Just had a great time with the family skiing for spring break in Winter Park, Colorado. Although I have been skiing many times, I am always shocked when I’m skiing and see a skier with a big sign on their jacket that says, “blind skier.” I think that is an incredible thing and that it takes an amazing amount of courage and trust to be a blind skier. Skiing is hard enough when you can see the mountain and exactly where you are going. I can’t imagine flying down the slopes without being able to see where I’m going. There was some kind of competition going on for disabled skiers when we happened to be there so there was a good amount of disabled skiers on the mountain. It’s an incredible thing to see a blind skier competing on a slalom course weaving in and out of the flags. We found out later that the blind skiers performing in the slalom race had an earpiece in and were being instructed by their coach of when and where to turn. We have talked a little about disabilities in games and how people are faced with different kinds of challenges. It is incredible how much a game changes when such challenges are presented and how different components of the game become more or less important. For example, trust is not a very important feature of skiing, but instantly becomes absolutely essential to the blind skier zooming down the mountain with nothing but the guidance of their coach. One’s ability to listen is also not a big component of skiing, but also becomes vital to a blind skiers success. It is interesting to see how games have changed over time and what skills are essential to a game, but it is also interesting to see how games themselves change based on who is participating.
As a very experienced skier myself, I find this story extremely inspiring and fascinating. Like you said, I think the most important skill essential to skiing has to be vision. If you can't see, you can't possibly ski, it's that simple right? Well apparently not. Even after hearing this story it is still hard for me to believe that this actually occurred and that blind skiers can actually succeed with such limiting conditions. This feat is something that I have never come across and actually has changed my perception on the sport. I like how you emphasized the concept that such a simple alteration in the structure of a game completely changes the necessary skills to succeed. Hearing someone with a disability succeed and overcome an obstacle no one ever believed they could is always a great story to hear.
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