These Are The Winners Of Kings And Queens Of Corbet's 2026

The most anticipated freeride event of the year in Jackson Hole went down this past weekend, with a strong showing of freeride skiers and snowboarders hucking their meat into the infamous Corbet’s Couloir. After a long January dry spell, the Tetons were blessed with a fresh coating of snow in the days leading up the event, setting up conditions perfectly for a freeride comp for the ages.

Congratulations to Tristen “Pants” Lilly and Piper Kunst for taking home the crown of King and Queen of Corbet’s–way to show those snowboarders who’s in charge. Lilly and Kunst, both skiers local to Alta, UT who are a couple, shared a much-deserved Valentine’s Day embrace atop the podium during the awards ceremony.

The annual Kings and Queen’s of Corbet competition is athlete-judged, with riders voting on their favorite runs after the competition is over. Unlike Freeride World Tour competitions, there is no set criteria for judging here, with athletes voting which of their fellow competitors impressed them the most based on trick technicality, boldness of line choice, and overall execution.

Check out the full competition livestream here on powder.com.

The 2026 POWDER Photo Annual is here! Look for a print copy on a newsstand near you, or click here to have a copy shipped directly to your front door.

Here’s what happened during the competition:

After spending all week skiing pow both in the resort and in the local backcountry athletes gathered atop the venue early Friday morning to clearing skies, pleasantly warm temps and no wind–a stark departure from the arctic conditions normally found at the drop-in. Following the start order determined by the bib draw earlier the week, athletes dropped one by one, sending it off the lip and attempting to link features in the couloir, before rocketing out onto the apron and flying off the final “money booter” into the finish corral.

Snowboarders Sarka Pancochova and Madison Blackley dropped first, before Tahoe-based skier Kaz Sosnkowski wowed the crowed with the first skier’s run. He floated a huge handdrag cork 3 off the lip, proceeding to absolutely whiteroom himself in the deep snow inside the couloir, following it up with another 360 on a natural air and a cork 900 off the money booters at the bottom.

Kunst was up next, and clearly feeding off the energy, put one of the biggest backflips I’ve ever seen to bolts (making her only the second woman to land one into Corbet’s, following Veronica Paulsen). She rocketed down the couloir, nicely controlling her speed with some beautiful powder turns before lining up the smaller of the two lips on the money booter and sending an enormous front flip. Unfortunately, she took it way past the landing, exploding out of her skis into the finish corral. “I don’t know why I was scared to hit the big lip,” Kunst told me after her run, laughing, “I had plenty of speed and would’ve landed that front flip clean.” The crowd didn’t seem to mind, giving her a huge cheer as ski patrol checked out her bloody nose and cleared her for a second run.

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Next skier up was local hero Wyatt Gentry, who popped an enormous 360 off the lip, before skiing into a zone on the far skier’s right side of the venue that features an enormous cliff that had zero tracks leading into it. This area was first skied in the competition by Blaine Gallivan and Sander Hadley years ago, and normally doesn’t have enough snow to even access this time of year. Gentry stomped a massive air and lined up for a huge spin on the bottom jump, which he landed cleanly.

Wynter McBride was the next skier, milking soul pow turns down the whole line and stomping a HUGE shifty straight air off the money booter. That was followed by France’s Lalo Rambaud, who crashed attempting what looked like a nosebutter cork 7 off the lip, resulting in an epic tomahawk down most of the couloir.

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Tristen Lilly’s first run wowed with a massive frontflip off the lip, a backflip in the middle (which he washed out from and likely pushed him off his intended line), followed by a crowd-pleaser zero spin off the money booter. Lille’s second run is what earned him the win, with yet another front flip off the lip, a clean backflip in the middle and a billygoat over the Gentry’s side-quest air (which Lilley took from even higher), finishing with what looked like a bio 7 off the money booter.

Some other runs to watch out for were Kelly Hilleke throwing an enormous and textbook clean double backflip off the lip (a strong contender for the win), Kendall Goodman’s screaming seamen 360 off the lip, Alex Hackel’s effortless style, Valerie Festavan’s huge switch cork 5 off the money booter, as well as latecomer Quinn Wolferman’s switch butter 5, grabbed frontflip and switch double cork combo.

Shoutout to the creativity shown from the snowboarders, including Mike Bogs’ huge transfer air off the West Wall, and the fact that Pat Fava brought a rail to slide off the lip, or Quinn Boutot’s “man-ramp” entrance (he brought a friend who laid down on the lip wearing his snowboard to create a diving board for Boutot).

Kings and Queens of Corbet’s 2026 Final Results:

Ski Men:

1. Tristen Lilly
2. Kelly Hilleke
3. Alex Hackel

Ski Women:

1. Piper Kunst
2. Valerie Festavan
3. Wynter McBride