NEWRY, Maine - The first time he skied the dauntingly steep double black diamond Vortex trail at Sunday River, Griffin LaMarre was apprehensive.
“I was pretty nervous and scared at first,’’ acknowledged the seventh-grader from Haverhill, Mass.
That’s not surprising for a teenager but LaMarre, 13, has tackled more super steeps like White Heat, and is being groomed with two other young skiers in the nonprofit Maine Handicapped Skiing program for a shot at the 2014 Paralympic Games in Russia.
“I just have to try to get faster and work on my technique,’’ LaMarre said from Breckenridge, Colo., where he and a handful of other developing MHS race team skiers were attending a US Paralympic Association Adaptive Alpine race camp and competing in a couple of NorAm races. “I have to train really hard and go to more races to get my points up.’’
LaMarre has Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia, a progressive condition that weakens and stiffens his legs, forcing him to ski with outriggers, poles that mimic skis. Also at the camp was Lindsay Ball, 17, a visually impaired skier from Benton, Maine, who skis with a guide in front of her calling out directions as she runs the gates, and Alex Tomaszewski, 15, from Wells, Maine, who was born without the lower portion of his right leg. He’s the 2009 junior adaptive Alpine champion.
“We have these three kids, and others, who are very successful,’’ said MHS executive director Peter Adams. “They demonstrate the breadth of possibilities. They have adapted and figured out a way to get through what life throws at us.’’
MHS got its start in 1982 at Sunday River. From its bare-bones lodge and offices beyond the South Ridge base area, more than 350 children and adults with physical disabilities are introduced to Alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, and snowboarding for free from January through March. The year-round program also includes cycling, paddling, and golf.
Volunteers coach, teach, guide, and block (to give wider space away from able-bodied skiers), and are ski techs for gear such as the $3,500 sit skis that weigh about 30 pounds.
The program largely caters to the recreational element. An Alpine racing team started nine years ago. The 14 skiers range from ages 13 to 55. Several ski at the national level while former MHS racers have moved on to the US Adaptive Ski Team and competed at the Paralympics, held after every Winter Games. Top-level skiers race in all disciplines: downhill, slalom, giant slalom, super-G, and super combined.
New racers first compete in the regional Diana Golden Series, a string of nine races held across the Northeast, beginning at Loon in Lincoln, N.H., Jan. 9, and ending at Mount Sunapee March 21. Racers who do well move up to the elite level.
