This Is Why I Guide At Ski-For-Light

Ski-For-Light (SFL) is an organization that for one week each year pairs blind and mobility impaired individuals with guides to share the experience of Nordic skiing.

I have been a guide for twenty of SFL’s forty year history. When people ask me what makes the program special I have always had a difficult time finding a short description that describes the friendships, challenges, and personal growth each week delivers. Sometimes it is easier to relate a story of a particular event which encompasses the SFL spirit. This past week in Granby Colorado generated one such event.

SFL week culminates with a contest that allows skiers to choose to compete in either a 10 km race or a 5 km predicted time rally. Race day dawned colder under overcast skies and moderate snow, in contrast to the bright sun and warm temperatures we experienced for most of the week. I was assisting Tim, the Race Coordinator, in the timing shack and everything was going well despite the slower conditions brought on by the accumulation of new snow.

Two hours after the start all but one of the one hundred and three skier pairs had crossed the finish line. The last pair was skiing the 5 km course and was nowhere to be seen. We sent someone out with a phone to locate them and report where they were on the course. By now conditions had deteriorated and the wind was considerably stronger.

The call came in. The guide and skier were only at the 3km mark on the 5 km course. They would be out for at least another hour. Tim and I conferred and considered sending a snow machine out for them as exhaustion and cold could become a dangerous combination. When presented with this option the skier was adamant – she wanted to finish on her own. We agreed we’d keep the course open as long as possible.

Almost all of the two hundred and fifty people at the finish area had long since gone back to the hotel, but a few dozen remained, searching the top of the slope in the distance for any sign of the last pair. Forty five minutes later two heads became two bodies as they crested the final hill before the finish. Spectators ran and skied towards them, forming a moving cheering section around the skier and her guide. Cow bells rang and words of encouragement were continuously shouted. Every few feet someone would call out the distance to the finish line the skier could not see.

The last one hundred yards took fifteen minutes, each step propelling the skier only a few inches. It was obvious she and her guide were cold and both physically and emotionally drained. Wind was blowing snow across their path and pushing like a cold hand trying to impede their progress. Every few feet she would wobble and catch herself just before falling over. If she fell over now I doubt she would have had the energy to get back up.

The skier crossed the finish to the clanging of bells, cheers and hugs. Both she and her guide, and many of us watching, had tears in our eyes. This woman was no athlete. Most people could have walked around that course in a fraction of the time, but this person pushed herself beyond her limits, and to his credit so did her guide.

What will this experience mean for her days, months, or years in the future? I can’t know that, but I’m sure that her life will be changed for the better, if not in a profound, at least in some small way. The same can be said of her guide and each of us who was witness to her resolve to finish.

This is why I’m a Ski-For-Light guide.

 

Post Game Anaylsis

Looking back on the whole experience, it was definitely something I won't forget
anytime soon, although the only thing I learned was that I hate camping. It was
a great time. I'm saying this mainly because it's over, and everything's back
to normal, almost. Define normal. 

I can still vividly remember the morning of the departure, and the first night
there. I recall my trip to the museum the 2nd day, and being in the simulator, flying
the impossible corsair! And the watching the liquid magnets. What surprised me
the most is that I lived through this trip. One family "crisis" is
over with-don’t worry, there won't be another one for at least 5 weeks,
possibly months, years, or seconds...

Sara

I think Sara had a much better time than she is willing to admit. At least I hope so. If I’m wrong I could have saved a lot of money and kept her home weeding the garden for two weeks to achieve the same emotional result.


It’s safe to say Sara learned that adventures are not fun and exciting every minute of every day. Great journeys inflict a little pain now and then. That’s what makes them memorable. For my part I got to watch my daughter exhibit more independence and confidence than ever all while experiencing the magic of AirVenture through the eyes of a twelve year-old. Something I would have missed had I gone alone and just tried to check of the boxes of things to do.


Now that the dust has settled and the Avgas fumes are washed out of our clothes, it’s time to start planning the next father-daughter vacation. I’m thinking any place where there is no Internet connection.


David

The difference between "need", "want", and "I'll take whatever I get".

The one constant at AirVenture is that "If it flies, it's here". This is the place to create lists; Christmas lists, Bucket lists, Ten Top Things That Will Send You Into Bankruptcy lists.

Sara and I have been on the hunt for our perfect plane. We have some criteria - it has to be relatively safe, versatile, and can fold up for storage in a trailer. We narrowed it down to the following:

Our Top Pick - ICON

Pros: Can fly off of land or water, foldable wings, spin resistant, and best of all, it looks like something out of a James Bond movie.

 

 

Second Place - PIPISTREL SINUS

 

Pros: Can soar like a glider, cruising range 900 NM, removable wings, and can be ordered as a kit. Costs half as much as an ICON.

