As usual, I had another fantastic weekend here in Nagano, Japan. The week just flew by; all of the sudden, I realized that it was Friday morning and another weekend of skiing was just a day away. Who could ask for more.
I left for Hakuba early, early on Saturday morning. The traffic wasn't bad getting there, so I got to the chair lift at about 7:15. This morning, though, there were quite a few cars in the parking lot; Needless to say, I was a bit surprised. Most of the time when I get to the lift early in the morning, the lot is empty. So I went up to the ticket office to purchase my two day pass, and then I realized why it was so busy.
This weekend, there was a race taking place on the mountain. While most races are exciting to watch, this one was special. It was a two day Para- Olympic style event where racers had some sort of handicap. Some racers only had one leg, some were blind, and some had no use of there legs. So how did they do it?
Well the racers with only one leg just had one ski. It was amazing to see them go down the mountain. The racers that were blind would ski with a buddy. Although I didn't see them race first hand, I have been told that their buddy will ski ahead of them and use a microphone to tell the blind racers whether to go straight or turn. And finally, the racers with
no use of their legs would ski sitting down on a special sit with a complex spring/balancing mechanism that was attached to one ski. All in all, I was completely amazed by the skill of these skiers. Sometimes I have a difficult time just skiing one two skis with use of both of my legs.
Any who, this weekend I was also shown some new tree/avalanche gate runs on Happo O-ne. Now that I have my new skis, I am getting quite a bit better at navigating these runs. However, skiing through the trees and stuff is a lot of hard work; much harder than skiing on the groomed runs. But to tell you the truth, there are a 100 times more fun. It is a whole different world when you feel like you are just alone in the mountain.
Well here are some pictures of the handicap skiers.
slater
I left for Hakuba early, early on Saturday morning. The traffic wasn't bad getting there, so I got to the chair lift at about 7:15. This morning, though, there were quite a few cars in the parking lot; Needless to say, I was a bit surprised. Most of the time when I get to the lift early in the morning, the lot is empty. So I went up to the ticket office to purchase my two day pass, and then I realized why it was so busy.
This weekend, there was a race taking place on the mountain. While most races are exciting to watch, this one was special. It was a two day Para- Olympic style event where racers had some sort of handicap. Some racers only had one leg, some were blind, and some had no use of there legs. So how did they do it?Well the racers with only one leg just had one ski. It was amazing to see them go down the mountain. The racers that were blind would ski with a buddy. Although I didn't see them race first hand, I have been told that their buddy will ski ahead of them and use a microphone to tell the blind racers whether to go straight or turn. And finally, the racers with
no use of their legs would ski sitting down on a special sit with a complex spring/balancing mechanism that was attached to one ski. All in all, I was completely amazed by the skill of these skiers. Sometimes I have a difficult time just skiing one two skis with use of both of my legs.Any who, this weekend I was also shown some new tree/avalanche gate runs on Happo O-ne. Now that I have my new skis, I am getting quite a bit better at navigating these runs. However, skiing through the trees and stuff is a lot of hard work; much harder than skiing on the groomed runs. But to tell you the truth, there are a 100 times more fun. It is a whole different world when you feel like you are just alone in the mountain.
Well here are some pictures of the handicap skiers.
slater
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