Partners In Life, Partners In Pilates

Just months after their picture-perfect wedding, Shawna and Grant Korgan were forced to face the unthinkable when a snowmobile accident left Grant paralyzed from the belly button down. Now, eight years later, the unstoppable duo proves that nothing is impossible, especially when you have the power of Pilates to go hand in hand with an unbreakable bond.

- Shawna Korgan

ON MARCH 4, 2010, MY HUSBAND GRANT AND I WERE “LIVING THE DREAM.” We had just married five months earlier in our favorite place on the planet, the Yosemite Valley, surrounded by love, magical friends and heart-filled family. Grant was a successful entrepreneur and the cofounder and president of a nanotechnology firm called Nano Labz. Grant’s company worked out of Stanford University’s Nano fabrication Facility to find cures for ocular tumors and breakthroughs in fields such as fusion energy. I was a personal trainer with a degree in exercise physiology and the proud owner of an 8,000-square-foot wellness facility.

Grant and I worked hard—and we played even harder. Grant introduced me to a whole new world of amazing adventure sports, experiences and activities. From back country snowmobiling and mountain biking to rock climbing and multi-day backpacking treks through the California wilderness, we would reach new heights, together. Life was pretty perfect.

But on March 5, everything changed. Winter still had a grip on the Sierra Mountains, and just after dawn, I watched Grant load up his snowmobile and pull out of the driveway to head deep into the Sierra back country. As a professional athlete, Grant was going out filming that day. He was working hard to finish a snowmobile film he was working on, when he overshot a jump and landed hard, just two feet farther than his intended landing area. Immediately, Grant burst-fractured his L1 vertebra, instantly sustaining a spinal cord injury that thrust him into a world with no feeling and movement from his belly button down.