The story of three local athletes and their lifelong bromance
Patches of mud and slushy snow made it feel more like late spring than early winter as I let the smell of french fries guide me into the Trap Bar at Grand Targhee. I located Max Martin and Cam FitzPatrick sitting at a table, fresh off the hill. Our phones buzzed simultaneously with a group text from Corey Jackson: top of lift, see you in 6. Max responded: we are timing you. My phone read 3:02 pm. At 3:04 I saw Corey toss his skis into the rack outside the Trap. “You beat the clock by four minutes!” I said as we greeted each other. “Well, as soon as it was a challenge, I had to go faster,” he replied with a grin.
These three share a lifetime of history and friendship. Max, 30, Cam, 31, and Corey, 31, were each born and raised in Jackson Hole. As we sipped beers and margaritas, I wondered if they still felt that electric beginning-of-winter feeling, in spite of how much the sleepy mountain town they grew up in has changed.
The last time all four of us were together was nine months ago on a frigid February day at Jackson Hole. We were shooting for Max’s film project, Home Away From Home. After some filming in-bounds, we headed out a backcountry gate into a zone I’d never explored. I am by no means a professional athlete; I can confidently say I was as scared as I’ve ever been on skis. Sensing my sheer terror, these three showed me unwavering kindness, support, and confidence in that moment. It was clear to me then that growing up together riding some of the most unforgiving terrain in the West–and deeply embedded in the intense culture of action sports–had not molded them into the mountain-town-hardo archetype. Instead, it instilled the importance of community and collaboration in each of them.
If you’re unfamiliar with Corey Jackson, