Winter Sports Clinic 2025: Boundless Possibilities

The Journey Begins

Each spring for the past 39 years, Veterans and their caregivers make their way to Snowmass, Colorado. Their destination: the National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic, aka Winter Sports Clinic. While their life experiences and injuries are different – traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), spinal cord injuries, visual impairments, amputations and other severe disabilities – they share a common purpose: to embrace adventure, push past limits and discover what's possible.

Power that Unites

Veteran Scott Henderson, who served in the Army and National Guard Veteran, is one of the many Veterans who will experience “miracles on the mountain” for the first time this week.

“We have all suffered in some way, shape or form. It is an honor and gift to be able to do this,” he said.  Henderson, from Palo Alto VA Medical Center, is looking forward to being part of a new community to find commonalities that  unite him with fellow Veterans

New Possibilities

Returning for her second year, Navy Veteran Rachel Rice,  from the Martinsburg VA Medical Center, eagerly anticipates the thrill of sit skiing.  In September 2019, while training for a marathon, her legs started to “fall out from her.” By December, she could barely walk and would be diagnosed with a spinal cord illness.

For Rice, skiing is a thrill. “It’s like having your own personal roller coaster. It’s freeing… you can go and do not feel held back.”

For Army Veteran Curtis Jemison, who began losing his vision in 2024 due to macular degeneration, this week is about stepping into the unknown.  He has been training with Detroit’s John D. Dingle VA Medical Center for the past months, determined to try skiing, scuba diving “and everything they have to experience here.”

“I think I’m in bad shape, and there are some worse off than me," Jemison said. "They are out here, pushing themselves and they motivate me to push on.”

Army Veteran Jason Dills, from the VA Augusta Health Care System, returns for a second year, eager to ski again.

“It’s exhilarating! I never did this before I was injured," said Dills. "It opened my eyes to a bunch of possibilities—I didn’t know any of this is possible!” Since attending his first Winter Sports Clinic, he competed at the National Veterans Wheelchair Games.

His advice for all the first-time participants, “Relax and take it all in—enjoy it. You don’t know until you try—you don’t know what’s attainable until you go for it.”

To learn more about the National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic, visit https://www.wintersportsclinic.org.

Katie Beall is the Newsroom Chief for VISN 19’s Creative Task Force team.