A new partnership is bending the Adaptive Sports Sun Peaks (ASSP) mantra of making the mountain accessible to all and Sun Peaks Nordic Club’s mission of creating sport for life, as ASSP expands into Nordic skiing.
“It’s been part of the adaptive sports strategic plan to start branching into other winter activities,” said Veronica Connors, ASSP training lead.
Throughout the summer the two programs began working together to build a partnership which will allow four adaptive sports coaches to work alongside Nordic instructors to offer lessons to adaptive students.
“We’ve had, over the years, people asking when are we going to start a Nordic program. We’re very excited we can offer that this season,” said Connors.
For the ASSP program, the opportunity to branch into Nordic skiing came after receiving funding from the BC Interior Foundation for two Nordic sit skis and a grant from the Kamloops Sports Legacy Fund for training funds.
“Our interest really started last year in November when 15 of our instructors attended, here at Sun Peaks, a Nordic adaptive workshop with Tony Chin, who’s one of the top Nordic adaptive coaches in Canada,” she explained, adding that both ASSP and the Nordic Club had mutual instructors who expressed an interest in offering a new program to their existing alpine students.
“It just shows that our program is growing, we’re offering a different modality, a different sport that may appeal to our students. And why not? It’s all part of growing our program,” said Connors.
The new lessons will be open to both local students and visitors to the resort and will begin in late January to early February.
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