TETON VILLAGE, Wyo. — While it’s still unconfirmed if local 16-year-old skiers Jack Kilmain and Nate Pruzan became the youngest to ski the infamous S&S Couloir last month, Jackson Hole Ski Patrol (JHSP) confirmed Kilmain and his father Bob were the first father and son pair to do so on Sunday, March 26.
Jackson Hole Mountain Resort (JHMR) boasts 4,100 plus vertical feet of fall-line skiing with abundant technical terrain for skiers to test their limits and scare themselves. For skiers who grow up riding JHMR, it’s hard not to be influenced by their environment, but the apples often don’t far from the tree either.
Pruzan, an alpine racer turned big mountain skier, took first place in the men’s Pro Division of Dicks Ditch at just 16 and had a couple of near podium finishes in junior freeride competitions this season. For the younger Kilmain, he’s getting ready to represent Jackson in the IFSA North American Junior Freeride Championships in Kicking Horse, British Columbia.
During their last weekend of “training’ with the Jackson Hole Ski Club’s Freeride Program, Pruzan and Kilmain had gotten their legs warmed up stomping big airs off a JHMR classic, Goalpost, which involves a two-three foot air onto a narrow rock pad where skiers then drop 20 feet and land just between two towering trees, like a field goal.
The boys then said, “I think we want to go sign out and ski S&S now.”
S&S Couloir, first skied by and named after two JHSP Charlie Sands and John Sims, sits just beyond Corbet’s Couloir and requires either a 90-degree airplane turn with 20-plus foot air or a steep rock ride into the 10-foot wide couloir. Skiers must to sign out with Patrol in order to ski it. JHSP wouldn’t let the boys’ freeride coaches sign them out, so they returned the following morning with Jack’s father, Bob Kilmain.
Bob Kilmain, often known as “frontflip Bob,” (of course, has front flipped into S&S) evokes a youthful spirit and has skied and guided others through some of the biggest and scariest lines around Jackson Hole.
“I took him up two years ago in the spring to look at it, and he said to me, ‘I see it,'” Kilmain said of taking his son Jack up to S&S for the first time. “Most people don’t see it and are just utterly scared. I’ve taken probably a dozen people to ski S&S, walked them through it and other than the late Bryce Newcomb, Jack was the only person who really saw the line and wasn’t terrified,” Kilmain said.
Pruzan and Kilmain opted for the wallride entrance to S&S and handled it with ease, knifing race turns out the high-speed exit. The proud father went third and brought up the rear.
“He’s taken me to ski sketchy lines over the years and has definitely gained more confidence in my skiing and vision,” said Jack Kilmain. “We had skied Horseshoe Couloir (a steep line with mandatory air just behind the tram) many times since I was 12.”
Next for the two hungry 16-year-old skiers was the Triple Crown: three extremely steep, high-consequence lines outside the resort known as Central Coulior, Breakneck and Gothic, accessed by the tram.
“I gave them directions, they checked in with me twice and made it through everything clean like bosses and were done by 12:30,” said (Bob) Kilmain.
Each line requires serious studying and preparation due to their technicality, steepness and mandatory airs. In a place steeped in extreme skiing history anything is possible, but one may be hard-pressed to find two other 16-year-olds to tick off the three lines that make up the Triple Crown as swift and efficient as Pruzan and Kilmain did.
“Jack’s comfortable, proficient and aware,” Bob Kilmain said. “That’s what I like. He’s able to see in another kind of dimension and it’s pretty cool that he can see that kind of creativity in big technical lines.”
For these big lines, skiers’ eyes need to match their confidence and ability. It’s necessary to have an exit strategy (if possible), know how to leapfrog, manage sluff and not ski on top of anybody else.
“We had been looking at Central for a while, and after I told my dad we wanted to ski it he said the night before to go get Gothic and Breakneck too,” said Jack Kilmain. “The only scary part was standing on top of breakneck because we hadn’t seen it before.”
For now, Bob Kilmain will continue to work on building his house and running Kilmain Painting Inc., Jack heads to Kicking Horse for the North American Junior Freeride Championships and Nate looks to enjoy some spring skiing and chase the high water in his kayak.
