A couloir is a steep gorge or gully carved into the side of a mountain. They’re also often referred to as chutes. And Corah’s Couloir in the Jackson Hole side country is a hell of a couloir. It borders on not really being a couloir — it’s more just a sheer cliff face with a bit of ice and snow packed onto it, but that doesn’t stop a (very) select few from throwing themselves down it. So far, only two have done it: Darrell Miller on a snowboard was the first on a snowboard. Now, Teton Brown has done it for the first time ever on skis.
“You would never think to ski Corah’s unless it gets an absurd amount of snow,” says Teton Brown. “Like we got last season.”
Miller is a legend, and his run down Corah’s was the impetus for Brown. Since the mid-90s, Miller has been making films through his award-winning production company, Storm Show Studios. He grew up in the Jackson Hole region, and knows the place like the back of his hand. Through the years, he’s watched the sport go from freeriding to ridiculous ski descents, and he’s participated in all of it both in front of the camera and behind it.
“I wanted to do something that no one’s done before, and those lines are so few and far between now in Jackson,” Miller said about his ride down Corah’s Couloir. “Your better senses tell you to probably not do that because it is so dangerous. The consequences are beyond. But you feel like it’s calling you.”
Miller, as the video above shows, was the inspiration behind Brown’s attempt. But Brown had a singular goal in mind: to ski it as fast as he possibly could.
“I started studying it and I was like, ‘this goes,'” said Brown. “But I wanted to do it fast as fuck.” And he went fast. In and out, the total time was about 20 seconds. Which makes good sense, considering that he basically just free falls with just a hint of skis on the snow.
