The Jasper Community Team is seeking 10 to 12 instructors for CADS training to help others learn to use a sit ski and trail rider. 

Two programs are being offered, CADS Level 1 and enhanced training for CADS Level 1. Both classes are being taught to assist users of the COS team’s sit ski equipment. 

The team purchased a child and adult sized sit ski, and a trail rider that allows disabled people to experience Jasper’s hiking trails, as part of the Wilderness Access program. 

The instructors are being trained to allow supervision while skiers learn to use the equipment, which has been around for a few years. COS has just now developed a plan to have the equipment rented out. There will be a cost for visitors, but locals can use it for free. 

Andrew Hendricks, the Wilderness Access program co-ordinator, has been involved since September getting the legal aspect of the program finished. Once the program is approved, the equipment will be available immediately. 

“Hopefully in the next couple weeks it will be good to go,” Hendricks said. 

The workshops are being held on Dec. 8 and those interested in using the equipment will have to sign a waiver explaining their disability. The equipment will then be delivered to the person for the day. A CADS membership is not required to use the equipment. Temporarily injured people are welcome to use it as well. 

“We’re focusing more on the locals,” Hendricks said. “They’re here, the locals helped fund-raise for it. We want them to be able to see the town that they live in.”

Right now a bi-ski is available, but Hendricks said they hope to purchase a more advanced mono-ski, which is the device used in Paralympic ski events. 

The bi-ski is easier to balance on and helps the user learn to move and keep upright. Hendricks said that depending on ability and each user’s disability, they may be able to move up to the more difficult ski. 

Hendricks, who himself is in a wheelchair, said the mono ski is much easier to move. He tried the bi-ski last year and used the trail rider in the spring. 

When he moved here in 1997, Hendricks said many people asked him what Jasper was like, and how beautiful it was. He was unfortunately unable to experience some of the things Jasper is most well known for, but now with the trail rider and sit ski, he can get the full Jasper experience. 

“Now there’s the opportunity for me and other people in similar situations to experience Jasper,” Hendricks said. 

When learning how to use the sit ski, Hendricks said the instructor tethers the equipment to himself, and the user learns to turn and balance – all while safely secured and strapped in. 

“You’re there to tell them what to do,” he said of the instructors. 

Hendricks said he had an experience like any other first-time skier – he hit the snow, a lot. 

“You do fall just like in any sort of skiing [experience],” he said. 

But the falls were minor, and didn’t even produce any bruises the next day. 

“I never got injured,” Hendricks said. “It was fun.”

Turning is much easier than it looks, and subtle movements can send you in another direction easily. 

“All you have to do is basically move your head.”

This is the first time there has been a permanent program for disabled skiers in Jasper. Hendricks remembers not being able to participate in ski trips as a teenager, when the entire high school would head off to Marmot Basin for the day. 

“There was basically nothing for me growing up,” he said. 

That has all changed with the new Wilderness Access program, and it provides just that – access to Jasper’s beautiful trails and ski runs. 

“The desire was there so it happened,” Hendricks said. 

The Wilderness Access program has a Facebook page for more information, Hendricks can also be reached at wildernessaccess@gmail.com