Portraits of Adventure / 3 Trackers / John
John
Brandywine Ski Resort, Ohio
February 2026
John first skied in 1963, around 16 years old. The Cleveland Plain Dealer was running a learn-to-ski promotion, bussing people to a place called Mount Chalet. It’s long gone now, apartments now sit where it used to be. They'd hand you boots, show you how to get into the skis, and point you at the tow rope. Nobody told you how to actually get down from the top, that was part of the adventure.
John skied through his early life in pieces, a season here, a few trips there. He was home from the Army in 1968 and went out with guys from the factory. He brought his wife and three kids to Brandywine in the 90s and made the mistake of not signing her up for lessons. She spent the whole day at the tow rope, never to ski again. Life moved on, and eventually so did skiing.
Becoming legally blind in 2018 from macular degeneration found it in his right eye in 2007, and then his left in 2011. John figured the pattern gave him a decade before each eye went. By 2018 he had lost central vision in both eyes. Maintaining full peripheral vision, which means he can follow movement, track a slope, read what his body needs to do, the VA classifies it as a catastrophic disability. John describes it more plainly: he can't drive, can't read without large projection, and meant he would need a tether to start skiing again.
He heard about adaptive skiing programs through the blind rehabilitation center at the VA's Wade Park hospital, and eventually made it to the National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic at Snowmass, three times now with a fourth trip planned. That's where someone told him about Tuesdays and Sundays at Brandywine. He tried to sign up last year, but missed the window, this is his first winter with 3 Trackers.
Initially after he went blind, his son, who lives in Colorado, took him skiing. John spent the whole run looking at the ground in front of his skis. John says he destroyed the day as he couldn’t look down the hill, keeping his son from getting any real skiing in. Later, at Snowmass, instructors taught him how to ski with the vision he has rather than around the vision he lost. He stopped looking down, and has been improving every year since.
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