Wallace back on skis at Alpine Meadows.

“The doctors told me it would depend on my own will,” Tuscany says of his recovery. He spent hours in the gym, and many more with a local physical therapist who embraced less traditional methods. But getting back on skis helped him the most.

“A type of activity like [skiing] is way more fun,” Tuscany says of the grind of physical rehabilitation. “It was such a good feeling, getting back out on the slopes. I said, Let’s get others out too.”

He’s a cheerful, extroverted guy, and named the foundation he formed for all the high fives he shares with friends. Tuscany exudes relentless optimism, but his message of hope fell on deaf ears when he first contacted Wallace.

“Steve wouldn’t talk to me when he got hurt. I tried to reach out and he wouldn’t talk to me,” Tuscany says. That changed as time passed and Wallace began his recovery process. “As I started to see progress and started to see my body change, instead of thinking, Why me? I thought, Lucky me,” Wallace says.