April 5, 2006 Big-mountain skier Doug Coombs was killed in a skiing-related accident in La Grave, France, Monday.
While details are sketchy, a news report from the French Web site Pistehors.com states that the two-time winner of Alaska’s Valdez Extreme Skiing Championships fell 600 feet over cliffs while skiing the Polichinelle couloir, in the Fréaux area. The weather report for the day called for fresh snow and an avalanche-risk rating of three out of a possible five.
American Chad Vander Ham, 32, died with Coombs, who was 49 and made his home in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. According to Pistehors.com, French medics arrived at the scene by helicopter shortly after the accident. Coombs had already succumbed to his injuries, and Vander Ham died several hours later in a hospital.
"Words can't describe the loss his friends feel now," reads a statement on the Web site for Coombs' company, Valdez Heli-Ski Guides. "His impact on Alaska heli-skiing, alpine guiding, and just plain fun-hogging is immeasurable."
Coombs, who is survived by his wife, Emily, and his young son, David Douglas, was an internationally certified mountain guide who worked in Wyoming's Grand Tetons, Alaska, Greenland, and France and had pioneered more than 300 routes skiing in Alaska's Chugach Range.
Coombs knew the dangers inherent in his sport, but was credited as being one of the smartest, safest guides out there.
"When you've got a big storm, everybody is champing at the bit," Coombs told Outside in 1999. "But you have to start slow."
Coombs grew up on the East Coast before moving west to attend Montana State University, where he raced on the ski team and earned a degree in geology. After college, he moved to Jackson, Wyoming, to work as a geologist during the summers and a ski technician in the winters.
In 1993, he founded Valdez Heli-Ski Guides, the first commercially guided helicopter-served skiing operation in the mountains above Valdez, Alaska. He paved the way for the five guided operations that currently exist in the area.
After selling Valdez Heli-Ski Guides, he and his wife, Emily, started Steep Skiing Camps Worldwide, based in Jackson Hole and the French Alps, which became the Coombs' second home.
Friends of the Coombs family gathered in Jackson Hole on Monday night to remember the skier and the legend he'll leave behind.
"He was a great person to have at the top," Forrest McCarthy, a friend and fellow Exum Mountain Guide, told the Jackson Hole Daily. "He was always full of energy. He inspired so many climbers and skiers and guides, along with his clients."
