{"id":804244,"date":"2020-02-16T20:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-17T03:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=379103"},"modified":"2020-02-16T20:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-02-17T03:00:00","slug":"olivero-breckenridge-local-jon-dc-oetken-reflects-on-announcing-kings-queens-of-corbets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/olivero-breckenridge-local-jon-dc-oetken-reflects-on-announcing-kings-queens-of-corbets\/","title":{"rendered":"Olivero: Breckenridge local Jon \u2018DC\u2019 Oetken reflects on announcing Kings & Queens of Corbet\u2019s"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Veronica Paulson competes at Kings and Queens of Corbet\u2019s at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort in Jackson, Wyoming, on Feb. 11.<\/strong>
Courtesy Red Bull<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

For a broadcaster who gets to call the X Games, Dew Tour and other big events each year, last week\u2019s Kings & Queens of Corbet\u2019s freeskiing and snowboarding invitational may just have been the wildest competition Breckenridge local Jon \u201cDC\u201d Oetken has announced.<\/p>\n

Oetken effectively co-hosted the multihour broadcast of the coed, 24-athlete Red Bull contest at the iconic Corbet\u2019s Couloir at Jackson Hole Resort. For Oetken, it was an opportunity to appreciate in person an event that is truly on the furthest boundary of freeskiing and snowboarding\u2019s journey, one that combines the natural geologic challenge of a place like Corbet\u2019s with slopestyle-like jumps created by Jackson Hole Resort\u2019s terrain park crew.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had built nine features,\u201d Oetken said, \u201cbut then they got over 3 feet of snow three days prior. So a lot of it got filled in so they had to dig it out and rebuild stuff. But it\u2019s incredible. \u2026 It\u2019s an amazing build and an amazing feat for that park and pipe crew to build such well-sculpted features that work. And they work with the fall lines of the couloir.\u201d<\/p>\n

On a livestream on your computer, the sight of Tuesday\u2019s athlete-judged competition \u2014 which was won by Montanan Parkin Costain and Colorado College graduate Veronica Paulsen of California \u2014 is jaw-dropping. But Oetken and his fellow Corbet\u2019s broadcaster Tina Dixon said to fully comprehend just how amazing the contest is, one must see the couloir, and the contest set-up surrounding it, up close and personal. The fact that athletes were hucking double back flips and switch spins before controlling their speed into slopestyle-like jumps \u2014 with geologic wonder walls closing in on them \u2014 is a sight to behold in person.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure there are people out there who are saying, \u2018I\u2019d backflip into there, whatever,\u2019\u201d said Oetken, who first dropped into Corbet\u2019s via the more tame, traditional goat path in-run on his first trip to Jackson 15 years ago. \u201cBut until you are standing up there looking into it and seeing, then it you\u2019re like, \u2018Oh, OK.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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Bobby Brown guests on the broadcast, with Breck local Jon \u201cDC\u201d Oetken at left, at Kings and Queens of Corbet\u2019s at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort in Jackson, Wyoning, on Feb. 11.<\/strong>
Courtesy Red Bull<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

In terms of Tuesday\u2019s standouts, the sight of the 20-year-old Costain and fellow Montanan Jake Hopfinger manicuring a special in-run to have the right trajectory to land double back-flips into the 40-foot near-vertical drop off the top of couloir was mind-blowing. The sight of Paulsen becoming the first woman to stomp a backflip into the couloir was another all-time memory. Sam Kuch\u2019s torqued-out double-cork 1080 may have topped them all, though, in terms of risking consequence.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd those walls come up quick,\u201d Oetken added. \u201cLooking into it the day before (the contest), it\u2019s obvious the best transition is up against that west wall, right up against the bottom of that west wall. So you\u2019re flirting with that west wall if you land it a little edge heavy and hook.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oetken and Dixon also said the nature of the competition challenges and entices the world\u2019s best young freeskiers and snowboarders to dream biggger. With more and more elite contest riders like Summit County locals Red Gerard and Bobby Brown \u2014 who was in attendance \u2014 desiring to bring their skills to the challenge of the backcountry, the trend seems clear when you see dream concepts like Kings & Queens of Corbet\u2019s brought to life.<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

Back in Summit County, Oetken said he thinks the element of bringing park jumps to natural big mountain contest lines could be done. With Aspen having considered a similar type competition in the past at Highlands Bowl and Mammoth Mountian building jumps in The Hemlocks, there is growing precedent it can be done. When Oetken thinks of Summit County terrain that is somewhat similar to Corbet\u2019s, Zoot Chute up in Breckenridge\u2019s Lake Chutes comes to mind, as does First Notch on Arapahoe Basin Ski Area\u2019s East Wall.<\/p>\n

Time will tell if freesking and snowboarding embraces more big mountain contests in iconic geologic spots featuring park jumps and slopestyle elements. It also remains to be seen if and how Summit County gets in on the trend that has the whole ski and snowboard world buzzing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Breck definitely has the terrain for that,\u201d Oetken said. \u201cI think A-Basin does as well. Summit County very well could produce athletes who excel at these type of events. Let\u2019s do it. It\u2019s awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Bobby Brown of Breckenridge spectates at Kings and Queens of Corbet\u2019s at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort in Jackson, Wyoming, on Feb. 11.<\/strong>
Courtesy Red Bull<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Veronica Paulson competes at Kings and Queens of Corbet\u2019s at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort in Jackson, Wyoming, on Feb. 11.Courtesy Red Bull For a broadcaster who gets to call the X Games, Dew Tour and other big events each year, last week\u2019s Kings & Queens of Corbet\u2019s freeskiing and snowboarding invitational may just have been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-804244","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-23 14:50:38","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=804244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804244\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}