Heroes of the Slopes - Featured Segments

Featured Segments

Ricci	"There's more than one answer to all these questions"
	Ricci is involved in many activities which enhance her rehab (from paralysis) and her life. One of her goals is to make the 2010 US Paralympic alpine sit-ski team but she is also taking stem cell treatments to regenerate cells and cure her paralysis. She’s on the leading edge and having great success with both. Click here to see Ricci's YouTube clip.

Michael	"Always pushing the envelope"
	Michael grabbed the reigns from Greg in the men’s one leg race circuit in the mid to late 90s and swept all the golds at the 02 Paralympics in Salt Lake. Afterwards, looking for a new challenge, he took up speed skiing and has advanced in that to becoming the record holder for ALL of Australia at 133MPH. This past year, Michael has faced the toughest challenge of his life, a second bout with cancer (cancer is what took his leg at age 9) after having had his first child. He is thus far winning this battle as well. www.michaelmilton.com

Erik	"Once I was blind, but now I ski"
	Erik became totally blind as a young teenager and took up skiing later on in life as an extension of his rock climbing and mountaineering pursuits. He is world renown as the first blind person to reach the summit of Mt. Everest with the truest team ever assembled for that endeavor – www.touchthetop.com. His guide gives a great description of guiding skiing for the totally blind and Erik gives a great testimony on the uniqueness and importance of skiing to him and his life.

Marc	"Freedom is achieved by being yourself"
	Marc is a one-leg amputee who took up racing and progressed on the groomed trails and race circuit very quickly and made the US Disabled Ski Team. But he soon found that his heart and soul for skiing was away from the groomed trails and race courses, and was instead in the much more challenging bumps, steeps and powder (where he uses regular ski poles). Freedom is achieved by being yourself and Marc is himself when pushing the envelope free-skiing off-piste. His wife and kids enjoy the sport right alongside him and help display how skiing is a sport than can be enjoyed by all generations together and no matter the number of working body parts.

Luanne	"We leave our tracks in the sound"
	Luanne has been progressively losing her sight her entire life and also adapting in skiing her entire life to her loss of vision. Her love for skiing took her all the way to the top and to the US Disabled Ski Team. Then she left skiing for many years to get established as a sculptural artist and has just recently returned to skiing which has reinvigorated her art career and her life. Check out Lu’s art and sculpting here – www.luanneburke.com.

Monte	"Heroes may not always win..."
	Monte is the iron man of disabled skiing and the US Disabled Ski Team whose dedication and contribution to the sport has lasted more than 2 decades. He was also a top wrestler with just his one leg but decided to pursue skiing and roll around with half naked women instead. With his disabled ski racing success and senses of balance and humor, have come other film and commercial gigs with Warren Miller Films and the Home Depot Olympic Jobs Program.

Jim	"Started out down a dirty road"
	Jim is the first ever ski patroller in a chair and is a quadriplegic which means he also has limitations in his arms and hands. But with great rehab and desire he has regained use of his arms and become a master of the mono-ski which requires much more skill and balance than does the bi-ski which most quads select to ride in.

Kenny	"Evolution is mind over body"
	Kenny was paralyzed while racing his motorcycle at Woody Creek race course in Aspen in the early 80s and ever since he has applied his motorcycle riding, building and design background to the improvement and evolution of the sit-ski instead. He is the mad scientist and tester of his top end sit-ski and is bringing the “Lacome” sit-ski to everyone with lower body limitations to ride. He’s been advancing the sit-ski since the early and “sledding” days of its evolution and he and his rig represent part of the future of sit-skiing.

Kevin	"Take a good thing and make it better"
	Kevin was paralyzed from a huck on a snowboard and quickly got back into sliding big-time on a sit-ski in both the terrain parks and in alpine speed event races. His penchant for speed and risk brought him to the US Disabled Ski Team and to becoming the Downhill Gold Medal winner in sit-skiing the past two Paralympics (’02 and ’06). Along the way he decided to significantly improve upon earlier sit-ski designs to build and ride in his own “KBG” rig which most of the top sit-skiers and sit ski racers are now on. To order or discuss a KGB sit-ski with Kevin, please call 609-602-6500.

Greg	"Leaders lead with whatever they've got"
	Greg dominated the toughest category of disabled skiing in the late 80s and 90s, the men’s one leggers. While leading that group in racing he also helped revolutionize skiing for leg amputees by wearing his fake leg all over ski area bases and only kicking it off at lift bottoms for actual skiing. He also helped kick start the integration of top disabled skiers with the top able-bodied racers and circuit when he began directly competing with them and opening up many eyes to just how competitive and equal disabled skiers are to able-bodied ones.

Theresa	"Not just waiting around for the other shoe to drop"
	Theresa has also been progressively losing her vision, but in much more dramatic increments. In the midst of doing her segment for the doc, her final retina detached requiring surgeries to regain and maintain a small amount of sight. She clicked in again not too long after surgery and with virtually no sight (for the first time ever) and simply felt her way and listened to her guide even more. She has a great career as an injury massage therapist and skiing will always be a big part of her soul and her life even if she goes totally blind.

Jesse	"The original knuckle dragger"
	Jesse was born without legs but as a Jackson Hole local with outdoor loving and skiing parents. His dad got him out on the mountain in a back pack at age 2 and he got his first snowboard at age 5 which they quickly modified ….and the rest as they say is history(and adaptation).

Kira	"Youth is a state of mind"
	Kira was also born (like Rudolph and Jesse) with her “abnormality”, in her case a leg that was not hinged, therefore needing many surgeries and amputation to remedy and allow her to wear a fake leg. While everyone in the film reinforces this, Kira in particular reminds us that youth is a state of mind.

Sam	"At least I'm enjoying the ride"
	Sam is a pioneer for the disabled in all-mountain and “free-skiing”. He was also a main proponent and developer of the sit-ski/mono-ski division of the X Games in Aspen and this year the mono-ski finals will be captured live on national TV on ESPN on Sunday afternoon Jan. 27 – www.EXPN.com The communal spirit and bond of skiing is brought out in disabled back country and off-piste skiing with able-bodied others, and Sam has started an International Disabled Free-Skiing non-profit organization.