LOCALadk Magazine
Issue link: https://localadkmagazine.uberflip.com/i/1543801
Kelsey became Gore Mountain's first-ever adaptive patroller after her accident. Photo credit: Siobhan Monahan LOCALadk 26 of people in their moment of need," she says. "One I'll never take for granted." Forging strength in the fall line Being on Patrol also made her a far better skier than she realized at the time. When she started, her weight barely topped 115 pounds, and she had to learn to con- trol a toboggan carrying twice, sometimes three times, her weight. "That required learning how to use and trust my edges big time," she says. She didn't know how strong she was at the time, but this resilience through it all proved she had more than strength. She says that she trained to keep a sled in the fall line, to manage speed through angulation rather than force, and to separate the upper and lower body. "Knowing how to angulate without inclining, and how to put your skis in the fall line," she explains, "are paramount to ski racing." She wouldn't be the racer she is without the skills she gained as a patroller. March 6, 2021 For Kelsey, everything was going well until March 6, 2021. Everything shifted. On a rare day she had off from both nursing and from patrol, Kelsey went sled- ding with her family, as she had done many times be- fore. The hill is known for sledding in the Adirondacks. On one last run with her boyfriend (now fiancé), they hit a divot. She lost her grip of the sled, went airborne, and landed hard…really hard. The result was fractures to her T11 and T12. The acci- dent caused an incomplete spinal cord injury. Before that day, her life felt aligned. She was work- ing at Albany Med as a pediatric ICU step-down nurse, patrolling at Gore, and she was building a life she really loved. "Everything I wanted for myself as an adult was coming together," she says. After her accident, when doctors told her her back was broken, she cried hard. A nurse told her to close her eyes and go to her happy place. "I pictured skiing an early morning trail check in the woods," she recalls. "All you can hear is the snow trickling down from the pines… the snow squeaking under your skis." Then it hit her: she might never do that again. "That's when I knew my life was going to be differ- ent." Community in the climb back She says that her community, especially the Ski Patrol at Gore and the broader Adirondack network, is what carried her through these tough times. Cards would ar- rive. Meals appeared. People simply showed up. When she finally returned to skiing, the mountain showed up for her more than ever. "Everywhere I went, I was cheered on," she says. "I felt so loved and supported. Despite all the work she did to get back on the moun- tain as Gore's first-ever adaptive patroller, she still wor- ried that injured skiers might see her as less capable when she showed up to help. Instead, it was the com-