Anchorage Daily News

Extreme skier Doug Coombs, founder of Valdez Heli-Ski Guides, was among eight pioneers of the sport inducted in the U.S. Ski Hall of Fame on Friday.

Coombs, an integral figure in popularizing adventure skiing, died three years ago after slipping and falling over a cliff in the French Alps. Authorities said he was trying to help a friend who plunged over the same precipice.

A former ski racer from Montana State University, Coombs "may be the most recognizable skier in this year's class for his appearances in many ski films in the 1990s (and is) regarding by many as the most important skier of his generation in popularizing adventure skiing," a press release announcing his selection said.

Joining Coombs in the Class of 2009 is longtime ski writer Paul Robbins, who interviewed hundreds of athletes -- including scores of Alaska skiers -- during the three decades he covered skiing.

Coombs twice won the World Extreme Skiing Championships in Valdez and worked extensively for the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort in the 1990s. He also led steep-skiing camps in Switzerland, France and Greenland.

Coombs and his wife, Emily, started one of Alaska's first heli-skiing operation in the Chugach Mountains, Valdez Heli-Ski, which Coombs sold in 2002. They named many of the runs still in use today.

"Although his skills far surpassed those of most of the people he guided, he had a capacity to make every skier who came into contact with him believe they could try bigger challenges," according to the press release.

Former Daily News outdoors editor and columnist Craig Medred once called Coombs, who died at age 48, "one of the kings of X-treme sport and possibly the best skier ever."

On the day he died, Coombs was skiing the Couloir de Polichinelle near the resort of La Grave in southeast France with friends Chad VanderHam, a recently certified ski mountaineering guide; aspiring guide Matt Farmer; and Christina Bloomquist. The route they chose maintains an average steepness of 40-45 degrees through a series of three successive couloirs.

After successfully descending the first two couloirs, VanderHam went first and disappeared from sight, around a corner to the right. Coombs went next and upon seeing that VanderHam had fallen, yelled to the other two skiers to bring a rope.

Farmer traversed into the middle of the couloir, where he could see Coombs side-stepping down a rock rib to the right of the base of the couloir, attempting to get a view over the cliff to his right. Farmer then saw Coombs' skis slip on the rock, and Coombs fell out of view over the rib. By the time Farmer and Bloomquist reached the pair, more than 450 feet below them, Coombs was not breathing and was unresponsive. VanderHam was unconscious and breathing but could not be revived.

Robbins, who died in 2008, had "an encyclopedic knowledge of skiing and ski racers of every discipline," said the press release announcing his selection to the Hall of Fame.

He was a correspondent for both the Anchorage Daily News and Anchorage Times, worked as a press officer for the U.S. Ski Team and served as a television commentator at the Winter Olympics.

Also selected to the Hall of Fame were Jack Benedick, Chris Waddell, Sarah Will, Stu Campbell, Sepp Kober and Ansten Samuelstuen.

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