ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, February 26, 1996 TAG: 9602270002
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SU CLAUSON-WICKER SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES
Skiing is challenging for the able-bodied. But the sport is by no means limited to those with the use of all their limbs, at least not at Snowshoe/Silver Creek.
The West Virginia resort boasts the largest challenged-skier program in the Virginias, assisting skiers who have no use of one or both legs, no arm control and sometimes no sight or communicative ability.
"Some are essentially just along for the ride," said John McCabe, the program director, "but most have some degree of involvement in their ski run."
Nineteen-year-old Jessica Lawhorn, a Knoxville, Tenn. native with cerebral palsy, was involved in every sense of the word during her run down Silver Creek's Deer Crossing. Skiing in a sleigh-like bi-ski with McCabe hitched behind for ballast and direction, Lawhorn giggled, waved her hands overhead and threw her torso from side to side to help execute turns.
"At last, I feel like I'm participating," she said. "I've always wanted to ski. I've gone to ski resorts with my family and watched them participate. Now I know what skiing is. I love it."
Lawhorn visited Silver Creek on winter break with her brother, Jason, and other college friends. Before they came, they were assured the resort had "some kind of adaptive program," but didn't realize the extent of the seven-day-a week program until they met McCabe. Within half an hour, Lawhorn, who uses a power wheelchair, was out on the slopes in a custom-made, $2,000 piece of equipment.
McCabe could see Lawhorn wouldn't be skiing in standing position, but when she deftly defeated him in the "arm-wrestle test," he let her try some hand-held skis for additional directional control of the bi-ski. Lawhorn's arms, it turned out, were stronger than her hands, so she dropped the hand skis and assisted McCabe by twisting her upper body in the direction she wanted to turn.
Twice, her bi-ski fell over, but she came back up smiling. "See, she's not glass," said McCabe. "Falling is part of the fun of skiing."
Lawhorn, who chose G.I. Joe dolls over Barbies as a child, was game enough to let McCabe switch places on the tether with snowboarder Nathan Magnuson. While Magnuson was adept at keeping her speed in check, he had more problems keeping himself upright than did McCabe on his skis.
McCabe has been guiding disabled skiers for more than a decade, six years as director of Snowshoe/Silver Creek's adaptive program. Among the more than 100 clients he sees each year are amputee, double amputee, quadriplegic, blind, autistic and severely retarded skiers. A quadriplegic client comes every year from Switzerland to ski with him. This year, the young man's family donated a bi-ski to the resort.
Another client, former Reagan press secretary James Brady, skied for the first time in his life with his teen-age son at Silver Creek last year.
Among McCabe's favorite clients are Dow'n syndrome children. "You're practically guaranteed to have a good time when you go out on the slopes with them," he said. "They are some of the sweetest, most appreciative, most eager-to-learn people alive."
McCabe occasionally has used Silver Creek's adaptive equipment with the elderly and skiers temporarily handicapped by ski injuries.
"Last year I took a high-level quadriplegic out for a lesson. I asked him how he got that way, and he said, 'I hit a tree skiing six months ago.' His friends said he was crazy to be on the slopes again. He told them, 'What am I going to do, become a paraplegic again?'''
Lessons for physically challenged skiers are available at Snowshoe/Silver Creek's standard group rate of $18 a session. Reservations are strongly encouraged.
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS/Staff. 1. Jessica Lawhorn enjoysby CNBthrill of skiing on a bi-ski controlled by John McCabe, the Adaptive
Ski Program instructor at Silver Creek. 2. Instructor John McCabe
prepares a sleigh-like bi-ski for Jessica Lawhorn, a 19-year old
victim of cerebral palsy. color.