Screengrab: 986 Productions
Cyrus Corbet’s season was toast the moment he tore his meniscus and ACL. The wipeout at Mt. Hood didn’t look all that gnarly but it was bad enough that doctors initially told him he couldn’t ride for the next 12 months minimum, 24 months at most.
That’s heartbreaking. It’s a lot to grapple with emotionally for anybody who loves being outdoors and getting their heartbeat up. But instead of treating the diagnosis as a winter death sentence and locking himself indoors, Corbet resolved to get out on the mountain any way he possibly could. He wouldn’t be hitting kickers, but if he could still find a way to tag along with his friends off-piste, he could use the “downtime” to point the camera at them.
The new approach allowed Cyrus to stick by his friends for the season on a trip between Idaho and Montana and share a story beyond just showing insane lines in the backcountry. Flights were changed. Travel plans were adjusted. Snowmobiles were put to work, and Corbet turned a season on the sidelines into inspiration to tell a story about his crew and the people they linked up with on the way.
