Colby Stevenson and Claire McPherson went all out at Corbet’s this week, and were rewarded for it. Photo: Red Bull Content Pool
It’s official: Colby Stevenson and Claire McPherson are your 2023 King and Queen of Corbet’s. This past Tuesday, the annual Kings and Queens of Corbet’s ski and snowboard freeride competition went down in stunning conditions, with plenty of soft snow in the couloir, and sunny weather to boot. It was a far cry from the “dust on crust” conditions last year, and the athletes made good use of the softer stuff, sending a variety of insane tricks into the fearsome couloir. Catch the full event replay here, and if reading is more your speed, check out my event recap here.
Corbet’s is an athlete-judged competition. So on Friday, the athletes – men and women, skiers and snowboarders alike – gathered to watch the full event replay for the first time (that replay will be available to the public on Tuesday, February 14) and score each others’ runs on a scale from 1-10. The judging criteria was basically up to the athletes to decide, but a high emphasis was placed on the cleanliness of the run as well as the difficulty. To win, one had to push the limits, but couldn’t fall while doing so. On Saturday night the voting results were announced, with the outcome as follows:
Your 2023 Kings and Queens of Corbet’s! Photo: WS
Men
1st: Colby Stevenson
2nd: Blake Wilson
3rd: Alex Hackel
Women
1st: Claire McPherson
2nd: Piper Kunst
3rd: Sarka Pancochova
The fact that Colby won was hardly surprising to anyone who was there to catch the live action. His first run through Corbet’s was both flawless and jaw-dropping as he went in with a switch five rodeo. He upped the ante on his second run, dropping into Corbet’s with a switch dub nine (switch, double backflip, with two-and-a-half rotations, in layman’s terms), but went a bit too big and didn’t ride away clean. It didn’t matter, his first run was unmatched on the men’s side.
Piper Kunst drops off of the west wall of Corbet’s, a significantly gnarlier feat than the normal entry point. Photo: Red Bull Content Pool
Claire’s win was a bit more up in the air. As I mentioned previously, the athlete judging places a high emphasis on both cleanliness of the run, as well as boundary-pushing. Claire landed the cleanest run on the women’s side, but 2nd place Piper Kunst dropped in off of the west wall of the couloir, a much gnarlier drop than Claire’s straight-air, but landed with a bit of backslap. In the end, Claire’s clean run was rewarded with the first-place crown. One awesome aspect of the athlete judging is that there’s no faceless judges to berate on social media if you’re unhappy with the results. The athletes competed, and judged each other. There’s really not a more straight-forward system than that.
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In other news, Parkin Costain was awarded the first-ever Tomahawk Award, for going “full ass over teakettle” after launching to the moon on his first and only run of the day (Parkin opted out of his second run after a knee-wrenching double ejection on the first go-round). Fifth and fourth place were recognized on the men’s side as well, with 2022 People’s Choice awardee Corey Jackson taking fifth, and Grant Giller in fourth.
A special shoutout goes to Alex Hackel in third place, who dropped into Corbet’s for his first and second time ever on Tuesday, this being his first time in Jackson. And with the “guinea pig” seed (dropping first) no less. He took a bit of a wipeout on his first run, and cleaned things up on the second with a stylish hand-drag. And finally, no piece about the 2023 Kings and Queens of Corbet’s would be complete without a mention of Veronica Paulsen’s insane double-backflip attempts. After a heavy wipeout on her first attempt (the first double-backflip attempt into Corbet’s ever by a woman), she went for the trick again on her second run, and came oh so close to stomping it.
Alex Hackel with the steezy hand-drag. Photo: Red Bull Content Pool
The voting for the 2023 People’s Choice award is still live, with top-run replays for each competitor available for your perusal, and will stay open until 5pm MST on February 15, so be sure and get your votes in before then.