 

Cons: S-I-N-U-S, really? They pronounce it with short "I", but Pipestrel Sinus still translates into "Bat Nasal Cavity".

 

 

 

What we can probably ultimately afford:

 

Pros: It's cheap, environmentally friendly, and if things don't work out we can burn it and cook Smores over the open flames.

 

Cons: It flies like it looks

 





Meeting Someone Again For The First Time

Scott Manley is a glider flight instructor and writer for Soaring Magazine. He was my first instructor and the two of us spent a number of months flying together. This week we met for the first time. Yes, the last two sentences are in chronological order. I did my initial training in a networkable soaring simulator with me on Cape Cod and Scott in Wisconsin. Scott could see what I was doing in real-time, and if the scenario called for it, we could even fly separate gliders in the same virtual airspace.

Scott didn’t take any compensation for this. Our pact (some old-school instructors may say it was a pact with the devil) was that when I went for flight training in a real glider I wouldn’t tell my instructors of my simulator experience. Scott’s rationalization for this was that convincing Luddite glider instructors in the value of simulation training would be more effective if we take them by surprise. It was an effective strategy, and I had my instructors thinking either I was the greatest student they ever had, or that they suddenly became the Jedi Masters of teaching. Neither was true, but it did help to prove Scott’s point once I fessed up.

So after all this time I finally got to shake Scott’s hand, and help him spread the word of simulation-based glider training here at the Soaring Society of America tent at AirVenture. If you ever wanted to fly sailplanes I’m happy to help get you started, and you won't have to make a pact with the devil.

David

 

Night shows…and injuries

Thank god we had gotten down there in time, IT WAS PACKED! I hadn’t expected something like this would be packed like so…

  Well, I thought, there would be the wall of fire, so I guess it was only natural. Dad and I walked down to the edge of the runway with chairs strapped to our backs. When we arrived we located out a spot near to a shimmering lemon colored plane, aero-awesomness!!!! I was beginning to feel peckish for ice-cream. I asked Father dearest for a few dollars and bought myself a dove bar-NOT BEFORE ASKING HIM IF HE WANTED ANYTHING!! {Remember that line}…It took me a few minutes to find my way back to our small territory through the little mortals and the falling night. Eventually, I spotted it, and sat down in my Latin school of Chicago fold-up chair.I began to munch away. Dad leaned over and asked “Can I have a small bite??” “NO”!! I exclaimed! “I ASKED YOU IF YOUWANTED SOMETHING BEFORE I WENT”!! I challenged as I handed him the excess change. “AND EVEN IF I HAD PAID, YOU TAKE BITES THE SIZE OF TEXSAS”!!!!!!!!! I yelled as he recoiled smiling slightly. Soon enough, the show started. A plane came out of no-where and performed daring tricks while spitting out fireworks from its wing tips. “Whoa”… I breathed. This went on for a while. Although we had different pilots, and aircraft, performing similar tricks, it got kind-of boring. Oh well. The last act before the fireworks was “magic by moonlight” a plane moved swiftly across the night sky lighting it up, with attached lights all around. The Phantom Of The Opera theme played all the way through its spooktacular performance. I sang along to the famous opera song line “in sleep he sang o me…” etc. Afterwards the crowd and I, counted down from 10-0 to await the fireworks. They came! Ear splitting cracks and blows! Colorful lights lit-up the dark and now saddened sky! It ended.  Then we awaited for the “crem-da-lu-crem” the fiestaresistonce {French accent}, THE WALL OF FIRE!! Just like before we counted down 10-0. Fire shot up 15 stories high! Flame shot out in all directions! I could feel the heat all the way from my 1,000 ft distance! HOLE-AH FREAKSHOW! I yelled once it had died down.

   Dad and I wormed our way in between the hustling crowd. “Hehehe” I said as I heard a cricket. “I’ve got you now faddah fingling!!!!” I said I crouched down and pounced-the chair I had been carrying over my shoulder slid off weighing me down I fell everywhere I guess you could say. I started to crack up. Everyone stared. I’M NORMALL!!! I yelled-“It looks like you have serious issue dad commented. “I KNOOW!!” I replied in my hipper state of mind. We waltzed back to the tent and spent another cold long lonely night.  I awoke to jets. Lately; they were becoming my alarm clock. I was excited, for today was our ultra-light plane flight. Little did I know  a two-person Breezy ultralight plane had just crashed. I thought they had died. The fire was huge, and the ambulance stayed there for the longest time. I became instantly frightened…I wasn’t so sure I wanted to go anymore. The UL pilots might have been thinking the same thing. Our flight is now postponed until tomorrow. The rest of the day was low key due to this morning’s incident. But, I’m planning to sleep all day tomorrow to save energy for Saturday’s 5K race which I will win-JUST KIDDING!

