Competitors in one of Wyoming’s most challenging winter sports contests don’t get to practice their entrances to the narrow, 30-foot drop they face. Nor can they rehearse the tight turns they’ll have to zip through to escape the steep chute unscathed.
That makes what Tim McChesney, 34, accomplished all the more marvelous.
McChesney, a newcomer to the invitation-only Kings & Queens of Corbet’s contest at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, had barely laid eyes on the couloir before he catapulted into it. As the first competitor in the lineup that features some of the world’s best and most creative freeskiers and snowboarders, the Salt Lake City skier didn’t even get the luxury of studying how others made their entrance. He just had to act on confidence and instinct.
Yet when the competitors voted a day later on their favorite runs, they crowned McChesney the king. Another Salt Lake City skier and contest rookie, Ana Eyssimont, earned the queen’s crown. And together they kept alive the royal line of Utah freeskiers. A Utahn has taken one of the crowns every year since 2021.
“I think there’s a ton of people out here who make skiing like their priority and make trying to be a professional skier happen, which is, like, such a crazy dream,” Eyssimont, 28, said. “It’s cool to feel like you’re not just on this weird path in life, and nobody gets you. Everybody gets you here.”
Snowboarder Madison Blackley seized the throne for Utah in 2021, when she became the first, and still only, snowboarder to be christened Queen of Corbet’s. Piper Kunst kept the royal line alive with the queen’s crown in 2022. Both live in Salt Lake City. Then Colby Stevenson of Park City was named King of Corbet’s in 2023, a year after he won a silver medal in big air at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing.
Read the full report at sltrib.com.
This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aims to inform readers across the state.