Six years ago, Shelby Estocado suffered a terrifying snowboarding injury at Lee Canyon.
On March 13, she’ll hit the slopes on a monoski with fellow adaptive athlete Ryan Chen for Feel Good Friday, a partnership the mountain resort has had with the High Fives Foundation for 10 years.
Estocado was leaving the mountain on Feb. 23, 2020, when she ran into a group of old friends. They took another lap together. That’s when she lost control of her second jump, crashing. Numbness took over her legs; her sternum was broken. In the hospital, Estocado had back surgery for a broken T6 vertebra.
As the pandemic hit a few weeks later, the Las Vegas native transferred to a hospital in Colorado for her recovery, where she was introduced to High Fives.
“I was crushing all the workouts, and really wanted to get back to my independence,” she said.
About 11 months after her accident, with the help of High Fives, she was back on the mountain.
Since her recovery, the 29-year-old former member of the U.S. women’s national baseball team has tackled a variety of athletic competitions. While in Reno, she trained for the Paralympics. She has done everything she can to inspire other adaptive athletes.
‘Joy in their eyes’
Estocado joined Feel Good Fridays right away, not knowing that when she met Roy Tuscany, founder of High Fives, the organization had previously connected with Lee Canyon.
Tuscany started High Fives 17 years ago after he suffered a spinal cord injury while pursuing a career as a professional skier. Since then, they have helped 1,100 athletes, a quarter of them veterans.
“The coolest part about Lee Canyon is there’s no attitude there,” he said. “People are celebrating fun. And I think that’s one of the most beautiful things about Lee Canyon.”
Getting back on skis or a snowboard can be intimidating, especially for people recovering from a life-altering injury. But that’s where Tuscany’s foundation comes in, assisting and inspiring athletes to try again.
“When you see their eyes click, and you see them doing something that they were probably told they weren’t going to be able to do again, or wasn’t possible … and you see the joy in their eyes,” he said. “I think that is really the biggest takeaway from these experiences that we provide to people. We prove to them we adapt and destroy the barriers that have been put in front of them because of this injury.”
Estocado felt a range of emotions during her first time back on the mountain that changed her life.
“I was more excited,” she said. The third run that day took her back to the spot where the accident happened. “We took a pause, and I broke down and cried,” she added. “When it hits me that I’m taking it all in, I get very emotional and, you know, take time to feel what I’m feeling and then move on and then celebrate.”
Annual event growing
Now, Feel Good Fridays is an annual celebration of living, recovery and adaptability.
“I just like bringing people out of their shell after any life-altering thing going on with their life,” Estocado said. “I want them to know that there are resources and people out there to support them, and once they do that, like that one time, they want to just keep doing it again and again. … I don’t want people to sit down and wait. I want them to be motivated.”
The Milan Cortina Paralympic Winter Games got underway this past week and run through March 13. While Team USA competes, Estocado and other adaptive athletes will gather locally for a much less competitive event focused on community.
“I want everyone to watch (the Paralympics), just to see how we adapt and figure things out and how we compete in our sport,” Estocado said.
The annual event at Lee Canyon has been a success, growing every year. To date, Feel Good Fridays has raised more than $100,000 for the foundation.
“People are stoked to not only come up, but if it feels even better knowing that (it) goes towards your good cause,” said Johnny DeGeorge, marketing manager of Lee Canyon. “We’ve also seen a cool rally of various athletes from the High Fives Foundation, as well as folks here in the Vegas Valley who want to learn more about adaptive sports, and it’s a great opportunity to kind of have a step in that direction for them.”
The West has had a historically low snowpack this winter, but Lee Canyon, situated 50 miles northwest of the Las Vegas Strip in the Mojave Desert, hasn’t had the same fate. DeGeorge said they are at 90 percent of their seasonal average and have received more than 100 inches of snowfall this winter.
After next weekend’s event, Lee Canyon will host Feel Good Fridays every week until the end of the ski and snowboard season. For each ticket sold, $5 of the cost will support the High Fives Foundation. The event is open to skiers and snowboarders of all abilities. To learn more, visit leecanyonlv.com.
Contact Kristen Di Chiara at kdichiara@reviewjournal.com.