 I soon spotted the Thunder Birds overhead spiraling and circling. I REALLY admired them, and there engines actually sounded-like thunder—soon—I heard a sound like and engine and then water droplets. I soon realized that it was no thunderbird---it was real thunder…Of course being a huge admirer of the thunder birds-I made a tribute in song  …………………., I’ve been dreaming I’ve been waiting-to fly with those great pilots, the Thunder birds they’re daring tricks-spinning round and having kick’s. We’ll perform for crowds of thousands n’ they’ll shower us with diamonds the thunder birds will see me, right here a-at Airveentuuuure!!!!!!!!!

 Sara

 

Anger Issues and Helicopters

MY LIFE SUCKS I HATE IT HERE!!! I WANT NOTHING MORE THAN TO GO HOME!!! I MISS EVERYONE AND I’M TIRED CONSTANTLY. I THOUGHT MY HOMESICKNESS WOULD HAVE IMPROVED BY NOW. IT DIDN’T. I MISS MY MOTHER, I MISS MY FRIENDS, I WANNA GO FISHING EVERY MORNING, AND NOT GO TO A SHOWER THAT DOES-NOT WORK!!!!!! I'M HOT/COLD/TIRED ARGH!!!! I'M UN-CLEAN!! AND I JUST WANNA GO HOME. I’M NEVER DOING SOMETHING LIKE THIS AGAIN, OR AT LEAST NOT FOR AS LONG. IF THIS EVENT WERE CLOSER TO HOME- I MIGHT-GO, BUT IM NOT SURE.  I JUST WANT TO SLEEP ALL DAY TO PASS THE TIME!!!!!!!! In fact that doesn’t sound like a bad idea……

    I didn’t start out writing this to tell you all that. What I wanted to tell you is about my experience in a helicopter. I woke up early-ish on the morning of 7/28/14. As usual-I was not in a good mood- I missed everyone, especially my Woods Holeian B.F.F. Of course today I hoped would be different. I grabbed a pb&j sandwich and raced  out of the tent with shower supplies and clothes in hand. As stated earlier in the first paragraph-the showers are horrible-and close together- and I of was trying all I could to stay covered up. I finished my shower choking back tears of loss.

After about 15 minutes of preparation for the day back at the tent, my dad and I hopped on our bikes and headed down to where the helicopters were located. Once we were there we padded into and old hangar with a table consisting of the helicopter ride-staff. My dad signed a couple papers for the flight- which set us back $100....o.o holy freakshow…we eventually sat down in a few chairs next to a few more folks waiting for a ride. I observed a few people getting out of helicopters underneath the constantly whirring propellers. I swallowed hard- if I were to jump up underneath the helicopter my head would be ground right off of my shoulders. Yikes! An older man began to advance upon us. He rambled on about how to enter and exit the aircraft. But I was too enthralled with the helicopter itself to listen.

Eventually it was time to board. I hopped like a rabbit to the propeller whirring vehicle. I kept my eye on the propeller, it was nerve racking. Dad and I were eventually seated and buckled in together. The helicopter quickly lifted off the ground. I peered out over the widely opened side door and goose bumps ran over my body. It was so cool! The houses and campers and fighter jets, looked like mere toys from THIS view!!:D “Whoa”~~ I breathed. It seemed that as soon as we were up-we were back down again… we landed in a circle painted on the grass, with a smiley face drawn in it.”Ok”.. I stammered. A man loped over to us not even flinching when under the propeller-except for the wind it was creating. He seemed pretty expressionless. I immediately felt like the lion from the wizard of Oz.. I was usually the courageous one in these kinds of circumstances. The man un-did our seatbelts and I hopped out of the aircraft still petrified of the consistently turning propeller perched on top of the helicopter. ”Sheesh”~~ what an expensive, short, yet cool adventure I said as dad and I headed over to kid-venture I smiled devilishly –“what’s next”…

Sara

Camping for Dummies

Most of my friends know that my idea of camping is a hotel without room service. My camping experience is limited to some formative trips with the boy scouts which is probably why I'm so adverse to traveling without room service, even if the only item on the delivery menu would be cold Spam.

Amy keeps extolling on the virtues of "Car Camping", which is what Sara and I are doing here at Oshkosh. I can safely say that the only advantage to car camping is that the first thing you see when you exit your tent is your car, which really isn't a virtue, only a reminder that you can easily drive to that hotel with room service.

Let it suffice to say that I have come ill prepared for the full-on camping experience, and were it
not for the fact that a Walmart exists less than a few miles from here, my daughter probably would not be speaking to me now.

Granted, there is something unique about camping next to an airstrip and waking up to the sounds of a squadron of P51, V12 Merlin engines pushed to the stops as they roar overhead. For her part, Sara constantly points out the tricked-out, mega motor homes and asks why we didn't bring one of those. By the end of the week I may be asking myself the same question.

David