• Menu
  • Skip to right header navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Uncover Colorado Logo

  • Blog
  • Activities
  • Events
  • Towns
  • Lodging
  • Dining
  • Transportation
  • Brands
  • Search
  • Blog
  • Activities
  • Events
  • Towns
  • Lodging
  • Dining
  • Transportation
  • Brands
  • Search
Matt Feeney Adaptive Powder Skiing
Matt Feeney: Adaptive Powder Skiing

Matt Feeney: Colorado Adaptive Adventures

February 12, 2015 By //  by Lisa Mercer

7
SHARES
FacebookTwitter

Like many Coloradans, Matt Feeney was an avid skier, mountain biker and all-round athlete. Then, in 1988, a cliff diving accident at Lake Powell paralyzed him from the waist down.

Breckenridge Adaptive Skiing
Breckenridge Adaptive Skiing.

The incident, while tragic, did not interfere with his perception of himself as an athlete. He went on to found Adaptive Adventures, win two US National Downhill Mountain Bike Championships. In 2008, he achieved the title of Colorado Adaptive Athlete of the Year.

From Adaptation to Celebration

Three years after his life-changing accident, Feeney quit his lucrative financial industry job in Denver. He moved to Winter Park, Colo, to pursue adaptive ski racing, and develop his expertise in outdoor recreation. After training and competing with the Winter Park Disabled Ski Team, The National Sports Center for the Disabled hired him to coordinate the Sit-Ski Program.

Under Feeney’s direction, the organization grew to over 300 volunteers. They now teach thousands of ski lessons annually. The photo on the left features a Breckenridge Outdoor Education Center (BOEC) ski race. Feeney teaches mono-skiing for the organization.

 Skiing Into the Light

Frosty Woodbridge, author of >How to Live a Life of Adventure: The Art of Exploring the World (affiliate link), writes:

After breaking his back, Matt didn’t sit on his back and die of depression. He refused to feel sorry for himself. He got back up from the bed and jumped into a wheelchair. In fact, he started racing wheelchairs…Instead of accepting his condition as a failure, Feeney engaged metanoia, which means a total consciousness change. He moved from fear and defeat to courage. He moved toward the light.

Speaking of light, the above video features Matt Feeney at a Ski for Light event at the Terry Peak ski area in South Dakota. Later, Feeney spoke to the KOTA TV news team about teaching adaptive ski turns:

If they (the skiers) start leaning like they feel like they have to lean to make a turn then they’ll fall. So we create rotary movements by looking in the direction we are turning and pointing the outriggers and the ski will start turning.

His teaching method works for most disabled skiers, especially Rick Finkelstein.

The Movement: One Man Joins an Uprising

The Movement Adaptive Skiing Movie Matt Feeney
The Movement: One Man Joins an Uprising

The Movement, One Man Joins the Uprising, follows a former skier who returns to the slopes years after an injury-induced paralysis. Kurt Miller, son of famed ski filmmaker Warren Miller, produced and directed the film.  The plot revolves around Rick Finkelstein, a Hollywood executive paralyzed from the waist down, as he learns to monoski at Snowmass.

For six years after his injury Finkelstein refused to return to skiing, a sport he once enjoyed. Kurt Miller offered him an opportunity to return to the slopes. Finkelstein’s instructor: Matt Feeney, of course. During the film, Feeney says:

In your wheelchair, there’s stairs, narrow doorways—you get in a monoski, and the sky’s the limit, you can go virtually anywhere.

Warren Miller and Robert Redford narrated the film.

Read about a previous Colorado ski instructor or see them all.

About Lisa Mercer

Lisa Mercer is the author of Winter Fitness: Mastering Life Through Love of the Slopes, Breckenridge: A Guide to the Sights and Slopes of Summit County and 101 Fitness Tips for Women.

7
SHARES
FacebookTwitter

Join our Colorado travel community

Enter your email below and grab our free locals' guide and monthly what's up designed to help you live your Colorado life and uncover fun things to do. —and never miss out again.

Previous Post: «Vail Ski Resort Seth Masia Seth Masia: Ski Instructor, Historian, Environmentalist
Next Post: Kim Reichhelm: From Extreme Skier to Extreme Confidence Builder Kim Reichhelm Ski Instructor»

Primary Sidebar

Join our Colorado travel community

Enter your email below and grab our free locals' guide and monthly what's up designed to help you live your Colorado life and uncover fun things to do. —and never miss out again.

Recent Posts

  • The Best Vegetarian & Vegan Restaurants in Denver
  • Top things to do in Castle Rock, Colorado
  • Famous Companies Based in Colorado
  • 7 Public Swimming Pools by Denver
  • 7 Public Pools by Colorado Springs

Footer

Get In Touch

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Resources
  • Disclaimer
Facebook Instagram Pinterest Twitter

Disclosure: Uncover Colorado is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Things To Do

  • Travel Blog
  • Colorado Activities
  • Colorado Events
  • Colorado Towns
  • Colorado Hotels
  • Colorado Restaurants
  • Colorado Transportation
  • Made in Colorado

Visit Mile High Happy Hour for Denver neighborhoods' restaurant happy hours.

Spring Activities

  • Camping
  • Federal Lands
  • Ghost Towns
  • Hot Springs
  • Scenic Drives
  • Skiing and Snowboarding
  • State Parks
  • Waterfalls

Vacation like a VIP! Leisurely Lifestyle shares life and travel hacks, as well as cheap luxury travel.

Copyright © 2022 · Uncover Colorado | Sitemap | Advertise