DougCoombs.com
Title
Doug Coombs Steep Ski Camps Worldwide - Offering guided steep skiing/extreme skiing in Valdez, Alaska, Verbier, Switzerland & La Grave, France
Description
After four years racing on the Montana State University ski team, I graduated with a degree in Geology and moved to Jackson, Wyoming. I worked as a geologist in the summer months, and as a ski technician in the winters. It was here I also began my guiding career working as a heli-ski guide for High Mountain Helicopters in 1986. I continue to live in Jackson today, although I spend my winters skiing in the European Alps.
In 1991, Life-Link International, a Jackson Hole Company making avalanche and backcountry skiing products, gave me a plane ticket to Valdez, Alaska to enter the first World Extreme Skiing Championships. Life-Link jokingly told me that if I didn't win, to earn my plane ticket I would have to paint their building upon my return. Fortunately I won the contest, winning a free trip back to Valdez the following spring to defend my title.
I returned to Valdez the following spring with my wife Emily and some friends from Jackson, Wyoming. Together we pioneered first descents in the Chugach Range using Alaska West Air Taxi service operating out of the Tsaina Lodge. We were infatuated with the Chugach terrain! How could we continue to ski there? We figured the secret of the Chugach would soon be out, bringing skiers who would prefer to hire guides rather than fending for themselves on these overwhelming peaks. So we took a gamble. My wife and I started a ski guiding business, Valdez Heli-Ski Guides, in cooperation with the existing air taxi service. It seemed a crazy idea at the time, but we did it anyway. Within a few years we were operating with a team of 12 guides and three A-star helicopters.
Contact
Administrative:
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- Teton Village WY
- United States 83025
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- (307) 733-7196
Registrant:
- Valdez Heli-Ski Guides
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- Jackson WY
- United States 83001
