Achieve Tahoe

10 out of 5 stars! How can you possibly rate a company that has allowed me to open a chapter in my book of life, that I thought was permanently closed. My husband and I, and 2 other children, have been skiing together for years. We always leave my oldest son with disabilities at home. He watches us drive away and we spend these lovely days on the slopes, without him. It’s so happy to see my other kids thrive, and painful to know we’re not together and complete. I then found Achieve Tahoe. And it all changed! A few days ago, for our first time ever, our family was together on the slopes. He had his first lesson by two sweet, patient, lovely skiers. We got to ride the gondola with him, be on the mountain with him, watch him do his lesson, eat in the lodge, and spend the day as a real ski family!! The 2 coaches, Josephine and Trevor were rays of light. Constant cheerleaders. Believers that he could learn to ski. They weren’t phased by his hand flapping or funny noises. His throwing off his gloves every 10 seconds and his silly personality. He felt empowered and loved by them. The first 5 minutes of it I spent with tears in my eyes. I just can’t rave enough about this program. Thank you for the coaches and donors and everyone behind the scenes. I treasure you!

My ten-year old is an above the knee amputee. He took five days of lessons last April at Achieve Tahoe. By the end of the week, he was taking the lifts by himself and making it down all the green slopes on his own. His instructors encouraged him to use outriggers, something he'd been reluctant to do, which really helped. They worked on adjusting his boots to get the proper lift and angle on his prosthetic leg. All of the instructors were so patient, encouraging and highly skilled. We are huge fans of the organization and can't wait to ski with them again.

Amazing Program and Amazing People! Blessed to have them in our World! Please Support and Donate!

I'm so happy with these guys, wow!! Our little boy had such fun. We seek them out at least once every season.

Been coming here for years with my son who has autism. He grows so much more as a person every time we visit. Truly thankful to everyone who is part of this organization. They truly embody this quote: Imagine with all your mind, believe with all your heart, achieve with all your might.

The folks who work here are amazing! We felt totally at ease letting our fragile boned daughter rip up the slopes. Thank you so much for making a dream come true for our little girl. We will be back!

Awesome instructors and a worthy organization. They can help almost anyone, with nearly any disability, get up on the slopes. If you or a relative has a disability of some kind (paraplegia, quadriplegia, stroke, epilepsy, autism, intellectual disability, amputation) and you would like to go skiing, it's totally worth calling them to see if they can help you get up on the slopes...and chances are ..they can.

The staffs are great! My son made good progress in just a couple hours of practice. Highly recommended.

Having had adaptive lessons at other mountains in California I can honestly say that Achieve Tahoe is the best! Such an amazing program/ non profit with very experienced caring and thoughtful staff . Both instructors I had ( Heather and Jo ) were wonderful! Both instructors read through my file and tailored my adaptive snowboarding lesson so that I would be able to really get the most out of the experience with my multiple physical impairments. I loved and especially appreciated how patient both instructors were. Collectively, they both enabled me to have not only a really good time, but they ultimately helped me to reclaim confidence in myself and my ability to participate in a new sport , something that I thought would not be possible post the onset of multiple chronic lifelong degenerative joint diseases. Please support this wonderful program by signing up for lessons and or activities. They run both winter and summer programming. You can also support this nonprofit by donating directly to them and or attending one of their fundraising events including an annual gala that they usually host in May as well as this summer they are hosting a wine tasting event!

This nonprofit enables the differently abled to experience sporting activities like skiing, kayaking and hiking. Great programs for children as well as adults. Excellent leaders and dedicated volunteers help to make all sporting activities enjoyable for a

Achieve Tahoe is amazing! We took the first time skiing lessons last winter. My special needs middle schooler son gets very anxious in new situations, so we weren't quite sure whether he would get much out of the lessons. Although it took my son at least 30-40 minutes to warm up, the staff were very patient with him and gently persuaded him to get more and more comfortable with moving around in the snow with his skis using some of their handy teaching tools. By the end of the 2.5 hour lesson, I almost didn't even recognize him, as he was able to glide down the bunny slope with ease, being met at the bottom by another staff. I was shocked!

As a family member of a differently-abled skier, it was great to see the commitment and passion that the entire team (staff members and volunteers alike) put into making each participant's skiing experience a positive one. I had an opportunity to participate in a family lesson, and as a result, I am more confident in knowing how to support to my spouse on the slopes. Thank you Achieve Tahoe for your winter sports program and for your professionalism.

