STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Paralympic medalist Muffy Davis found it fitting that the 2026 Winter Paralympics were kicking off in Italy on the same day that her two-day Muffy Davis Cup was starting on Sun Valley’s Dollar Mountain.

“I kind of miss going to it, but it is cool now that NBC is showing so much of the competition on TV,” said Davis, who not only competed at the Paralympics but served on the international Paralympics commission after she hung up her mono-ski and handcycle. “And it’s so exciting that both Olympic and Paralympic athletes are getting $100,000 that they can use 20 years from now, so they don’t feel like they got behind in the workforce because they delayed their careers to compete.”

Davis’ Muffy Davis Cup, started four years ago, is designed to give skiers and snowboarders the experience of seeing what it’s like to ski in other people’s skis.

The first day each member of the nine 6-person teams stepped into new roles skiing in mono-skis, on ski bikes, as amputees using arm skis called outriggers and as blind skiers wearing goggles that had been covered to present varying levels of blindness.

The following day they raced.

“I grew up ski racing here and for training I skied on one ski. But this is different,” said Dean Carlson. “I’m learning to point the ski tip on the outrigger in the direction I want to go.”

In addition to spreading awareness, the weekend served as a fundraiser for Higher Ground, which provides adaptive skiing for veterans and the general population, including youth with disabilities on their school ski days.

“Adaptive equipment costs a lot of money, and we try to keep it so everyone who needs it can participate,” Davis told the participants at a taco buffet following the first day of skiing.

Anna Soens, who attended Davis’ Youth Paralympics Sports Camp several years ago, was in Italy competing in the downhill in the mono-ski as the Muffy Davis Cup started. And Anna Boltz, who attended one of the camps alongside Soens, was taking part in the Muffy Davis Cup in her mono-ski.

Boltz was born with spina bifada, which caused partial paralysis in her legs.

“My parents were avid skiers and wanted to find a way for us to ski together,” she recounted. “I was so small they had to duct tape me into a bi-ski. It was so comfortable I fell asleep in it. I graduated to a mono-ski at 9.”

Boltz met Davis when Davis was competing in a seven-day Alaska Challenge bike race from Fairbanks to Anchorage in 2016. And two years later Boltz signed up for Davis’ Higher Ground Paralympic Youth Camp.

“I knew from Day 1 when I met her that she was serious,” Davis said. “2030, 2034, you guys. Remember her name--Anna Boltz.”

Last September Boltz trained in South America. And in November 2025 she drove from her home in Alaska to Winter Park, Colo., where she has put in more than a hundred days this year training.

“I skied my first adaptive race at Winter Park when I was 16 and, in the middle of the race, bumped out and almost missed a gate. I pushed myself to that gate and, for the first time, I heard the cheers—they were going absolutely wild,” she recounted.

Those taking part in the Muffy Davis Cup heard plenty of cheers, as well, as they progressed from frequent falls to making clean runs down the race course for teams like State Farm, Lost River Beef, Sun Valley Zenergy, Bigwood, the Denim Destroyers and Farming for Growth, a therapeutic gardening  organization on the Kitsap Peninsula that helps people of all abilities build confidence, self-esteem while gardening.

“Skiing in a mono-ski is challenging but really rewarding,” said Therese Magner, a Sun Valley team member who was skiing in what resembles a bucket seat on top of a ski with shocks. “I feel like I’m connected to the snow in this. This whole experience feels special--like I’m learning something that’s such a gift for so many humans who can’t be on skis like me.   I won’t take how I ski for granted anymore.”

MB Davis has watched her daughter Muffy ski in a mono-ski since Muffy was paralyzed in a ski training accident when she flew off a cat track and hit the tree. But she never tried an adaptive apparatus herself before taking part in the Muffy Davis Cup.

Racing home from a cruise, she was a little bruised after taking the brunt of a few falls, but she was smiling.

“This whole experience makes us more aware. And, at the end of the day, I get to slip out of this apparatus onto legs that work,” she said.

Among those cheering the racers on were actors Hayes MacArthur and Ali Larter, who relocated to Sun Valley several years ago to raise their children. They began volunteering with Higher Ground after a friend told them how they could ski with their disabled daughter because of organizations like Higher Ground. MacArthur not only joined the board but started a stand-up comedy fundraiser for the organization a few years ago.

“When my friends told me they were going skiing with their daughters, I said, ‘That’s impossible,’ ” MacArthur said. “But then I saw it was true and learned how wonderful it culd be when you have an organization that helps families to ski together.”

Jeff Zerba, who uses a mono-ski, said he moved to Sun Valley after Higher Ground offered him the opportunity to experience the freedom of being on skis.

Pat Dougherty, who also uses a mono-ski concurred: “I’m so grateful we have an organization like this. And I’m so grateful I live in Sun Valley where they have worked so hard to keep skiing so good every day this year, even in a low snow year.”

When all was said and done this year’s Muffy Davis Cup raised the most it has ever raised in the four years Higher Ground has been putting on the fundraiser, said Harper Sample, the organization’s development and marketing manager.

Big Lost Beef raised the most money for the cause with $10,820

Fastest sit skier was Kevin Baker

Infraway had the most donors with 53 individual donors donating to their team

Best Crash went to Spud Racers’ Bill Kane 

Farming for Growth had the Fastest Celebrity skier in Anna Boltz

Fastest visually impaired skier was Avery Ardivino with Guide Rio Pederson

Fastest team was the Denim Destroyers sponsored by Elias Construction

Fastest ski biker was Banks Gilbert

Fastest three-tracker was Colter Brehmer 

Best Costume was High Society sponsored by State Farm

Slowest Team was Zenergy

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