Dartmouth Events

Josh Berman '00 presents an exhilarating portrait of intrepid sit-skier Trevor Kennison and adventurer Barry Corbet '58, who faced spinal cord injuries with resilience and athleticism.

Faced with a traumatic injury that renders you permanently disabled; how would you reinvent yourself? This is a tale of two outdoor lovers, paralyzed 50 years apart, but connected by their shared resiliency and a refusal to let trauma dictate their life. In 2014 New Hampshire native Trevor Kennison broke his back snowboarding in the Colorado backcountry. Wheelchair-bound, the 22-year-old plumber faced an uncertain future devoid of hope. Salvation came when he tried sit-skiing for the first time (an adaptive device enabling wheelchair users to ski). In 2019 he became the first sit-skier to launch into Corbet's Couloir in Jackson Hole, a death-defying 60-foot leap of faith that went viral and started a new professional career. Berman's footage of this feat of athleticism is breathtaking.

This same couloir was named after Barry Corbet '58, an intrepid skier, mountaineer, explorer, filmmaker and Jackson Hole legend who broke his back in a helicopter crash in 1968. Frustrated by a pre-ADA culture that did not accept or support the disabled, Barry reinvented himself, becoming a seminal leader in the disability community. Corbet's advocacy gave Trevor and others a road map for moving forward after spinal injury, physically, emotionally, and, at least for some, spiritually. By focusing on their triumphs, Berman's film replaces "disabled," with its focus on what cannot be done, with "adaptive," and its sense of unlimited possibilities. 

Closed Captioned.

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