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From spinal injury to skiing: Challenge Aspen and Craig Hospital teach patients to adaptive ski

Spinal cord and traumatic brain injury patients from Craig Hospital participate in the hospital's adventure program in Snowmass on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025.
Regan Mertz
/
Aspen Public Radio
Spinal cord and traumatic brain injury patients from Craig Hospital participate in the hospital's adventure program in Snowmass on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025.

Challenge Aspen partnered with Denver’s Craig Hospital to bring six previous patients to Snowmass Mountain to learn how to adaptive ski. The hospital is a neurorehabilitation and research facility that specializes in spinal cord and traumatic brain injuries.

“50% of Craig’s inpatients come from Colorado, and the other 50% come from outside of Colorado,” said Danielle Scroggs, a certified therapeutic recreation specialist at Craig.

“Every patient’s rehab stay is different,” she added. “So it could be 30 days, 60 days, longer. It totally depends, but when they’re inpatient they live at the hospital.”

After patients graduate from their rehab program, they are invited to participate in the adventure program, which could entail anything from enjoying the hot springs in Glenwood Springs to skiing on Snowmass Mountain.

For some it was their first time on skis, and for others it was their first time back on the mountains after their accident.

16-year-old Blake Mendenhall came to Aspen to learn how to adaptive ski as a part of this program. Nearly a year ago, Mendenhall was snowboarding at a California resort when he caught an edge and hit a tree. He fractured his spine between T4 and T5 and had a complete fracture between T8 and T9, the thoracic vertebra that make up the spinal column. These injuries left his legs paralyzed. He was transported to Craig Hospital where he had to learn how to use a wheelchair and adjust to his new way of moving through the world.

“I picked him up at the airport when they first landed and I think he was nervous,” said Challenge Aspen Rec Program Director Deb Sullivan. “And when we were driving in, he saw the snowboarders on the halfpipe at X Games…I think it got him excited.”

Sullivan said one of the hardest parts for advanced snowsports athletes after their injuries is having to start all over again.

“But it’s totally doable,” she said. “He’s only a year out, and he’s going to get stronger and stronger.”

Craig Hospital patients who graduated from their rehabilitation programs learn to adaptive ski on Snowmass Mountain on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025.
Regan Mertz
/
Aspen Public Radio
Craig Hospital patients who graduated from their rehabilitation programs learn to adaptive ski on Snowmass Mountain on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025.

Before Mendenhall’s accident he was an all star athlete, playing football, soccer and golf, and he was an avid snowboarder. Mendenhall continues to participate in sports, joining a wheelchair basketball team, golfing with his friends using a specialized chair that stands him up so that he can swing, taking up pickleball and, now, coming to Aspen to learn how to adaptive ski.

Almost a year after his injury, this is Mendenhall’s first time back on the mountain.

“It felt good, just feeling the ski doing its thing, just figuring out the monoski, it’s definitely different than the biski,” he said. “Finding different ways to counter to one side of the runs to the next, just slowly improving each run.”

And Mendenhall wanted to make the most of the adventure program, which is why on his last day, he decided to move from the biski to a monoski.

“I’m only here three days, and I wanted to make it worth it, want to just try everything I could,” he said. “You know, the biski you can shred with it, you can fall, it was more stable. With the monoski, you just got to get used to it, just keeping trying with it and not give up.”

Mendenhall is back home in California now, a sophomore in high school working on getting his drivers license and taking sign language and business classes. He has future aspirations to dominate the monoski, join the wheelchair basketball paralympics and become a motivational speaker.

“My message is at times it’s going to be hard but just keep follow through-ing and even though you want to give up, you’re a step closer to getting where you want to be,” Mendenhall said. “And even if it takes time, just keep following what you love.”

Mendenhall’s recreational therapist Danielle Scroggs has been with him since the beginning of his rehab and, in a full circle moment, snowboarded with him at the Meadows, giving him pep talks in between runs.

“I’m in this really unique spot where they were my patients when they first got to Craig, so I’ve seen them at arguably the hardest moment of their lives,” she said. “And I get to come full circle with them and also get them back to something that they loved before their injury or teach them something new that maybe they didn’t know they could do.”

Regan moved to the Roaring Fork Valley in July 2024 for a job as a reporter at The Aspen Times. While she had never been to Colorado before moving for the job, Regan has now lived in ten different states due to growing up an Army brat. She considers Missouri home, and before moving West, she lived there and worked at a TV station.