“When you are skiing, you forget all of your cares — it’s just you and those two skis under your feet and you’re just sailing down, free as a bird.” – Henry Bendinelli
In loving memory of Henry. At 90 years old, Henry Bendinelli had spent “70-some years” skiing. However, it wasn’t his own personal experiences skiing but those collective ones he shared with friends and family and strangers as well as his signature smile that defined the man. And even after he passed on this year, the stoke he invoked lives on.
As Riley Cooper explains: “Two years ago Henry emailed Vimeo support asking for help with deleting videos. I received his email and tried as best I could to help him navigate his video settings. In the process of assisting him, I learned from his Vimeo account and the many videos he uploaded that he was an 89 year-old skiing, dancing, video-shooting Portland native. I had found a kindred spirit. By the end of our lengthy correspondence (he never did find the delete button, I ended up just deleting the videos for him) he had invited me to go skiing with him when I was home for the holidays. I accepted his invitation and, naturally, made a film about him as well.”
From his days as an aerial navigator in World War II then the Korean War to those as a registered representative in the New York Stock exchange, Henry was no stranger to stressful situations. Yet in the mountains, where he skiied, he would laugh at his problems before returning to those same problems with a newfound capacity and zeal to handle those problems. Like his forefather Otto Schniebs, skiing was not a sport, but a way of life.
