Portraits of Adventure / 3 Trackers / Dave
Dave
Brandywine Ski Resort, Ohio
February 2026
Dave Walldeck had been skiing for years before he found 3 Trackers, and he was mostly bored with it. Boston Mills, Brandywine, he'd skied them enough that the hills weren't doing much for him anymore. He stepped away for about 15 years. A friend he met through ballroom dancing eventually nudged him back. She'd instructed at Brandywine and thought he should give it another try, though, he wasn't that psyched about it.
Then he heard about adaptive skiing, a program that worked with people with disabilities, volunteers skiing alongside participants, getting them down the hill. That, he thought, might make it interesting again. He's been with 3 Trackers for at least 15 years now. Dave didn't know it, but he was a great fit for the program. Meeting him, he made sure to double check my name a couple weeks in a row. He really cares about people and wants to be as respectful as possible.
Dave talks about winter the way a lot of people in Ohio do, as something to survive. The light goes, and the mood follows. Being outside helps, he says, but what really moves the needle is knowing he's there for someone else. He starts to say it and has to stop. Sorry, he says. I'm getting emotional. He collects himself and keeps going. A lot of things, he says, are not hardly worth doing unless he's assisting someone. It's not a philosophy he arrived at through 3 Trackers, it seems to be how he's wired. If someone breaks down on the side of the road and calls him, he'll show up with tools. He thinks he would have made a halfway decent tow truck driver
He's getting older and he knows it. He still feels good, still skis well, and plans to keep going as long as he can. When the day comes that he can't keep up on the hill, he figures he'll shift to the equipment area, getting the adaptive gear ready, helping set things up, staying useful around the edges of it. The program keeps winter moving, he says. Having the space is pretty great and it gets him outside and helps maintain a positive attitude.
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