Jared Dangerfield: Eager to Share His Outdoor Enthusiasm with WAS

Jared Dangerfield started working for Wasatch Adaptive Sports in the fall of 2019. He’s a certified EMT, PSIA Adaptive Level 3 Ski Instructor, and brings a great sense of humor to every lesson. With six years of experience in adaptive recreation and a lifetime of playing in the outdoors, we are excited to have him as the newest member on the WAS team. 

I can vividly remember as a kid staring out my back window at the Wasatch mountains as my imagination would run wild dreaming about the adventures that awaited me there. Lucky enough for me, I had parents just as awestruck with the outdoors and encouraged me to take full advantage of where we lived. I remember the first time I was confronted with a rattlesnake on a trail, my first mountain bike crash, and, of course, the euphoria of skiing powder!

Not a whole lot has changed since those early days except for now I stare at the Wasatch out of my front window, reminiscing about past adventures while looking forward to future outings. Growing up in Utah has been a huge part of me, seeing how many people are moving here for the outdoor access, I realize more and more how lucky I am to have been raised here.

It’s with this love of the outdoors that I came to be a part of the adaptive sports world. While attending Utah State University, I had a friend who taught skiing with Common Ground Outdoor Adventures (CGOA). I would see them at Beaver Mountain and thought “how cool would that be to work outside and share my passion for skiing and biking to people of all abilities.” I quickly rearranged my class schedule so I could teach with CGOA and from my first lesson, I knew this was a community I wanted to be a part of. Now after six years and hundreds of lessons later, I still think it’s pretty darn cool!

I’ve had so many incredible experiences during the years like traveling to South Korea with the National Ability Center helping to establish an adaptive ski program, going dog sledding in the Teton backcountry, to taking my three-year-old niece with a spinal cord injury skiing for the first time. I love how different each lesson is and how you have to be ready for anything, from working with a combat veteran in the morning to teaching a kid’s lesson and singing “Do you want to build a snowman?” in the afternoon. Although I love teaching, my favorite part of my job is adjusting equipment, modifying parts or coming up with new adaptations to get people out and able to experience the thrill of the outdoors, especially when they have been told it wasn’t possible!

As a new member of the Wasatch Adaptive Sports team, I’m excited to share in the great tradition of acceptance and respect that has been taught here and hope to continue breaking down barriers for people with different abilities. Knowing how my life has been personally uplifted by the great outdoors, it’s my hope to spread this joy with the WAS community and I can’t wait to see what adventures await.