Valley Adaptive Sports (VAS)
Valley Adaptive Sports’ mission is to support and develop recreation opportunities for people with disabilities in Teton Valley, Idaho and surrounding areas.
All donations are tax deductible and can be gifted in the form of cash, stock or in-kind contributions. Thank you for considering VAS for your year end contributions!
Winter 2025-2026 planning guide
Downhill ski with Grand Targhee Resort Mountain Sports School. Email adaptive@grandtarghee.com or call 307.353.2300 x1303 to book a lesson or take advantage of their 4 pack of lessons!
Sled Hockey and Inclusive Skate and Ice Bocce at Teton Valley Foundation Kotler Ice arena. Next session is 12/13 at 10:30am. Check out their Programs page for updated schedule.
Adaptive Nordic Cross Country, WRAPTOR Sit Ski Cross Country, and Snow Shoeing. Email valleyadaptivesports@gmail.com to schedule and find out more.
Huge thank you to our growing community for a great summer!
11th annual Wydaho Adaptive Mountain Bike Festival at Grand Targhee Resort hosted by both Teton Adaptive and VAS saw 32 adaptive athletes and 5 adaptive programs come together.
Teton Valley Aquatics taught 64 adaptive swimming lessons!
The Teton River is now accessible for everyBody. Kayaking, fishing, and floating on our new 16′ Aire Jagarundi Cataraft.
Adaptive Wake Surfing at Palisade Reservoir pilot event was a huge success. Thank you to our volunteers and Adaptive Wake Solutions
Valley Adaptive Sports in the News!
East Idaho News checked in with us after we received The Hartford equipment grant to purchase a new Tessier Snow Kart for Grand Targhee Resort and presented two local athletes with personal equipment! Story here!
Adaptive Athlete?
Are you a person with a disability who has a thirst for participating in sports in the beautiful Teton Valley, Idaho area? Get in touch and we’ll facilitate that with some of our programs!
Partner Training?
Are you an outfitter, business or an organization that offers outdoor sports? We can help train you how to work with people with cognitive, developmental and physical disabilities!
Adaptive Skiing
We support adaptive skiing at Grand Targhee Resort by fundraising to purchase equipment and sending instructors to specialized trainings and providing scholarships for Teton Valley School District kids with disabilities to ski.
Sled Hockey
We partner with Teton Valley Foundation to provide sled hockey and adaptive skating at Kotler Ice Arena. Fundraising for sleds, hockey gear and other essential equipment rounds out our ice support!
Adaptive Cycling
We support local cycling outfitters with specialized training and rentals of adaptive mountain and road bikes. We’re also a partner in the WYDAHO Adaptive Mountain Bike Rendezvous!
Adaptive Climbing
We offer support for indoor adaptive climbing at Teton Rock Gym by fundraising to purchase specialized equipment and providing adaptive training for instructors.
What are Adaptive Sports?
Adaptive sports are competitive or recreational sports for people with disabilities. Adaptive sports often run parallel to typical sport activities. However, they allow modifications necessary for people with disabilities to participate and many sports use a classification system that puts athletes with physical challenges on an even playing field with each other.
Some examples of adaptive sports that VAS supports are mountain biking, road cycling, alpine skiing and snowboarding, sled hockey and adaptive skating, nordic skiing, fishing, paddling indoor rock climbing and more.
Who Does Adaptive Sports?
People with cognitive, developmental and physical disabilities participate in or ‘do’ adaptive sports. Clinical diagnoses of cognitive disabilities include autism, Down Syndrome, traumatic brain injury (TBI), and even dementia. Less severe cognitive conditions include attention deficit disorder (ADD) and learning disabilities in general. Developmental disability is a severe, long term disability that can affect cognitive ability, physical functioning, or both. Some examples of physical disability include: Cerebral palsy, Spinal cord injury, Amputation, Multiple sclerosis, Spina bifida, Muscular dystrophy, Parkinson’s Disease and others.
We can’t do it without you. Support VAS!
Supporter
Support us with a donation and we’ll support adaptive athletes.
More Details
A yearly VAS membership supports our program planning and administration. Whether you’re a person with a disability who takes part in our programming or someone who wants to foster inclusion, the membership will help bring the stoke!
$50
Adaptive Ski Scholarship
Get an adaptive athlete on the snow at Grand Targhee!
More Details
We partner with Grand Targhee Resort to offer scholarships to help adaptive athletes pay for a season pass to adaptive skiing! We a part of this fun and confidence building activity in world class conditions.
$450
Year ‘Round Program Scholarship
Give an adaptive athlete a yearly boost!
More Details
Give an adaptive athlete the chance to experience all that we offer like adaptive skiing, sled hockey, adaptive cycling, paddling, fishing and more.
$1200
About VAS
Valley Adaptive Sports (VAS) is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization which strives to support and create outdoor sports opportunities for people with disabilities in Teton Valley, Idaho and surrounding areas.
A sister program to Teton Adaptive Sports (TAS), the non profit is run by Nate Carey, longtime adaptive ski and bike instructor. VAS raises funds to purchase adaptive equipment like sit skis, hockey sleds and mountain bikes; provide scholarships for local adaptive athletes to ski, fish and climb for people with disabilities in Teton Valley, Idaho.
Testimonials
“That was totally liberating to learn that I could do a new sport!”
“Climbing is something I never thought I would do. VAS, Teton Rock Gym and an adaptive climbing rig made it possible!”