CARRABASSETT VALLEY — Legendary blind athlete Erik Weihenmayer will attend the second annual New England Blind/Visually Impaired Ski Festival on Sunday through Thursday, Feb. 10-14, at Sugarloaf ski resort.
Hosted by Maine Adaptive Sports and Recreation, the event is dedicated to blind and visually-impaired skiers, Eric Topper, director of outreach at Maine Adaptive, said Friday afternoon in a news statement.
Weihenmayer is best known as the first and only blind man to reach the summit of Mount Everest. He also has climbed the highest peaks on each of the seven continents, and his next goal is to kayak the Grand Canyon, according to his Facebook site.
Topper said Weihenmayer will speak and ski with more than 100 blind and visually-impaired skiers and their guides during the event.
“The festival is unique in that it provides ski lessons to beginners and advanced skiers that have a visual impairment, as well as teaches friends and family who are interested in how to become guides,” he said.
Bruce Albiston, co-chairman of New England Blind/VI Ski Festival, said their goal is to provide skiers with the opportunity to develop their skiing abilities on all levels of terrain with their own guides or qualified festival volunteers.
“We are excited to welcome skiers from all across the country to this festival,” Albiston said.
He said event organizers also will provide training for guides from instructors in adaptive techniques by the Professional Ski Instructors of America.
Aside from skiing, ski clinics and learning how to guide blind and visually-impaired skiers, other activities include a pizza party, snow tubing, snowmobiling, ski races and an awards banquet.
“We wanted to create a unique social, recreational and educational experience for skiers of all levels,” Toby Burdet, program coordinator for Maine Adaptive’s weekly alpine program at Sugarloaf, said.
“The ski clinics are customized to meet each participant’s level of skiing, and this year, we are thrilled to have well-known athlete Erik Weihenmayer ski the slopes with us and share his techniques,” Burdet said.
Due to Friday and Saturday’s heavy snowstorm, Weihenmayer posted late Friday afternoon on his Facebook site that flights into New England and Maine were canceled. He said he hopes to arrive sometime Saturday night.
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