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.
Winter Highlights:
Check out the new Resources Page!
Mark your Calendar:
Kotler Ice Arena Sled Hockey and Inclusive Ice dates
2nd Annual Grand Targhee Resort Martin Luther King Jr. Weekend Adaptive Ski Festival.
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!”