High Fives Athlete of the week is featured in the RGJ!
Skiing: ‘Warren-time’ means it’s wintertime
For lifelong Incline Village resident Grant Korgan the first sign of winter doesn’t come in the form of snowfall.
It comes in the form of the latest installment of a Warren Miller ski film, a tradition that dates back to 1949.
“The thing about Warren Miller is it is more than just a movie, it is the kickoff to winter,” said Korgan, a four season athlete who works with the High Fives Foundation, a group that helps mountain sports athletes who have suffered life-changing injuries. “It is the beginning of the smells and the gear and the activities you do, you are shifting your whole focus.”
The films follow elite skiers and snowboarders as they tackle the toughest and most scenic mountain terrain on the planet. For decades the autumn release of a new Warren Miller film has been an opportunity for people in mountain towns to get fired up for the upcoming season.
It was no different for Korgan, 37, when he was growing up in Incline Village.
“Skiing was everything,” he said. “I don’t want to use the word religion, but it was what our lives revolved around.”
He got involved with the High Fives Foundation following a 2010 snowmobile accident that left him without feeling from his bellybutton down. He’s since rehabilitated to the point he’s kayaking and preparing to start his second season on the slopes using a sit-down mono-ski.
Korgan is among the athletes who will attend a Reno screening of Warren Miller Entertainment’s “Chasing Shadows,” film. The screening and vendor event is sponsored by RGJ Media.
Several other elite athletes will also be on hand, including professional freestyle skier and Olympic gold medalist Jonny Moseley, currently an ambassador for Squaw Valley Resort.
Also in attendance will be Franz Weber, an Olympian and six-time speed skiing champion in the 1980s; Kevin Quinn, pilot and owner of Points North Heli-Adventures in Cordova, Alaska, freeskiers Cody and Logan LaPlante and Steve Wallace, a former ski racer who suffered a burst T9 vertebrae and now works with the High Fives Foundation.
WHAT: “Chasing Shadows,” the latest Warren Miller ski film
WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 21
WHERE: Reno Ballroom, 401 N. Center St.
HOW TO GET TICKETS: Go to https://tickets.rgj.com/
