CULTURE / In the Wake
[ Te n y e a r s ]
E M I LY C O O M B S Ten years after her husband, iconic big-mountain skier, mountaineer and professional athlete Doug Coombs died, Emily Coombs has turned her personal tragedy into motivation to help others. For Emily, it has been a long and difficult path. Doug and Emily owned and operated a global steep-skiing camp, and were pioneers in the world of heli-skiing and guided ski trips. Doug’s untimely death in a skiing accident in La Grave, France in 2006, left Emily devastated, without her husband, a source of income, and alone with their 2-year old son, David. “Doug wasn’t one to discuss risks; he was such an optimist. He always saw the path and the solution, not the danger. He thrived on risk, and pushed it all the time, but he had such a high level of ability,” Emily says. “I always thought I [would] die first, because I wasn’t up to his level but was going where he was going and skiing the same things. Maybe if I hadn’t had David I would be dead by now. I wouldn’t have wanted Doug to change, though.” When Doug did pass away after falling in an attempt to save his ski partner, Emily nearly fell to pieces. “It was tragic; it was horrible. I was a complete mess,” Emily says. “My mother told me I had to find strength to
Above: Emily and son David share a moment. Below: “Upon this rock ... ” The K2 Coombs poster that Doug signed for David.
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go on, and I thought, ‘How do you find the strength?’ Then I realized you get it from other people. And you have to live your life so that you do things for other people. Thinking that way really changed me. You have to leave this earth knowing that you did something to make it better.” Although it took some time, Emily eventually found a way to help others and to honor Doug and the sport he loved so much. In 2012, she began the Doug Coombs Foundation, a nonprofit that engages low-income children from the Jackson Hole community in skiing, soccer and climbing. The beneficiaries are mostly Mexican families, and Emily finds she can draw strength and inspiration from their perseverance in the face of hardship. Today she runs the foundation from her home in Jackson, Wyoming, a cheerful hideaway with dogs and cats, horses, and chickens. On the walls, photos of La Grave as well as Doug and Emily’s ski life celebrate their adventures, but the foundation holds Emily’s passion these days. “I’m attracted to these people,” she says. “To me, what they have gone through, to come to this country for a better life for themselves and their children, to me that is resiliency. Compared to them my life was not hard. So what if I lost my husband when I was 46? These people don’t complain, and I don’t feel sorry for them or they for me. “But Doug’s death changed me. I wasn’t born a giver. I think I had to have tragedy before I became a giver.” - Brigid Mander