How Outdoor Recreation Can Heal: Josh Hansen, Founder of Continue Mission
Josh Hansen, a retired U.S. Army sergeant, has been bringing veterans to ski with Ogden Valley Adaptive Sports (OVAS) since 2018. His group is known as Continue Mission, which is a non-profit that Josh founded to help veterans heal from injuries ranging from physical to emotional. Josh knows first-hand the struggles that many veterans face. After two tours in Iraq as an IED hunter and 125
Instructor Highlight: Cindy Conlin Is Full Of Joy
Talk to people who know Cindy Conlin, the five-foot-two woman with the radiating smile, and they’ll tell you that she exudes so much enthusiasm it’s contagious. The 51-year-old, who has been teaching adaptive ski lessons with Ogden Valley Adaptive Sports since 2014, never imagined her passions in life would converge. But they did, after she took what she calls a giant leap of faith and
Instructor Highlight: What Makes Dustin Anderson So Likable?
It isn’t immediately obvious what makes Dustin Anderson so likable. The 48-year-old Brigham City resident who everyone calls Dusty is brief with words. But ask anyone who’s taken his ski lessons—he’s taught for over 20 years—and you’ll hear the same thing. Wrapped inside his quiet nature is a caring, steadfast man who not only makes you feel safe but also makes sure you’re having fun. Dusty
Skiing with Ogden Valley Adaptive Sports is helping one man reconcile life with a terminal diagnosis. It’s helping his family, too.
If you skied at Snowbasin over the past couple winters, you may have glimpsed an eye-catching sight: two snowboarders, one’s hands on the other’s hips, shredding the mountain in such perfect sync that they could be figure skaters. Or dancers. For Doug Kimball, one of the men, it does feel like a dance. He calls the other snowboarder, an Ogden Valley Adaptive Sports instructor who guides
How Ogden Valley Adaptive Sports Came To Be
Ogden Valley Adaptive Sports (OVAS) officially began in 2009. But it took multiple years, one daunting transition, and a handful of passionate people. When Stew Marsh joined Snowbasin in 2004 to oversee and expand the ski school, he knew he wanted to add an adaptive program. A decades-long ski industry man and former ski instructor, Stew, like many, was awed and inspired by the event that
How One Student Is Gaining Independence With OVAS’s Help
“1, 2, 3, BOOM!” That’s what 13-year-old Sam Dingman told his parents after his first OVAS ski lesson. The moment was significant for several reasons, one of them being that Sam has Down syndrome. Not only is speaking hard for him, but also are activities that require leg strength. Sam demonstrated what he had learned as he spoke. BOOM marked the moment his instructor, Carrie, wanted him
Ogden Valley Adaptive Sports Welcomes Alex Davenport, New Program Director
Alex Davenport is easy to spot up on the mountain: just look for the guy in the pink helmet. What was initially a dare from a friend over a decade ago—wear this pink helmet and I’ll give it to you for free—became an awesome icebreaker among the students to whom he gave ski lessons, much to Alex’s surprise. More importantly, the helmet evolved into something else.