dad actually bought them their equipment a few years ago and they’ve both taken really good care of their stuff. We just wax & sharpen their gear every year.

[3] We laughed because we were safe, but the snow off of the mountain can get incredibly deep and you can die by Snow Immersion Suffocation (SIS) which may have killed a woman in Banff earlier this season.

Spring has sprung: a life update

Spring has sprung: a life update


I asked Mr. Tucker to buy me this for Winter Solstice & he did!

It’s hard to not think of spring and fall as seasons of transition. Spring still has elements of the winter such as the odd day of snow and fall still has days where the sun is out and it is warm and clear. Summer and winter tend to be more delineated – at least where I live – where winters are snow, darkness and blowing wind & summers are all humidity, long days, and blazing sun. We generally tend to follow the seasons here and mark each one as it transits through the year. I highly recommend books like Mrs. Sharpe’s Traditions for those of you who enjoy Victorian Americana celebrations that fall on the more Christian side of things. It’s full of crafts, poetry and information about the holidays and seasons. I read Winters in the World this year about the seasons in Anglo-Saxon England and it was also a lovely, enlightening read.

After a year of having a broken foot and two surgeries I am eager to get out and about and enjoy the fresh air. Mr. Tucker has fixed up my trike (#bless marrying a man who used to be a bike courier) and we have been going out on walks around the neighbourhood. I hate how much I miss going outside when I am forced to stay inside. Winter is an absolutely tragic season for me because when you have mobility issues it can mean getting stuck inside when it is really icy out. I actually enjoy winter and grew up in the 80s where your parents forced you outside no matter what the temperature was & I also clocked many years skiing. I am seriously thinking of investigating accessible skiing options but I am afraid that like most things for disabled people, it will be cripplingly* expensive.

But it’s spring now! As is our monthly habit, we have done a craft and games night, and because it was March, it was Easter-themed. It was, as usual, amazing. We emailed our orders into Holly’s Hot Chicken (which is great if you need a gluten-free option and/or just like delicious food!) which our friends picked up on their way over, we did some fun Easter crafts & egg decorating and then we played Telestrations. It’s sad to think that in a few short months the eldest two kids in our group are off to university! Until then, we will try and squeeze in as many games nights and pool parties as possible.

Other than that it has been just watching PWHL games, the Women’s World Hockey & I even got sucked into March Madness, rather unexpectedly when it came on right after a WWH game! I got suckered into buying a subscription to The Sports Network to watch the WWH and so I figured, why not? Well OF COURSE I was hooked and watched the final on Sunday (like almost 19m other people). It was just so fascinating! I don’t know if that means I will end up loving the WNBA but I did enjoy it!

I have such a love/hate relationship with sports, namely, hockey. I grew up loving hockey and watching it. Like many other Canadian families, my brother played it and I went to a few of his games as well. In University I lived in an apartment on top of a pub and my friends & I would regularly win tickets to hockey games as prizes on Trivia Nights. When you are a poor student you enjoy any free entertainment that comes your way! But over the years, my love for the NHL lessened. Size-wise, it is an absolute BEAST with 82 games per season for each of the 32 teams – not including the Stanley Cup. But on top of that, the last game we attended we saw them switch out the ads along the boards on the commercial breaks. That was just wild to me. I had grown up with stories of my uncle remembering when tickets were cheap and you could bring a boxed lunch into Maple Leaf gardens. Don’t get me wrong – I grasp the enormity of putting together a pro sports league it is just a shame when the cheap seats for an NHL game (standing room only) are $50 in the nosebleeds. That is just out of range for many families.

Watching the PWHL play, fill arenas and get more sponsorships is a bit of a bittersweet experience: I want this league to succeed so badly, I want them to get advertising dollars! But it also weirds me out to see a paper towel company sponsor a power play. It’s conflicting to simultaneously want them to succeed but hate the price it will take to make it work. I am not an idiot – we live in a capitalistic society, for better or for worse – and the league can’t run just on Mark Walter’s big bucks alone, in perpetuity**. That said, we’re renewing our tickets for next year.

WELP. The condo still hasn’t sold. Lots of great feedback from the viewings but it’s been up for 2 months. I know that it’s been an average of 90 days for sales of condos lately and I am sure everyone is waiting for the Bank of Canada’s rate cuts*** but I am still impatient. It feels like the path forward for us is riding on this one deadweight to be out of our hands. I’m crossing my fingers that I have a better update soon!

Meanwhile, Mr. Tucker are working on a plan for our lives while we wait for the condo to sell. There is no point sitting around wallowing about things not going according to plan when there is so much living to do. Since spring is here and April is a wee break in-between our children’s birthdays I have asked them to not make a ton of weekend plans so that we can sort some things around the house.

