The First Family of Jackson Hole's S&S Couloir
Bob Kilmain moved to Jackson Hole from Massachusetts during the Winter of ‘98/’99. Like many east coasters, he was seduced by the bigger lines and deeper snowfall of the Tetons.
Bob is not a household name like some of his Jackson Hole Air Force friends, but ask any of the locals and they’ll most likely respond- “He’s the only person to front flip into S&S Couloir.”
Corbet’s Couloir is arguably the most famous in-bounds ski trail in the United States, and perhaps the world. The alluring chute capped with its iconic headwall has been thrust into the spotlight thanks to the success of the Kings & Queens of Corbet’s Couloir freeride competition.
Photo: Amy Jimmerson
Corbet’s gets the shine it deserves, but Jackson locals know that S&S Couloir, the significantly smaller chute to the looker’s left, is where legends are made.
Of all the legendary skiers that have dropped into S&S, the Kilmain Family has certainly left their mark.
Bob Kilmain
Bob Kilmain was living in ‘The Hostel’ in the late-90s when Jeff Leger, a fellow east coast transplant turned local legend, who is now known for writing JHMR’s eloquent snow reports, took him to ski S&S for the first time.
The couloir is daunting, but for Bob, S&S is just another “puzzle”.
Bob, along with Bryce Newcomb and Griffin Post, began “playing around” with entrances to the couloir over the years. He doesn’t recall which of the trio skied the wall into S&S Couloir first, but he remembers it evolving as a viable alternative after breaking his hands multiple times from the traditional drop point.
One day in 2009, Bob approached S&S with a look of disapproval. “I knew the landing was going to be bad”, he said.
Photo: Patrick Nelson
He was standing atop ‘The Notch’, a high point along the ridgeline and his usual launchpad into S&S, when the thought occurred, “If I do a front flip from the Notch, then I could clear the bad parts. So, that was the first time I did a front flip from the notch.”
Bob Kilmain made Jackson Hole history on a whim. Simple as that.
Years later, Bob is still a ripping skier and Jackson local, but his children are beginning to steal the limelight.
Morgan Kilmain
Of all the iconic female skiers that have visited or called Jackson Hole Mountain Resort home, only one has attempted and successfully ridden the S&S Couloir Wallride- 20 year old Morgan Kilmain.
Morgan was the stereotypical ‘ski racer kid’, as her family tells me. She spent much of her youth crashing gates, sharpening edges, and working on her form as a member of the Snow King Race Team, but her appetite for adventure wasn’t refined to the boundaries of the course.
Photo: Kilmain family archive
As a child, Bob challenged Morgan to accomplish big things. At just 13-years-old she summited the 12,610 foot Mount Moran at 5AM on a summer morning. She proceeded to ski down to the car, eat a snack, and water ski 11 miles across Jackson Lake afterwards. No big deal.
“Morgan is so driven”, he explains. “I would wake her up randomly, sometimes 11 o'clock at night, sometimes 2 in the morning, sometimes 4 in the morning, sometimes 5. And we'd go climb Glory Bowl. She always pushed through.”
Morgan made the shift from racing to freeride during her sophomore year of high school. Attracted by the “less intense” nature of freeride competitions, she latched on to the progressive and “more fun” aspects of the scene.
With that said, her desire to ski bigger lines has never wavered. Her Dad has always been the driving force, “I'm just so grateful for how much he has pushed us and his appreciation of the mountains.”
Morgan first broached the subject of skiing the S&S Couloir Wallride on a “perfect” day during the Winter ‘23/’24 season with her brother Jack. They approached the couloir, and she recalls metaphorically, “[crapping] my pants.” Morgan stood atop the line while seven Aerial Tram laps passed overhead. She called it after over an hour.
She turned to her Dad for help. “Do you want to come coach me into this?”, she asked. He obliged, and they returned to S&S later that week. Again, Morgan was paralyzed with fear.
“Dad, I’m so scared”, she said. Bob responded in a calming tone, “No, it's just you. You got this.”
Morgan, as she recalls, mustered the courage to hop and turn her skis at the necessary 90-degree angle in the air, and began sliding down the wall. “Once I did that, I do not really remember The Wall. It was kind of just like, adrenaline took over and I was just skiing.” (See below for Morgan's video).
When asked what pushed her to drop into S&S, Morgan cited an interaction with a local skier after bailing on her first attempt.
“One of the guys told me that I did not deserve to be a Kilmain, and that I should change my name and marry a banker so that no one has to ask me why I haven't skied S&S yet. So then I was like, ‘oh, okay, I guess I should go for it’.”
While the comment was completely uncalled for, it was the fuel Morgan burned to literally push herself over the edge.
As the first and only woman to slide the Wallride on S&S, it’s safe to say that Morgan Kilmain has written her name in the Jackson Hole history books. Just like Dad.
Jack Kilmain
Jack Kilmain was “always in trouble with his coaches”, according to Bob. He skied on the race team at Snow King like his older sister, but preferred terrain park laps and going fast, without gates in the way.
Bob recalls one day on the hill when Jack was 9, the year before he made the transition to the freeride team at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort.
Photo: Kilmain Family Archives
Jack was perplexed by the gates his fellow ski racers were turning around. “I don't understand. These kids are going around the gates, but I can go so much faster than them straight down the hill.”
In the seven years since Jack made the transition to freeride, Bob knows he made the right decision.
Jack, now 17 years old, went viral after a clip of his innovative entrance into S&S Couloir was shared on Jackson Hole Mountain Resort’s Instagram page .
Taking notes from one of Bob’s lines, Jack pulled off the seldom-attempted stunt in which a skier hops from The Knoll, shifts their skis and body in the air to match the angle of the wall, and proceeds to slide down.
Check out Jack's run on S&S below:
The video has amassed more than 5.5 million views, amongst JHMR’s most-viewed social media posts of all-time, but life hasn’t changed much for 17-year-old Jack.
“I’ve been recognized a couple of times on the mountain, but that’s really it”, Jack explains. He attributes the lack of notoriety to Jackson’s knack for producing “crazy” skiers. Essentially, Jack is a small fish in a big pond, but his accomplishment on S&S has certainly elevated his status amongst his community.
Check out Jack's POV below. Warning, adult language.
Perhaps Jack’s lack of enthusiasm can be attributed to how he was raised. When asked about what inspires him to push boundaries on the mountain, Jack says that it all links back to Bob.
“I haven’t always been fully aware of what my Dad has accomplished,” he says, “but I’ve been bragging about him for a long time.”
Jack has skied S&S a handful of times, and is looking to continue ticking off big mountain lines in the Tetons and abroad. On that note, he will compete at the Junior Freeride World Championships in Austria next year.
Photo: Kilmain family archive
Jackson Hole’s S&S Couloir was named after patrollers John Simms and Charlie Sands for being the first skiers to ever drop the line, but the Kilmain’s have certainly left their mark.
Bob has taken some time off in recent seasons to build a house, but assures me that he will be back on the mountain full-time with his children next season. He’s hoping there are many S&S laps and other big mountain lines in their shared future.
One might argue that it’s slightly presumptuous to anoint the Kilmain’s as ‘The First Family of S&S Couloir’, but until evidence is presented for another family to take the title, we’ll stick with it.
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