Conley Baldwin

Type 1 Alpine Adventure

As long as I can remember, I’ve always had diabetes. I’m 13 and I was diagnosed in June of 2014, three months before my 3rd birthday.

My family encouraged me to play sports, where my dad has always been my coach so he’s on site if there was ever a blood sugar emergency. I’ve played soccer, baseball, basketball, football, lacrosse, and hockey but my favorite sport is snowboarding. I love being part of a team, but there’s something about snowboarding that is so freeing. I set my own goals and challenge myself on every mountain I visit.

In the winter of 2023-24, I was able to board on 4 different mountains in the northeast in addition to my home base, West Mountain Ski Resort in Queensbury, NY. For 2024-25, I set out with a bigger goal, to snowboard the equivalent of Mt Everest’s vertical drop (about 30,000 ft) with my dad. While out doing what we love, we decided to raise money and awareness for Type 1 diabetes. That’s how we came up with Type 1 Alpine Adventures, which mixes diabetes awareness with mountain sports.

We started skiing/snowboarding on Dec 1st and have visited ski centers in New Hampshire, Vermont and New York so far which includes two Riding on Insulin camps. We spread diabetes awareness by bringing a box of fruit snacks (labeled “emergency quick sugar for diabetics”) to the summit of every mountain we visit. As of Feb 1st, we’ve covered 17,000 feet on 13 mountains.

Whiteface is on Friday to reach the 20,000 ft mark and hope to finish the 30,000 ft mark at Gore mtn March 8th… with half a dozen more mountains in between. We hope to get to Maine over winter break week from school because I haven’t been to that state yet.