It’s that time of year again! The day we’ve all been waiting with bated breath for has finally arrived. It’s the day when we get to watch skiers and snowboarders, Kings and Queens, boost off of the gigantic cornice that crowns Corbet’s Couloir in Jackson Hole, Wyo. Only this year, you’ve got to go if you want to know the results in real time.
The tradition has been a highly anticipated event every season since it started in 2018. But the spirit of the competition goes back much further than that. Corbet’s Couloir is a legendary feature of the Wyoming ski resort. It’s a massive leap of faith that only biggest, baddest, and bravest dare to send it off of. It’s been a popular place to huck big air for decades — it was just in 2018 that the resort organized an event around it.
Famously, in 1960 when Barry Corbet first laid eyes on the couloir that would bear his name, the ski patroller prophesized, “Someday somebody is going to ski that.”
Ol’ Barry was right. But it would have been hard for him to imagine how people would be skiing it, 50 years later. Today, when the Kings and Queens of Corbet’s show up, they’re throwing backflips, 720s, front flips, and all kinds of aerials off of the 10- to 20-foot drop.
Unfortunately, this year the Kings and Queens of Corbet’s event is not being live-streamed by Red Bull TV. There is no way to watch it in real time.
Last year, Hanz Mindnich and Piper Kunst went home with the crown. Hanz, from Mt. Baker, wowed the crowd and judges with an insane wall ride. And, Piper cemented her legacy at Jackson Hole by throwing a moonshot backflip and stomping the landing. It was Piper’s first time in the competition.
This year, the conditions are different. There’s a lot more snow. Which means there’s even greater glory to seize.
