Skiing or kayaking - 'Active living is a blast'

By RICHARD HANNERS

Whitefish Pilot

Kimberley Barreda leads an action-packed life that would put most people to shame. A former actress and model who has competed in international swimming and track and field events, she keeps busy through the year skiing, kayaking and camping.

Having no legs has not been a brick wall that stopped this young Whitefish woman from enjoying life.

Barreda is now the associate editor of "Active Living" magazine, which for 16 years has served as a resource guide for what's called "the adapted lifestyle." She works out of her home in Ptarmigan Village.

"Active living is a blast," she wrote in the fall 2006 issue. "I had a great summer — kayaked 12 miles of Montana's Flathead River, camped a fair bit and traveled a lot."

But what she really wanted to do, she said, was get back on the snow-covered slopes at Big Mountain. She started skiing there in 1995 — "I'd never been on snow before," she said — and now she is the top-rated monoskier in the state.

Barreda's plan was to ride her monoski for 50 days and accumulate 750,000 vertical feet — that's like skiing from the summit to the village 360 times. To reach her goal, she would have to average more than seven runs a day.

After waiting for snow to accumulate on the mountain, the season took off with some great runs. According to her Web site, on Dec. 17, she and her Whitefish skiing partner, Chris Cordeiro, caught the last chair and had an "awesome" time.

"Inspiration was open to Russ's Street, so of course, we had to do it," she wrote. "The drifts on Inspo were huge — almost over my head — and super close together, and the wind was crazy. We all got stopped dead on the uphill part of MoeMentum — after the jump and before Over the Hill Gang — then we skied nice and slow on the last run, since it was empty and all the lifts were stopped, so we didn't really have anywhere to go but home."

By the end of the season, Barreda had logged 503,352 vertical feet, according to Big Mountain's Web site — her best to date.

"I think I got shorted a few runs," she said, adding that she always insisted the liftees scan her ski pass.

Her favorite runs at Big Mountain include Ptarmigan Bowl and Hellfire, she said, but she's been in some wild country up at the mountain, including runs down Elephant's Graveyard, which is thick with trees in places and sometimes has wind-blown snow that could "bury an elephant."

"We need a bigger group when we go off the groomed runs," she said.

Barreda started skiing with DREAM, the local adapted skiing program.

"I was outfitted in program gear which didn't fit me at all, and I didn't progress the way I thought I should," she said.

Equipment has dramatically changed since then. Barreda now skis with a single Elan ski with a conventional ski binding set at 15 — most skiers set their releases between six and eight. The "foot" at the base of her $3,500 monoski frame fits into the binding.

A wide variety of adapted ski equipment now exist, from monoskis to bi-skis to the "shredder plate," which attaches a monoski frame to a snowboard. Monoski frames today come equipped with a shock absorber, but the monoski frame can be locked in the top position for loading on a chairlift.

"Doug Betters (the former NFL football player who lives in Whitefish) uses a bi-ski," Barreda said. "At 6-foot 5-inch and 350 pounds, he needs different equipment."

Barreda also carries poles with outriggers that convert with the flip of a lever from short skis to serrated ends. Those moving parts can be a problem when temperatures drop way below zero or when ice or snow builds up inside.

When the foul weather drives skiers and snowboarders indoors, however, Barreda and other disabled skiers face some difficulties at Big Mountain — many of the buildings at Big Mountain are not accessible.

"The DREAM program meets at Moguls, which is not ADA-compliant," she said. "The wheelchair at the Summit House has a broken axle, and the SNOW bus is not ADA-compliant."

Barreda said she has offered to give the Big Mountain Commercial Association a 14-seat van that is fully equipped for wheelchairs to transport disabled skiers but they declined. She said she sued Big Mountain at one point to get access to federal lands where the skiing is.

"Big Mountain provides lessons and rental equipment to everyone else — they must do the same for people with disabilities," she said.

Barreda has been an athlete for nearly two decades. She qualified for the Paralympic Games in 1984, eight years after they began, but she missed the plane because of the measles. She swam the 100, 200, 400 and 800 meter backstroke and freestyle. She also ran the 100 and 400 in track and threw the discus and javelin.

"Back then, we didn't break records — we set records," she said.

Barreda grew up in Windsor, Ontario, where her father worked in one of Ford Motor Co.'s renowned engine plants. She lost her legs due to birth defects.

She says she's moved on past her acting and modeling career. She now works with returning veterans through the Wounded Warrior Project and Soldier Ride, a fundraising event for athletes.

Barreda also keeps strong by practicing the martial art taebo at home and keeping busy all year recreating outdoors — she plays the links at John's Golf Course, in Eureka, and she plans to kayak Lake Koocanusa from end to end over five days this summer.

About five years ago, she had a Ford Explorer equipped with hand controls and took to the road so she can get to camping and kayaking sites. But her goal of skiing 750,000 vertical feet is still there, and now she has a new plan in mind.

"I'm going to win the pond-skimming event at Big Mountain next year," she said.