My name is Jemima and I have Osteogenesis Imperfecta, also known as Brittle Bone Disease. I never thought I would be able to ski and I wouldn’t have been able to do it without you guys. It was a really fun, awesome experience. I will definitely be back and would like to ski with my little sister next time too. It was super cool!
We met up with Kathryn at the ski lift and went up in the cable car to get the sit-ski sorted out. Kathryn and Amélie made sure it was really comfortable for me; I was super cosy. Then we went up on another cable car before getting started. I loved going on the chair lift for the first time. It was really cool looking down at all the tiny people below me. And I loved the views of the mountains. It is just so beautiful up there.
When we got started, Amélie asked me to choose which slopes to go down. I felt really nervous because someone I didn’t really know at all was going to take me down a ski slope on a chair and I basically had no control. But we took it easy to start with, down some nice calm runs. Amélie had to work hard at the start though because it was very flat. But then we got going and it was really awesome flying down the slopes. I felt a bit like a big bird, and I just wanted to do it again and again. Then we tried other runs which were steeper and we went down real red slopes. After lunch I learned to lean into the turns, using my bodyweight to help my pilot, and I was calling out when to turn. We went really fast!
The next day we skied in the afternoon with Margot and we did even more runs because we were already in a routine. We went down a really ginormous red run at the end. I could feel the difference in what type of snow we went over. It was definitely the team who had to say ‘stop’ in the end, I could have stayed there all night skiing, we would definitely have missed the last lifts if it had been up to me. I just didn’t want to stop. But afterwards it was super cool to hang out together and have some après-ski drinks.
All of the team were really lovely people, and it was so cool being able to really join in, calling the turns and leaning into them so I could make it go faster. I loved going down fast – it was like going down a really, really long slide – and I always felt completely safe and comfortable. I’ve never felt like that before because I’ve never been able to join in something like this before. It was such an exhilarating experience.
Skiing with Verbier4All has given me a boost of confidence and has definitely made me not so afraid to do new things. I’m proud of myself that I managed to do it. Being in a wheelchair sometimes makes people look at me and that makes me self-conscious. I didn’t even think about that when I was skiing, I was just having so much fun doing what I was doing on the slopes with everyone else.
I am really, really happy that I was able to do this. Thank you and see you soon!
Recent Comments