Founding winter 2026–27

Adaptive alpine, built the right way

Our founding program is adaptive alpine skiing in Marquette. It's intentionally small, fully funded before it's built, and staffed by trained people other than the founder.

Equip

Adaptive alpine equipment chosen from actual needs and qualified guidance — not from whatever a sponsor is willing to buy. Before anything is acquired we know who will use it, who can instruct with it, and how it will be maintained, insured, stored, and transported.

Move

Enclosed equipment storage and a safe towing solution, sized from real loaded weights rather than preference. This is program transportation infrastructure, and it's a founding partnership opportunity.

Train

General skiing experience is not adaptive-ski qualification. We invest in adaptive-specific training with qualified professionals: equipment, transfers, tethering, lift procedures, communication, participant-centered instruction, and emergency procedures.

Insure

Insurance and risk management are hard launch gates. Waivers, intake, assessment, incident reporting, equipment inspections, instructor assignment, and weather procedures are all in place before any participant programming. Safety beats schedule.

Ski

Our first-winter target is approximately 10–20 funded adaptive alpine experiences. The first year stays small on purpose so we can optimize for safety, quality, joy, participant experience, instructor development, and community trust.

Support

Alongside alpine, we bring resources behind adaptive programs already creating positive impact — adaptive Nordic skiing is an important early opportunity. Their program, their expertise, more resources behind them.

Before we launch anything

The program test

  1. 01Is there a real gap?
  2. 02Does the community want it?
  3. 03Is there qualified expertise?
  4. 04Is it adequately funded?
  5. 05Can it be operated safely?
  6. 06Can someone other than Kirsten run it?

If funding or independent leadership isn't there, we don't launch it yet. That discipline is how this organization stays healthy long enough to matter.

Interested in adaptive alpine?

Whether you're a potential participant or family, an instructor, an existing program, or a business that wants to help fund the founding winter — we'd like to hear from you.