Vermont Adaptive Ski & Sport empowers individuals with disabilities by providing access and instruction to sports and recreational activities and aiding independence.
Vermont Adaptive has a fleet of over 50 mountain bikes — including 15 three-wheeled bikes and over 40 two-wheeled bikes — that help riders of all abilities enjoy both trail and lift-serve mountain biking.
“As mountain biking began to explode in the Northeast in 2017, Vermont Adaptive was the first adaptive sports organization to introduce and offer consistent adaptive mountain biking programs in New England,” Vermont Adaptive states on its website.
“With the advances in mountain bike equipment for those in the adaptive mountain biking (aMTB) community, more and more athletes are able to access trail networks like never before,” said Felicia Fowler, program manager at Vermont Adaptive, in a news release on the website. “Adjustments to existing trails are fairly simple but are an important improvement to create access for these bikes.”
Trail assessments began in the late summer of 2020 at the Slate Valley Trails and Cady Hill Trails. Today, there’s a statewide adaptive assessment program led by the Vermont Mountain Bike Association (VMBA) and supported in part with grant funding from the Kelly Brush Foundation (KBF). Vermont Adaptive programmers and athletes are part of the assessments and provide critical details and information for what is needed for trail work and adjustments.
“We work with experienced adaptive riders to determine what’s needed. Is it a wider trail? A rebuild of a bridge? Changing the angle of a berm?” Fowler continued. “Small tweaks go a long way by simply analyzing gentle grades, more room for turning radius and wider trails. We walk and ride through existing trails to access, then provide recommendations to trail builders to improve the terrain. It’s a win-win for everybody.”
Trail work as a result of these assessments have been made locally at Slate Valley Trails, Pine Hill Park, the Sherburne trail network, Ridgeline Outdoor Collective trails, and Mad River Riders as well as at many other trail networks statewide.
Nine new assessments on mountain bike trails were completed in 2024.
In addition to funding from KBF grants, funding comes from VMBA membership fees when riders choose Vermont Adaptive as a community builder “add on” to their membership for $30.
Jeff Alexander, director of strategic partnerships at Vermont Adaptive, explained, “The funds from Vermont Adaptive add-on are split in half, with half going toward maintaining our massive fleet of bikes and the other half is used to add to the KBF grant funding to VMBA Chapters to implement trail upgrades. It’s great for everyone.”
For more information on adaptive programs and events, visit: vermontadaptive.org.
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