Blind British skiers doing just fine at Ylläs ski resort

With a good guide, even a hilly ski-track is perfectly navigable

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By Tapio Mainio in Kolari, Lapland
     
      How would it feel to ski in Lapland with a paper bag over your head, without seeing anything?
      "Just fine", says Briton Ray Brough, 54, from Liverpool, as he kicks briskly away from Aurinkotupa, a café south of the Ylläs ski resort, after having had his afternoon coffee.
      ”I can see practically nothing, but I can feel the track beneath my feet”, notes Ray.
      You can ski even on a testing track with plenty of ups and downs if you have a good guide.
      Ray’s guide David Newman is skiing behind him. The goal for the day is 20 kilometres, of which half have already been covered.
     
”My throat is getting dry as I have to shout notes to Ray all the time”, Newman reports. He instructs Ray in the same way as the co-driver has to call out the directions to a rally driver: "Left! Hard right! Slow down, there's a hill ahead!".
      ”If the slope ahead is steep, I have to pass it on to Ray so that he knows to slow down”, David adds. You get the impression that Ray here doesn't hang about much when he is skiing.
      The group he belongs to comprises nine visually impaired British skiers and their personal guides. For most of them, this is their fourth spring in Finnish Lapland.
     
Ray took up cross-country skiing over a quarter of a century ago, back in 1982.
      ”The Finnish ski resorts are not too large, which is why it is easy to learn how to go to the sauna, the spa, or down to breakfast on your own”, Ray notes.
      He believes that the number of skiing tours made by the visually impaired to Finland will increase, as it is easy to get around and everything is so well organised in the ski resorts in Lapland.
      ”Skiing has expanded the scope of my experiences substantially, even though I cannot physically see anything. Our week in Lapland is really the high point of my year”, Ann Seaman from Liverpool says as if she means it.
      When Ann is just about to start skiing off in the wrong direction, one of the guides David Clough shouts:”To the left, to the left!”
      Ann neatly turns her skis to the right track. It's very hard to tell, really, that she cannot see where she is going.
     
”One just has to trust the guide, then everything goes smoothly. The tracks up here are very good, so it is easy to ski here”, says Dawn Voellner, 47, from Malvern in the Midlands.
      Dawn started skiing nine years ago, and now she is the youngest skier in the group.
      ”First I tried downhill skiing, but it felt a bit too dangerous. I have tried to persuade my blind friends to come to Finland, too”, she says, laughing happily.
     
The good humour and determination of the blind skiers leave a huge positive impression on other visitors to the trackside café.
      Some weather-beaten Finnish skiers are also looking on when the visually impaired British skiers set off again on the track. They shake their head in ungrudging admiration.
      ”I have to gape in wonder at the blind people’s ability to ski. Once I saw a blind Finnish competition-skier with his guide here, and there was absolutely no way I could have kept up with the pace he was going. I also saw a blind runner taking part in the Helsinki City Marathon once”, reports Teija Saarinen from Helsinki.
     
There are approximately 80,000 visually impaired persons in Finland, of whom some 10,000 are designated as blind.
      The term is a little misleading, as the majority of blind individuals can see the outlines of things while reading is impossible for them. The number of completely sightless Finns is around 1,500.
      The most usual reason for a visual handicap is age-related retinal dystrophy. Other causes include glaucoma, type 2 diabetes, and retinal atrophy.
      For children the most common causes for a visual defect include inborn abnormalities in development and defects in visual pathways.
      The Finnish Federation of the Visually Impaired (FFVI) is a special service provider for the blind and the partially sighted.


Links:
  The Finnish Federation of the Visually Impaired (FFVI)

TAPIO MAINIO / Helsingin Sanomat
tapio.mainio@hs.fi