Working with the Down syndrome network, I took 13 individuals to achieve Tahoe today. It was amazing! All week I was calming nervous parents that I was loading their children (ages 12-68) into my van and driving them to a lake, to ride jet skis, kayaks, paddle boards, and boats. All the while, I was nervous that I could keep them all safe. I had nothing to worry about!! The staff and volunteers at achieve, took great care in keeping everyone safe, and having a blast! When we arrived, they went over some safety items, coated everyone with sunscreen, and donned life vests. Then headed to the water. There were at lease 10 staff/volunteers to take care of us! Marina was handling every aspect of our day with ease! Everyone got to jet ski, paddle board, kayak, out rigger ( not a verb, but, don't care), swim, boat and do yoga on a paddle board. It was amazing. Being the worried guardian(for the day) I was always looking around for all our guests... and every time I did, they were smiling and laughing with someone from achieve! Our drive home, all I heard from the back was "this is the best day ever!" "I don't want to leave" "I can't wait to come back!" And honestly, I felt the same way'. It was the best day ever, I didnt want to leave, and I couldn't wait to bring more guests back!! Truth is, today was amazing!! Everyone was wonderfully taken care of, and happy. I'd recommend achieve Tahoe to anyone!! I know it's nerve racking to leave your precious children with strangers, next to(and on) a big body of water! The staff at achieve is amazing! One minute with marina and her staff, and you will feel at ease!! Trained and caring, they all make this the best day ever!!

Pros: Lots of extremely knowledgeable staff, have equipment, alpine is a good hill to practice on (but the slope called Meadow is evil). The admin staff is great too. It's an awesome group of people who totally love what they do and know how to work with a huge range of disabilities, including a volatile veteran like me. Cons: expensive. If you are practicing for a whole season not a good option price wise or staff wise. What I mean by that is they have a lot of clients that come for a day or two, so the staff member you work with is different every day. That's hard in a lot of sense, and having a consistent coach is best for a full season of work. A lot depends on having the right coach- I like all their staff but there are a few coaches I just work better with. I am not training with them for the duration of this season because of the prices and I want one consistent trainer, which I found with another company. But plan to drop by when I'm a better skiier and show them how much I've learned- plus my coach is going to Sochi so I need a different trainer for a week haha.

I discovered Disabled Sports USA purely by accident and now i'm in love!! this is an organization that takes mentally and/or physically handicap people and their family and friends water skiing, whitewater rafting, snow skiing, sledding, back roads jeeping, etc. they are a non profit and most of these young people give up their weekends to volunteer so people like me can do fun things, in the last couple of months i have water skiied and went whitewater rafting AND i have no use of both of my legs. they are wonderful, caring and soo attentative to your every need. they have been in business for 17 years and work with a lot of Vets. i'm going snow skiing with this winter and i know it will be a blast!!

We visited Achieve Tahoe (Alpine) twice. during the holiday break. Our son, Carson, is on the spectrum and non-verbal. Our goal was to simply expose him to facets of snowboarding and the hill. Instead, the AT team hit it out of the park. On the second day, and an early lesson, Carson's interest seemed to fade. We took a break thinking we pushed as much as we could but agreed that if Carson could get a longer run and get the "wind in his face" maybe his interest would flourish. The team of Erika and Torrey went in to talk to the AT team and out comes one of the Director's Michael, who we now refer to as the "miracle man". He generously gave his time to understand Carson and his peculiarities in order to build a plan that would have him really enjoying the day. To our shock and surprise Michael, Erika and Torrey got Carson on a chair lift (jaw-dropping noise) all the way up the hill and then working to get Carson moving down the hill, this with Michael burning lots of calories to hold him close teaching the heel/toes of turning and stopping. This repeated up the lift and down again several times, even after the end time. This brought tears to both my wife and myself. I don't know if it was the visible kindness to customize a plan and make things work, or the immense smile on Carson's face as he boarded by to another lift to the top. Priceless memories and hopefully the beginning of Carson's enjoyment on the mountain and all the confidence and independence that can ultimately provide. You guys are the best and a special place in heaven is waiting for you all. Schlichter Family.

My 9 year old, physically and cognitively disabled, son has participated in the ski program at Achieve Tahoe for 4 years. When we began 4 years ago, I didn't think it would be possible for our son to ski with his disability. Not only has he learned to ski, he is now bombing down the slopes, squealing the entire way down. I cannot thank the staff and volunteers at Achieve Tahoe enough for all that they have given our son and our entire family. We can now ski as a family... again something I never thought possible.

Discovered these great folks about 15 years ago, after being referred by Palo Alto VA recreation therapists. I've been skiing in a mono ski ever since - I've already worn one out! Amazingly patient, well trained instructors, all the equipment you could ever need. Great accessibility, too (duh!)

The passion and dedication of the Achieve Tahoe staff is excellent. The program allows dreams come true and the staff encourages these dreams.

My young adult autistic son has been participating in summer water sports for a couple of years now and it is really a fantastic time. This year we didn't quite make it through the whole day (twice) due to behaviors, but the time we spent there was so much fun and the volunteers/staff are awesome. They couldn't be kinder or more understanding of our son's particular issues and the beauty of Donner Lake is overwhelming. Being city folk, I'm so grateful that he/we can participate in this wonderful outdoor experience that is really the highlight of our summer! (And our boy LOVES the jetski!)

beyond wonderful people and so much fun to hang out with...awesome program, that as my friend said..."make's her feel just like everyone else" having "normal" everyday fun...that speaks volumes...thanks for the compassion and care shown by all those who help make Achieve Tahoe" happen...you are the "good" in this world...max =]