As we began to assess Alina’s physical capabilities, we learned that Alina is a paragliding expert. She had learned to ski while training to “speedride” – a winter discipline of paragliding that uses a paraglider wing and skis to descend a mountain – and had been injured while paragliding in Salt Lake City in October 2020, crashing and injuring her ribs, pelvic region, and spine. “I spent a month and a half in the hospital, I’m 2 inches shorter, and have nerve damage to my left leg which causes motor function issues,” Alina said. Initially, her doctors told her that it was unlikely she’d regain function below the knee, but through intense physical therapy and the support of her High Fives Foundation sponsorship, Alina showed up ready to take to the mountain again and continue working towards her goal of speedriding.

Our focus for the lesson was rebuilding her confidence on snow. Dave guided her safely down the terrain while Karen and I skied behind, blocking her from uphill traffic. As we learned more about her experience as a paraglider while riding the chairlift, we gained insight on how to best lead her lesson. “One of the really cool moments was when she equated the beauty of a ski turn with the beauty of a parasail turn,” Dave said. In our first few laps, Alina hesitated to shift her weight to her left leg, but several green runs later, she was carving turns on both sides. As I saw Alina start to trust herself more and commit to her turns, I began to have more confidence in my ability to analyze her movement patterns and provide technical suggestions on how she could improve her skiing.

For our final run of the day, we moved up from the beginner slopes and rode the Treeline Cirque Chair. Despite the new slopes’ steeper pitches and choppier snow, Alina didn’t waver. “We finished in intermediate terrain with her doing linked, beautifully shaped speed controlled turns,” Dave said. “Alina smashed any expectations that the teaching team had.”