Foresight Ski Guides offers guides and support for visually impaired people of all ages to ski and do other outdoor activities safely and comfortably.

While the program may be best known for its children’s programming — Foresight typically offers seven ski camps per year, along with summer camps, serving around 50 to 60 children — the nonprofit takes its adult offerings just as seriously.

Christine Holmberg, Foresight’s executive director, emphasized that Foresight’s services are available for older adults in Eagle County who are losing their vision with age. Foresight offers programming for kids as young as eight years old and adults into their 90s. “I say ‘eight to 80 and beyond,'” Holmberg said.

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“Foresight truly is here for the community. I know that there are people here who need our services, who have given up skiing or don’t ski as often as they used to because of the fact that they’ve lost some sight,” Holmberg said. “Come check us out for one day, and if you don’t like us, fine, but what if you did? Imagine how enriched your life would be.”

Foresight guides former U.S. Paralympic Team skier, 94-year-old cartoonist

Kevin Foster started losing his vision at age 10, around the same time he learned to ski. He was declared legally blind at age 12. In his early 20s, he made the U.S. Disabled (now Paralympic) Ski Team and won multiple medals in national and international competitions.

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Foster, a Phoenix resident, has been skiing with Foresight for six years, and served on the nonprofit’s board for five years. This year, he came out to Vail for a week, marking a triumphant return to skiing after five years away due to the pandemic.

“When I was diagnosed with my eye condition, I was told that I could never ride a bike, I could never ski … I could never golf, I was told I couldn’t go to college … and unfortunately, people are still told that today,” Foster said. “But what Foresight is doing is so wonderful because it shatters all of those attitudinal barriers that are out there and misconceptions and stereotypes around blindness.”

“I’m just another person that happens to have very, very low vision, but you can always learn and adapt and do things differently, and Foresight enables that in so many ways,” Foster said.

Cartoonist Mort Gerberg skied with Foresight for the second time this year in celebration of his 94^th birthday. Gerberg experiences double vision in one eye, for which he wears an eye patch. A lifelong sports enthusiast — he first strapped on skis as a Korean War draftee and editor of The Alaska Post in his early 20s — skiing is one of the last activities he can still safely take part in.

“I can’t play second base anymore. I can’t play tennis anymore. I can’t play softball anymore,” Gerberg said. “Ironically, it turned out that the safest thing to do was for me to continue skiing, because all you’ve got to do is put your feet on the ground and shift your weight a little bit.”

Gerberg’s daughter, Lilia, connected with Foresight to take her father skiing.

“It makes me feel much more confident, and yes, I would not be able to ski comfortably at all without this,” Gerberg said. “And beyond that, my daughter would never let me.”

What does a day with Foresight look like?

Foresight started operating in February 2001 and has had a relationship with Vail from the beginning.

As a nonprofit, Foresight is funded by a combination of grants, individual and community donations. The ski guides that accompany each visually impaired participant are volunteers, and Epic Promise provides lift tickets and ski or snowboard rentals, along with discounted hotel partners and Epic Mountain Express rides.

In addition to raising funds, “we’re raising awareness,” Foster said. “When you see someone out there with a big orange ‘blind’ bib on and two guides, a lot of people think of a blind person on skis as outside the realm of possibility, but it’s not. Kids who have been told their whole lives, ‘you can’t ski because you’re blind,’ get out there and are successful, that translates into so many other aspects of life.”

While there is no typical guiding experience with Foresight, Foster shared a glimpse into his weeklong trip to Vail.

With his two guides, he skied all over Vail Mountain, from the frontside to Blue Sky Basin, experiencing practically every possible condition, from hard packed groomers to slush, breakthrough crust to powder. 

“My goal now — it’s a lifelong goal — is to ski any condition, any terrain, as independently as I can,” Foster said.

“The thing to understand about blindness is that if you took the entire population of people who are blind or visually impaired, 80% have some usable vision,” Foster said.

Foster has some, limited vision. “Most people who are sighted could see bumps, or see the terrain conditions of the snow, for example. I can’t see that; it’s just all flat, so I ski by feel,” he said. “My biggest fear would be hitting an obstacle or being hit by somebody else.”

With Foresight, “I have a guide that I can follow, and then there’s a shadow who skis directly behind, or, if we’re at an intersection, they’ll come in as a blocker to ensure cross traffic knows that we’re coming, say, down a cat track,” Foster said. “It gives you a more secure feeling when you’re out there trying to make your turns and ski.”

Foster and his guides are in constant communication via radios they wear. In busier areas, his guide will lead, Foster will follow, and the shadow will follow Foster. In off-piste terrain, when there are fewer skiers, Foster’s guide will give him a verbal overview of the run, and Foster can then ski the run independently. 

“You develop a bond and a relationship that’s built on trust, because when you’re out there and you can’t see, with people zooming by you and you’re in trees or other obstacles, you have to develop a strong level of trust between you and your guide,” Foster said.

Get in touch with Foresight Ski Guides by calling 303-506-3859 or emailing info@foresightskiguides.org.