Portraits of Adventure / 3 Trackers / Ellie
Ellie
Brandywine Ski Resort, Ohio
February 2026
Ellie Fitzpatrick has been skiing since fourth grade. By her sophomore year of college she was hiking up runs at Breckenridge between laps. That trip, with her friend Caroline, was the last time she skied standing up.
In 2018 she got sick. She spent years navigating a diagnosis that didn't quite fit, before getting a clearer picture more recently: dysautonomia, damage to the small fiber and cardiovagal nerves, caused by an autoimmune disease. She can walk fine, but what she can't do is stay upright long enough to manage any sustained physical activity. Her body, left vertical too long, will simply pass out.
It doesn't look like much from the outside, which is part of what makes it hard to explain. She tried skiing again once she and her now husband, Tom, started skating together, thinking maybe this could work too. The first attempt worked, but she suspected the results weren’t repeatable. The second time, stable on her meds, she made it down twice and then passed out on the slope. Ski patrol came, they got down without needing them, but it wasn't a good day.
A friend's mother worked for the Ohio Developmental Disabilities Board and mentioned there were ski programs built for exactly this. Que 3 Trackers at Brandywine. When Ellie signed up, she was unsure whether she'd qualify, since her condition doesn't look like most of what these programs are built around. Needless to say, the welcomed her with open arms.
This is Ellie’s third year, and learning to mono ski as an adult was harder than she expected, and not just physically. Without a spinal cord injury, she found herself hyperaware in a different way, watching her own body, trying not to end up with the kind of injury she didn't already have. But she's been consistent, and the program has kept giving her opportunities to keep skiing.
She talks about what it does for her mood as much as what it does for her skiing. There are days she comes out low and leaves on a higher note. Just being out here, she says, is huge.
This season marked something new: she and Tom skied independently for the first time, approved to go without a guide alongside them.
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