Watch: New Via Ferrata Offers Nail-Biting Ascent Near Corbet's Couloir

If you’re a skier, you’ve either heard of—or tackled—Corbet’s Couloir.

The classic and gnarly run at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, Wyoming, is one of the most famous chutes in North America. While it isn’t the nastiest piece of work you can find in the Tetons, it does take plenty of finesse, cuts right beneath the bright red Aerial Tram, and became the star of a viral webcam last winter. 

Corbet’s is, ultimately, the sort of place where bragging rights are earned. For the past few decades, notching that accolade has involved going downhill. Now, though, Jackson Hole’s offering visitors the chance to travel in the opposite direction: up. 

This summer, the resort opened a series of guided Via Ferrata routes that wind below and up to the side of Corbet’s. They look about as intimidating as you’d expect. 

See the footage captured by Jackson Hole below.

To the uninitiated, via ferratas don’t involve scaling sheer rock faces. Instead, they’re combinations of steel cables, iron rungs, ladders, and bridges that make the experience of rock climbing more accessible. While comfort with exposure and general fitness are both requirements, climbing a Via Ferrata doesn’t involve 5.13 chops. 

Of note, the new Corbet’s via ferrata routes don’t go straight up the couloir. Instead, one called the Tectonic Traverse traverses below it with two adjacent options to climb the face next to the couloir: the aptly named Exposure Therapy and Commitment Issues.

Those routes are conjoined by two suspension bridges and end atop Rendezvous Mountain. 

The day starts with a trip up the Aerial Tram after the guide takes visitors on a short warm-up lap of the Casper Buttress routes. Then, it’s time to hit the Couloir offerings, sans snow.

While Via Ferrata season at Jackson Hole is almost over—the Tram and the routes close on October 4—it’ll be back next summer after the upcoming winter wraps up. None of Jackson Hole’s Via Ferrata routes, including those around Corbet’s, can be accessed without a guide.

Beyond Corbet’s, Jackson Hole is home to a vast network of Via Ferrata routes that range in difficulty and exposure. It’s the largest network of its kind in the country.

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