CARROLL VALLEY, Pa. — Jesse Murphree spent years mastering the skill to stay standing as he skied the dangerous back trails of the Colorado Rockies, but after losing both legs in the War on Terror, this accomplished extreme skier and snowboarder spent Saturday learning how to ski sitting down.

Murphree, of Bloomfield, Colo., and other wounded soldiers from Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., came to Liberty Mountain Resort to participate in the Wounded Warriors Weekend event hosted by Blue Ridge Adaptive Snow Sports (BRASS).

BRASS teamed with Liberty to welcome wounded soldiers to the snow again this year for a free lesson in adaptive skiing.

Dr. Josh Petit, an oncologist at Fairfax (Va.) Hospital, has volunteered as an adapting skiing instructor with the program for five years.

Petit spent Saturday working with Murphree on a monoski, a single ski that is fitted with a seat.

“He is a natural,” Petit said. “It won’t be long before he is doing this independently.”

Petit guided Murphree down the mountain from behind, while other volunteers and Murphree’s mother, Teree, flanked the soldier in case he fell to one side.

Strapped tightly on his monoski, Murphree said it felt good to be back on the snow he loved so much.

“This is much more involved,” he said of learning to ski sitting down. “But it does beat being in a wheelchair.”

Murphree, an infantry soldier in the Army’s 173rd Airborne Division, was serving in the Korengal Valley of Afghanistan when an improvised explosive device went off, taking both of his legs.

“I thought I would never be able to ski or snowboard again,” he said.

His family, however, never doubted that he would find his way back to the slopes.

His grandmother, Glenda Gurian of Milford, Pa., said her grandson is a fighter.

“Today is not his best day, but he will not give up,” she said. “This is where he is supposed to be, on a mountain.”

Before enlisting in the Army in January 2006, Murphree considered competitive skiing and snowboarding as a career.

Despite losing both of his legs, he still has that goal.

After just one run down the beginner slope Saturday, Murphree said his goal is to compete in the Para Olympic Games on a monoski.

Not every soldier found the monoski as easy to work as Murphree.

Richard Andrew Kolath, an infantry soldier in the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, said he could not take his mind off the cold long enough to concentrate.

“It was really cold, especially when I hit the snow,” the Dunn, N.C., native said.

Kolath lost his right leg while serving in Iraq this past January.