Mt Tucker and I are planning some outdoor chores this month but spring is also a good time to tackle things like going through all of the rooms of your house and making a master plan on what to fix, clean, organize and decorate. We also want to plot out our garden bunkies to take advantage of what may be a very hot, dry summer. The plan is to stay home and have myriad pool parties and friend drop-in days!

We also did manage to catch the solar eclipse yesterday! It was 99% totality here which had to be good enough because we didn’t want to drive an hour south. The kids had the day off so they cleaned the house and watched the eclipse. It was a good day!


*I didn’t intend that pun but I am leaving it because it fits nicely
**I mean, he probably COULD afford it but every parent wants their child to leave the nest
***Kept at at 5% at the announcement this morning. Whomp whomp.

Just keep on keeping on

Just keep on keeping on

What I’m reading
Vanguard’s guide to retirement withdrawal strategies.

[E]very conversation takes place on two levels. The official conversation is represented by the words we are saying on whatever topic we are talking about. The actual conversations occur amid the ebb and flow of emotions that get transmitted as we talk. With every comment I am showing you respect or disrespect, making you feel a little safer or a little more threatened. The Essential Skills of Being Human.

Deep thoughts
When the kids came home last night the first thing they both said when they walked in the door (1/2 hour apart) is, “You’re dressed! What’s going on!?” UGH. I need to get out more. In my defense, it’s been a lot of bedrest for medical reasons and once that was done, Mr. Tucker had condo stuff to do in his spare time so all personal stuff was de-prioritized as we ended up in survival mode. But it’s time.

Still, I want my kids to remember having an active mother who go out as much as she could despite disability. In general, I feel like I am way more active than a lot of other disabled folks. Some it’s due to the severity of their disability and for some it’s just plain giving up. If I was a researcher I would study the health trajectories/outcomes of people who had a positive, life-affirming attitude and those who give up once they’re diagnosed. I am happy to offer support, kind words and resources to people going through a rough time – sometimes you just need to complain to other people who understand what you are going through. But I’ve had to block individuals in online PLS groups because they were posting constantly about how awful they felt and how they can’t do anything and how all of their friends don’t want to hang out with them. It was a constant barrage of pity-party posts and it just exhausted me and brought me down. I think perhaps these people should reflect on whether or not it was disability that turned people off or if it was the constant complaining?

But truth be told, while I have experienced some of that, most of my good friendships got stronger after I was diagnosed. Sure, some people will always fall by the wayside but it’s difficult to tease out how much of that is just a natural progression in friendship and what is an inability to manage someone’s diagnosis. I keep showing up for them and in turn they keep showing up for me.

But back to last night’s astute observation by my kids. If I’m honest, pre-pandemic I went to the gym 3-5 days a week, did dragon boat, walked or biked around the neighbourhood more and did physiotherapy twice a week. Since then, I haven’t been back to my usual activity levels and my return to dragon boat was thwarted by my broken foot followed by a huge pelvic surgery (that went a bit sideways). It feels like since we have been back post-pandemic with some regularity, it’s been one thing after another. Having said that, I am determined to change that even as we head into winter. I think I have been focusing too much on what I can’t do and not really focusing on what I can. In other words, while I am not whinging about it on facebook, I am falling into the same trap of the people who constantly complain. I need to show up for me.

Next weekend is pretty social with games night and heading out for dinner with friends on Friday night. The following weekend is book club. These things remind me that I am still doing things but I am just not back up to the level I once was. I plan to change that.

What I’m up to
Mr. Tucker is at the condo today as the appliances have been delivered. He sent me a picture and they look FANTASTIC! He also replaced the vent covers, replaced the shower curtainrod and now he’s putting the doors back on and measuring a few things. The last things we need to do are: fix the window, install the microwave, replace the bathroom fixture and replace a curtain on the closet.

It finally feels like we are in the home stretch and are almost ready to put it on the market!

Oh, and as for last night: we went out to buy paint for the room switch! The Eldest is moving into the office downstairs and Mr. Tucker is moving the office upstairs. He plans to do most of the painting next weekend as it is American Thanksgiving and it’s super slow at work. That will leave him energy to paint at night. Then on the weekend, we will move her stuff downstairs. Damn, it will be good to be able to have a shared office again. I have a desk tucked into a corner of the living room and quite frankly – it sucks.

Since we’ve also used almost none of our pocket money this month, afterwards we treated the kids to dinner. It was a pretty lovely evening and it felt good to be out.

Bon Vindredi à tous!