February 25, 2019 at 4:30 p.m.
Blind skier participates in the Birkebeiner through Ski for Light
Blind skier participates in the Birkebeiner through Ski for Light
By Kayla Thomason-
McCorcle, you see, is blind and skis by following the voice commands of a Ski for Light guide.
Ski for Light is a one-week program held annually where guides direct and teach the blind and mobility-impaired cross country skiing. The sessions are held all over the country.
"We've been building up to this for almost two years," Evelo said, noting that he met McCorcle at Ski for Light.
"A few years ago I guided Tim for the whole week at Ski for Light, and I also guided him off and on other times, and was impressed with how good he is at skiing," Evelo explained.
Evelo has been with Ski for Light for five years and McCorcle is vice president of Ski for Light and is on the board of directors. Half of the members are sighted and the other half are not. The organization is 100 percent volunteer run.
"It's a very well run organization I can't say enough about it, it's been a lot of fun," Evelo said.
McCorcle went totally blind at age 45 as the result of a hereditary disease. He used to downhill ski in Alaska but quit from the mid-1990s until 2012.
After his father passed away, he decided to find a way to get back on the slopes.
"I decided that he would not have been happy with me if I let all my dreams die. So the fall of 2011 I started looking for an activity to do and I just looked up 'Nordic skiing' and 'blind' and I found an organization called Ski for Light and I went to my first Ski for Light event," McCorcle explained.
His first day back on skis included a number of falls, but the second day he stayed on his feet. Skiing just came back to him, he said.
"The feeling came back being on snow and sliding and going around corners and up and down hills," McCorcle said. "I spent a long time learning how to ski and it felt the same without sight as it did with sight and I've been doing it ever since."
Evelo has been skiing the Birkie for 10 years. His extensive experience is key as he uses verbal cues to let McCorcle know how sharp of a turn to make, the steepness of a hill and more. They do classic skiing so there are tracks groomed in the snow that McCorcle can follow.
"There's stretches without tracks and we have a way of dealing with that, a lot of times on the steeper downhills the tracks will either be worn out or I'll say don't have tracks that you can snowplow and in those cases I'll be in front of him and I'll be clicking my poles and constantly make noise and he's following the noise," Evelo explained.
McCorcle skied the Birkie Tour in January to get a taste of what he was in for.
"It was humbling but a good experience because I got to know the first part of the trail and hills, and it made me realize I needed to spend the next six weeks skiing as much as I could, which I did and now I feel much better about the event on Saturday," McCorcle said Thursday.
"It's one thing to guide a blind person through hills and that kind of thing, but when you're amongst thousands of other skiers it's another thing," McCorcle added. "I have to be responsible for what's around me and listening very carefully and paying attention and in this circumstance there's no question, whatever Mike says is what I have to do."
"In the end I hope we just have a good ski together and if we make our time or beat it that's all the better," he added. "I just want to experience the event, the people and the enthusiasm."
The duo's goal was to complete the American Birkebeiner in 6.5 hours. They fell a little short, Evelo reported Monday.
"We didn't quite make our 6:30 minute goal for the American Birkebeiner," he said. "Tim's finish time was 8:05. He did a great job on the very challenging race course! He really put in a great never give up effort and put on a great finish. When we got towards the end when the terrain was safe for him to really go and while going across Lake Hayward he passed at least 15 other skiers, impressive!!"
While the main event was Saturday, the days leading up to it were filled with fun skiing activities.
There was the Giant Ski Thursday afternoon, where participants are on one set of skis over 20-feet-long. Six skiers get on and race up main street for about two blocks. McCorcle was set to lead, followed by Evelo and other Ski for Light guides.
Two sets race at a time, with up to 30 teams that can participate. The race is timed.
On Friday morning, McCorcle won the adaptive ski event, a 3.7K ski race for blind and mobility-impaired individuals, with more than 10 minutes to spare, Evelo reported.
Then on Saturday approximately 7,500 individuals in the Birkie, and another 3,500 or so in the Kortelopet - which is about half the length of the Birkie - took off, gliding along the snow.
Evelo and McCorcle were in the classic's fifth wave, which left at 9:35 a.m. McCorcle wears a blind skier bib when he races and said he always gets encouragement from other skiers.
"I'm nervous and excited, it's something I've never done before and the longest single-day ski I've done before," McCorcle said. "The enthusiasm around the Birkie, it's something not to be missed, especially if you're somebody who's a cross country skier."
Evelo shared with McCorcle what it is like to ski the last stretch of the race.
"There's finishing on Main Street, there's nothing like it, there's nothing like it," Evelo said. "If there's a light wind out of the west you're about halfway across the lake and you're hearing people downtown already."
For McCorcle, skiing is a feast for the senses.
"I just think for me cross country skiing is such a joy," he said. "Especially as a blind person, it's an activity that I get to do and it gives me a sense of freedom and independence that I don't get anywhere else as a blind person, but the beauty of it is when I'm skiing with a guide it's a shared experience," he said.
Ski for Light welcomes guides of varying levels as well as blind or mobility-impaired skiers. For more information on Ski for Light, visit www.sfl.org.
Kayla Thomason may be reached at [email protected].
Comments:
You must login to comment.