What To Look Out For At Tomorrow's Kings & Queens Of Corbet's Competition

The wait is almost over! Teton Village, Wyoming (home of Jackson Hole Mountain Resort) has been electric for the last four days with athletes and media crews anticipating the 8th running of the now infamous Kings and Queens of Corbet's event. I've been on location since Sunday evening and can certainly say it's been the highest-energy week of the year here at my home mountain.

With a lackluster start to the season for most mountains out west, this crew of athletes is absolutely frothing to ski some of the deepest conditions Jackson Hole has seen all year. The competition is confirmed for tomorrow, Friday February 13th, at 10 a.m. MST and will be available to livestream for free on the Jackson Hole YouTube channel and at jacksonhole.com. Tune in to watch some of the best skiers and snowboarders of our generation showcase their skills in one of the most unique big-mountain freeskiing competitions.

In the meantime, I got the chance to spend the last few days at the mountain thanks to our friends at Gore-Tex and JHMR to get a sense of what's going to go down this year. While conditions weren't exactly soft here in recent weeks, the mountain's ample snowpack allowed athletes and the Park and Pipe builders to get the Couloir in fighting shape, knowing that a substantial storm was on the horizon. With the forecast calling that the venue was likely going to get buried under a foot or more of snow, the crew spent last weekend building an absolutely enormous set of booters in Tensleep Bowl below and shaping a set of jumps high up in couloir to ensure things would set up perfectly once the storm cleared.

It sure came down to the wire, with the storm arriving late and coming in with higher-than-forecasted snowfall rates. While fresh snow is great for big mountain skiing (and hucking yourself 50+ feet off a cornice), the steep couloir and its surrounding rock walls present significant avalanche risk–not to mention when it's snowing 2+ inches an hour, it's impossible to see into the couloir, let alone throw huge tricks into it. Jackson Hole Ski Patrol and the park and pipe crew kept a close eye on conditions inside the closed venue, performing all necessary avalanche control. With weather clearing just in time for the last day of the competition window, athletes will drop first thing tomorrow morning.

On top of the pre-built features, the athletes themselves got a chance to shape their own takeoffs off the cornice to suit their needs. Judging by the size of some of these lips, I'm calling it right now and saying that someone is going to attempt a triple into the couloir.

We've definitely got our eyes on some of the younger athletes like Kelly Hilleke, Kaz Sosnkowski, Lalo Rambaud, Tristen Lilley, Isaac Kaufman and local boy Wyatt Gentry, who have already been throwing enormous tricks off the bottom jump all week long. Of course, we can't discount heavy hitters like Kendall Goodman and Alex Hackel, who know a thing or two about impressive airtime and stylish tricks. On the women's side, we're stoked to watch returning champs Ana Eyssimont and Piper Kunst, as well as FWT ripper Wynter McBride and fresh-to-the-scene Valerie Festavan.

The competition format is about as simple as it gets. Each athlete gets two runs down the venue, choosing their own line down the couloir. Once they drop in, they get options to hit a variety of both natural and enhanced features, before funneling to the large jumps at the bottom. Unlike most other freeride competitions, Kings and Queens of Corbet's is peer-judged event, meaning that it's up to athletes themselves to choose who they think showcased the most impressive and progressive riding based on the live event and a video replay session after the dust settles. Since the event combines both extreme big-mountain skiing and a large park jump at the bottom, the winners will have to showcase both prowess in the air and in extremely technical terrain.

Once again, there will be a total of $50,000 in total prize money across four competition categories. Skiers and Snowboarders will compete in separate men’s and women’s divisions, with podiums and prize money awarded in each category. First-place finishers in each division will take home $5,000, second place will receive $3,000, and third place will earn $2,000. Finally, the athletes will get to crown just one King and one Queen of Corbet’s (ski or snowboard), with the highest-scoring male and female athlete overall each earning a $5,000 bonus and the prestigious titles. Talk about a solid payday.

Here's the start order for the Kings and Queens of Corbet's 2026 competition.

1. Sarka Pancochova (Snowboard)
2. Madison Blackly (Snowboard)
3. Kaz Sosnowski (Ski)
4. Pat Fava (Snowboard)
5. Piper Kunst (Ski)
6. Wyatt Gentry (Ski)
7. Elijah Singer (Snowboard)
8. Wynter McBride (Ski)
9. Lalo Rambaud (Ski)
10. Quinn Boutot (Snowboard)
11. Nate Bromley (Snowboard)
12. Windham Miller (Snowboard)
13. Erika Vikander (Snowboard)
14. Tristen Lilly (Ski)
15. Kelly Hilleke (Ski)
16. Ana Eyssimont (Ski)
17. Alex Hackel (Ski)
18. Jack MacDougall (Snowboard)
19. Yuki Kadono (Snowboard)
20. Valerie Festavan (Ski)
21. Isaac Kaufman (Ski)
22. Ellie Weiler (Snowboard)
23. Kendall Goodman (Ski)
24. Mike Bogs (Snowboard)