SOLITUDE MOUNTAIN RESORT, Utah — Exactly three years ago Thursday, Cassie Eckroth suffered a spinal cord injury from surfing. A year into her recovery, she was introduced to the mono ski.
“Skiing is so, so important to me and so important to my mental health and getting out there and getting to do something where I don't need anybody's help, and I can go out all by myself and get on the snow and manage my equipment and get on and off the lift,” she said. “I don't remember that I have a disability, and I don't feel any different than anybody else on the mountain.”
This week, Eckroth is helping mentor veterans and first responders who are learning how to ski for the first time through High Fives Foundation’s ‘Military to the Mountains’ program held at Solitude Mountain Resort.
Roy Tuscany founded High Fivees in 2009, three years after the then-aspiring pro skier fractured a vertebrae in his spine, falling flat off a 100-foot jump.
“I was left partially paralyzed from the belly button down, and in the early days of my injury, the support I wouldn't say that was being mentally provided to me was the best,” he said. “I think it's really a challenge that each of these veterans is up for the case to do, and when they conquer it, then they keep to get to go up the mountain higher and higher and higher.”
Twenty-two veterans and first responders were selected from across the country. They trained for nine weeks to prepare for one week of skiing.
“It works on wounded veterans both mentally, physically, spiritually, and then we come here and put it all together on the snow,” said Brian Vines, an Army veteran.
Snowboarding in Utah for the first time, Vines says this is a passion he’ll keep for the rest of his life.
“We come here as a team, and that's something that's very accommodating and for veterans, something that we grew up with in the military,” he said. “As a team, you learn those skills, and it makes it more fun to do it that way because we all have common shared experiences, which kind of brings us closer together.”
