Lake Wanaka, New Zealand – Each year, skiers and snowboarders with disabilities from around New Zealand come together at the Adaptive Snowsports Festival in Lake Wanaka to celebrate life, freedom and the joys of snow sports, to improve their skills, and to compete. The Festival, which begins this Saturday evening, is a highlight of the New Zealand adaptive snowsports winter calendar, offering instruction and coaching for recreational skiers and boarders with social and elite level events for the competitive skier/boarder and après ski in the evenings.nThe Adaptive Snowsports Festival is for people with a permanent disability – individuals faced with cognitive, physical or sensory challenges, and their families and friends, who wish to enjoy the fun, challenge and focus on the snow through riding, whether new to the sport or an elite racer. By adapting equipment, instruction, and attitudes, all people can experience snow sports, which is why it’s called Adaptive Snowsports.

“The festival offers a unique opportunity to feel the freedom and exhilaration that snowsports brings and that many may find difficult to achieve in their daily life,” said Snow Sports New Zealand’s Adaptive Manager, Libby Blackley. “We look forward to an exciting week ahead.”

An awards dinner celebrating 35 years of achievement and success in adaptive snows sports in New Zealand closes the week-long festival next Friday, Jul. 30.
Trained volunteers from the seven adaptive programs based at New Zealand’s ski areas help competitors and participants during the event.

The New Zealand adaptive team is led by Wanaka-based Adam Hall, who brought home Paralympic Gold this year and is now the number one-ranked adaptive Super G skier in the world.