While pushing a lawnmower over the summer, Parkin Costain visualized the double backflip into the narrow gully. He thought about the double while excavating a bike trail, taking a shower, going to sleep. It had been on his mind for months, a persistent thought that played on repeat. Was it doable? If so, how?

In February 2020—a month before the skiing stopped due to Covid—Parkin stood atop Corbet’s Couloir, the famed elevator-shaft chute in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He was ready to turn his visualization into reality in a contest called the Kings & Queens of Corbet’s. The event challenges invited athletes to throw down their best line into and then down the couloir. Fellow competitors determine the winner. Parkin built a jump near the edge of the couloir’s dicey entrance. With the earth falling away beneath the entrance, it would be a blind takeoff.

At go time, Parkin pushed off, hit the lip of the jump, and backflipped twice, landing squarely on his skis 100 feet down the couloir. The crowd erupted. Parkin had just stomped the first double backflip into Corbet’s ever. He skied the rest of the line fast and smooth, throwing a few more tricks for good measure. His Instagram followers doubled overnight.

Read the full story in Big Sky Life Magazine.