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Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/732873
first tracks In a new book, wrIter robert cocuzzo follows the traIl of the world's greatest skIer. By Murat oztaskin Of all the praise lavished on late adventure-skier Doug Coombs in Robert Cocuzzo's new book, one quote, from Jackson Hole ski authority Howie Henderson, stands out: "The fluidity, the grace, the style, the effortless route-finding, the incredible angles, the easy athleticism... Doug Coombs is simply so damn good that seeing him ski changes your whole life." It's an impression whose tone—of admiration, of awe, of privilege to have known the man and watched him ski—echoes in increasing pitch throughout Tracking the Wild Coomba: The Life of Legendary Skier Doug Coombs (Mountaineers Books), a biography-cum-adventure tale-cum-ode published earlier this year to coincide with the 10th anniversary of Coombs's death, at the age of 48. As Cocuzzo, himself an avid skier, describes speaking to Coombs's friends, family members, and acquaintances, the book unfolds as both a chronicle of Coombs's on-mountain pursuits and an attempt to understand what drove the life of the globe- trotting, slope-conquering man often called the greatest skier of all time. Cocuzzo, the 30-year-old editor of Nantucket's N photography by ace Kvale "DOUG COOMBS IS SIMPLY SO DAMN GOOD THAT SEEING HIM SKI CHANGES YOUR WHOLE LIFE." —howie henderson The supernatural: Skier Doug Coombs's talent was such that it was as if he had "developed a symbiotic relationship with the mountains," says biographer Robert Cocuzzo, "that he was working in partnership with them." A child- hood friend remembers Coombs as seeming "like a natural mountain creature, like a bull elk, born to roam the mountain edges." bostoncommon-magazine.com 43 SCENE EVERYBODY 's talkin g aBOu t...