Career
She is also a pediatric occupational therapist. Six months after losing her leg, Doherty began learning how to ski on one leg using outrigger ski poles. She began competing in regional ski races in the Mountain.
Sunapee area with the New England Handicapped Sportsman Association (NEHSA).
She moved to Winter Park, Colorado in 1985 to pursue ski racing full-time. She was later selected as an alternate for the United States. National Disabled Ski Team that first showcased adaptive skiing at the 1988 Olympic Winter Games in Calgary.
Doherty began alpine hiking while working as an occupational therapist in Seattle, Washington. She soon branched out into mountaineering and in 1984 became the first one-legged woman to summit Mountain.
Rainier. The following year, she became the first amputee to summit Mountain.
McKinley without a prosthetic limb. Doherty began working with adaptive crutch designs while preparing to climb Mountain. McKinley. Her first crutch prototype was an aluminum-bodied forearm crutch with a polyurethane basket for the tip.
She used these crutches during the climb.
She started designing a new model of forearm crutch soon after meeting her partner, structural engineer Kerith Perreur-Lloyd. They began making prototypes for a new crutch design, and after 5 years of development they formed a company to promote their new crutch called SideStix.
Doherty field tested the crutches on the West Coast Trail in 2008 and Mountain. Kilimanjaro in 2009. In 2011, her company placed 2nd in the inaugural BCIC New Ventures Competition.
Doherty"s company is based out of Roberts Creek, British Columbia.
