CASEY RESSLER

Frontiersman Valley Life Editor

More than 300 disabled veterans found "Miracles on the Mountainside" in Snowmass Village, Colo., this weekend, including one from Wasilla.

Tyler Hall, a U.S. Army veteran whose lower left leg had to be amputate following an Aug. 22, 2003 attack in Iraq, was in Colorado for the second time, participating in the Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic, which was held April 3-8. There were two other Alaskans who participated in the event - Don Peters II of Anchorage and Susan Macaulay of Juneau.

"We have 322 veterans, including 52 from recent operations in Iraq," said Kim Byers, who works for the clinic's press office. "We've got many amputees, paraplegics and visually impaired veterans who really enjoy their time here."

Hall, a beginner skier, snowboarded at the clinic using an adaptive device. In a press release, he said he enjoyed the opportunity the clinic affords veterans.

"The National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic provides a spectacular chance for disabled veterans to connect and learn from people with similar disabilities," Hall said.

At the clinic, disabled veterans get to learn or improve skills in adaptive downhill and Nordic skiing and snowboarding, as well as a range of other sports, including scuba diving, rock climbing, sled hockey, snowmachining and self-defense.

"We keep them busy, busy, busy," Byers said. "There are a lot of field trips that are planned. Some of the veterans took a gondola ride at a local ski area, and we line up a lot of other interesting events for the veterans. Everybody goes home having fun."

For 19 years the National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic has been bringing disabled veterans to Colorado.

Participation is open to men and women veterans who have spinal cord injuries, orthopedic amputations, visual impairments and certain neurological problems and other disabilities.

Top entertainers such as Ty Nelson, Vince Gill, Amy Grant and Bo Derek were also at the clinic, holding performances and supporting the veteran-athletes.

The clinic is designed to provide disabled veterans with a chance to develop winter sports skills, as well as take place in workshops that show that disabilities don't have to be an obstacle in life.

If anyone know that, it's Hall.

Hall was injured in 2003 when he was traveling with five other soldiers in the 4th Infantry Division's 555th Engineer Group, 14th Engineer Battalion. On a road north of Tikrit, Iraq, a small homemade bomb detonated underneath Hall's vehicle.

In the bombing, Hall suffered a broken back, major head trauma, a punctured lung, a broken arm, fractures in his face and burns on his face and hands.

His lower left leg was broken in more than 100 places, and at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C., it was amputated.