{"id":803108,"date":"2020-01-15T18:36:03","date_gmt":"2020-01-16T01:36:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=377354"},"modified":"2020-01-16T15:07:10","modified_gmt":"2020-01-16T22:07:10","slug":"longtime-summit-county-local-works-with-military-veterans-during-ski-camp-at-keystone-adaptive-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/longtime-summit-county-local-works-with-military-veterans-during-ski-camp-at-keystone-adaptive-center\/","title":{"rendered":"Longtime Summit County local works with military veterans during ski camp at Keystone Adaptive Center"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Disabled Navy Veteran Christopher McAllister, center, skis Schoolmarm with Keystone Adaptive Center instructor Margie Sinton, right, and Jeb Bisset on Wednesday, Jan. 15, at Keystone Mountain.<\/strong>
Liz Copan \/ ecopan@summitdaily.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

KEYSTONE \u2014 Margie Sinton has a problem with the word \u201cretire.\u201d<\/p>\n

To the Silverthorne resident, a Summit local since she and a friend decided to spend the winters as Rocky Mountain ski bums in 1974, the word equates to sitting down, watching TV and \u201cjust doing nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUh-uh,\u201d Sinton said, shaking her head at the Keystone Adaptive Center over lunch Wednesday. \u201cI can\u2019t retire.\u201d<\/p>\n

How long will she keep that ski-bum spirit alive?<\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as my legs hold on,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Nearly a half-century after Sinton found her first job out of college at the then-infant Keystone Mountain ski area, Keystone is still her ski stomping grounds. And for the past dozen years, Sinton has devoted the majority of her ski-instructing time to Keystone Adaptive Center programs.<\/p>\n

If you ask Keystone Adaptive Center Ski Program Coordinator Katie Brew, Sinton is the kind of do-everything, know-everything savvy veteran who almost always has prudent advice when it comes to working with the various special-needs clients the adaptive center serves. And she\u2019s the person for which many skiers \u2014 former participants with fond memories of working with Sinton \u2014 will drop in to say hello.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a job like this, in life in general, we\u2019re always learning,\u201d Brew said. \u201cAnd if you have someone like that to learn from, it\u2019s always valuable. She brings a wealth of knowledge. I have learned within the adaptive realm, you have a collection of tricks that you like to use on lessons and whatnot. And with the amount of experience she has, I feel like she comes in every day with, \u2018Hey, have you tried this? Years ago I saw this. Did you try this?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

This week at the Military Ski & Snowboard Camp for Injured Veterans, a joint program run by the adaptive center and Denver-based Adaptive Adventures, Sinton is employing her best tips and tricks with U.S. military veteran Christopher McAllister.<\/p>\n

McAllister, a 33-year-old resident of Colorado Springs, is one of the 15 wounded veterans taking part in this year\u2019s event. It\u2019s McAllister\u2019s third time up at Keystone after the former nuclear reactor operator in the U.S. Navy suffered a traumatic brain injury in the line of duty while on the U.S.S. Dwight D. Eisenhower. After his service ended March 29, 2011, McAllister has tried several sports through Adaptive Adventures.<\/p>\n

Working with Sinton this week, McAllister said he was struggling out on the hill Tuesday before Sinton shared one of her tried and true tricks. As McAllister was working to master his balance while parallel skiing, Sinton recommended he shift his focus from his big toe to his little toe. The \u201cbig toe, little toe\u201d tip, as McAllister put it, was a breakthrough for him, and it turned a tough Tuesday into a Wednesday with wide smiles.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most important part of it is the fundamentals are there,\u201d Sinton said about adaptive instructing. \u201cA ski turns this way, a snowboard turns this way. So you need to break it down to them on how it can turn. \u2026<\/p>\n

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