Adaptive Sports at Sun Peaks (ASSP) is growing its summer programs, adding adaptive mountain biking to options including alpine hiking, disc golf and stand up paddleboarding.
ASSP was originally founded by a group of local sports school instructors. At the time, there were no certified instructors able to work with children with disabilities, so many were sidelined while their classmates hit the slopes.
Wanting to change that, the group earned Canadian Adaptive Snowsports Level One certifications and began offering lessons. Executive director Katherine Campbell spoke about the journey of the organization.
“The kids in the schools who were living with disabilities, they just weren’t able to participate,” she said. “There weren’t people who were certified in teaching people with different exceptionalities and so those children just had to sit on the sidelines.”
Since then, the program has blossomed into a major operation, offering roughly 450 ski and snowboard lessons each winter to individuals from six to 96, living with physical, visual or neurodivergent disabilities. With about 55 volunteer instructors, ASSP has become a vital part of the community, attracting participants locally, from across Canada and around the world.
While the program has long been known for its winter offerings, it has now officially expanded into summer activities, and will add adaptive mountain biking to its list come 2026.
To support the launch of adaptive mountain biking next year, Campbell and two other volunteers traveled to Whistler for hands-on training.
“It was wonderful, we spent two days with the program director at Whistler,” Campbell said. “Whistler Adaptive has been offering [adaptive] mountain biking programs for the past 10 years. So we’re really working closely to just emulate their programs, because it’s been so successful and we don’t want to reinvent the wheel.”
The two instructors joined a four-day coaching program and earned certifications in adaptive and mainstream biking.
“They just learned a ton and are super excited to bring all of their learnings from Whistler to the Sun Peaks community.”
Sun Peaks locals and visitors will get a preview of what’s to come during Peaks Pedal Fest on Labour Day weekend.
“We’ll hopefully have our mountain bike there that we’ve ordered if people want to try it out and or at least have information about our programs.”
While the full program launch is planned for summer 2026, there are still activities to look forward to with a hike and stand-up paddle board session in July and August.
More information and schedules can be found on ASSP’s website.
What did you think of this story?
Sun Peaks Independent News is your essential source for community news in Sun Peaks. Your feedback after we publish a story helps ensure we're always improving our reporting to better serve you.
