By Laurel Dudley 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...

By Laurel Dudley 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...

By Laurel Dudley 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...

By Laurel Dudley 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...

By Laurel Dudley Oliver Taylor was four when his family discovered adaptive skiing. He had a hard time walking due to a neurodevelopmental disorder, and at the time, in 2015, would often lose his balance and fall to the ground. Even getting from the parking lot to the...

By John Henderson Eden, UTAH—A few days ago, I was feeling nervous about my upcoming ski lessons and then my wife reminded me why: It had been six years since I’ve skied, with everything that goes into it. For me, an adaptive skier, that means six years since I’ve...

By Laurel Dudley   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...

By Laurel Dudley “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...

By Laurel Dudley 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...