Doug Coombs

If you agree that Doug Coombs was one of the most badass skiers ever, read this article that was originally published in SKIER magazine in 2007:

"By hardcore standards, the line wasn’t much, just a short, steep pitch right in the middle of Cedar bowl. Early in the season, it would be choked with alders, making the line a technical nightmare. It was just steep enough to challenge me yet short enough that the consequences were low. My skiing buddy, Johnny, and I reveled in skiing it hard and fast; striving to link fluid turns as cleanly as possible through the cluttered top section and then airing the bottom pitch like champs. We’d cheer and hoot and holler, pushing each other to ski it faster, or cleaner, or bigger. Most of the time we nailed it. But every once in a while we’d falter; succumb to our hangovers, hook an edge, lose balance. Either way, we’d end up at the bottom of the gully, upside down, laughing, humbled but safe.

"We jokingly named the line after one of our big mountain heroes, Doug Coombs. The joke, of course, was that Coombs wouldn’t even blink at the paltry line we were floundering through. He’d flash the whole thing and ski away without noticing. However, for us, that line was a porthole, a glimpse into what Doug was doing on those huge Alaskan peaks. No matter how naive it seems in retrospect, when we made those turns we believed we were experiencing something akin to the scrotum-shrinking thrill that Doug felt while pioneering big lines in Valdez. In our limited capacity, it was the closest we could get to emulate a man who took great risks for great pleasure and reaped the rewards.

"The game of risk and consequence is one of balance and in April of 2006 the scales tipped in the wrong direction for Coombs. It’s a familiar story for the men and women who choose his path. Many have fallen before him and, sadly, many will after. The armchair critics, as usual, are quick to voice their opinions. It happens every time one of our kind dies pursuing deep snow and challenging routes. I’ve always felt that those who remove themselves from risk seem to be the ones most afraid of the consequences. It’s people who understand the risks involved that seem to live life with the most fervor.

"That fervor is what I have always admired about people like Coombs, people who don’t fear the unknown. Adventure and risk are integral to the human make up; we didn’t invent it with packaged adventure tours and branded SUV’s and X-games. We were born with it, a necessary means utilized for survival in a harsh environment. Now that the modern world has been inoculated and scrubbed sterile for our safety, the caveman in all of us yearns for a chance to visit that primitive place; to feel the exhilaration of doing something dangerous that we all desire. The difference remains in whether we acknowledge that desire and follow it. Most don’t. Doug Coombs did.

"Although I may not ski the same burly lines he did, I ski my own lines for the same reasons. And that makes us brothers in one way or another. This winter, I’ll put down my own tracks in a hidden gully where few ever go. And when I do, I’ll be sure to thank Doug. RIP brother."