FYI From the NY Times Doug Coombs, 48, Dies in Accident

[Eastcoastgriz]

Doug Coombs, 48, Dies in French Alps Accident
By NADINE BROZAN
Published: April 9, 2006
Doug Coombs, who was revered in the high-altitude world of extreme skiing for his perilous, pioneering runs and who was also a guide and teacher to many who pursue the sport, died Monday in an accident in the French Alps while skiing with three other Americans. He was 48.

Racing Leaders Thoroughbred News Harness NewsThe police in Briançon said a team of rescuers had found Mr. Coombs's body near La Grave, a resort town about 50 miles east of Grenoble in southeast France. Mr. Coombs and his wife, Emily, operated a steep-skiing camp in La Grave, where they lived.

In an account of the accident sent to the American Mountain Guides Association, a member of the Coombs party, Matt Farmer, wrote that Mr. Coombs had plunged off a cliff while trying to come to the aid of a fellow skier, Chad VanderHam, 31, of Keystone, Colo.

Mr. Coombs and Mr. VanderHam, along with Mr. Farmer and a fourth American, Christina Blomquist, had been going down a steep chute surrounded by rock when Mr. VanderHam disappeared over a mountain rib, or precipice, Mr. Farmer wrote.

"Doug yelled up that 'Chad fell, come down with a rope,' " Mr. Farmer wrote. "Christina and I saw Doug yelling Chad's name while side-stepping down and attempting to see over the cliff to his right. We saw his skis slip on the rock and he fell out of view over the rib."

Mr. VanderHam, who was alive but unconscious when the other skiers reached him, died later, Mr. Farmer wrote. Mr. Coombs was already dead.

Mr. Coombs was born in Boston and grew up skiing in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. He went to Montana State University in Bozeman, where he began steep-skiing at the Bridger Bowl.
Steeps are slopes with a pitch of more than 45 degrees. Extreme skiing is done on mountains where there are no lifts, no trails, no boundaries and no ski patrols. Skiers ascend peaks in helicopters or climb them by foot before making their runs.

Mr. Coombs moved to Jackson Hole, Wyo., in 1986 and began working for a guide service there. Over the years, he was the first person to descend on some 250 slopes in Antarctica, Chile, France, Switzerland, Kyrgyzstan, Alaska and elsewhere in the United States. He appeared in several documentary films about the sport.

Although Mr. Coombs performed feats of remarkable daring, he did not take unreasonable risks, his colleagues said.

"Doug did things that were very extreme and cutting edge, but he did them safely and had an excellent safety record," said Scott Raynor, who had skied with Mr. Coombs many times and had bought a company Mr. Coombs founded in Valdez, Alaska.

With his wife, also a skier, and friends, Mr. Coombs pioneered the first descents in the formidable Chugach range in Alaska.

"We were infatuated with the Chugach terrain," he wrote on his Web site in 1991.

So he and his wife started a business there, Valdez Heli-Ski Guides. Within five years, he said, they were guiding as many as 1,000 skiers a year. They sold the company to Mr. Raynor in 2001.

In 1993, the couple founded the Steep Skiing Camps Worldwide in Jackson, Wyo., and in 1997 they moved the business to Europe, setting up operations in La Grave and in Verbier, Switzerland. They said Europe offered fewer constraints on what skiers were permitted to do.

The Coombses and their son, David, 3, spent much of their time at La Grave, which is dominated by a range called La Meije. The spectacular setting had had an immediate impact on him, he wrote on his Web site.

"When I first arrived at La Grave," he wrote, "and stared at the majestic glaciated peak of La Meije (13,065 feet), I imagined endless ski runs that would last a lifetime."

[Charlie]

I've been watching ski movies featuring Doug Coombs since I was a mighty mite.

He was certainly a legend and will be missed.

What a horrifying way to go.

[PapaG]

I've been watching ski movies featuring Doug Coombs since I was a mighty mite.

He was certainly a legend and will be missed.

What a horrifying way to go.

Nah, not for Doug.

Those of us who were able to know him a tiny bit realize he died doing exactly what he wanted to do the most.


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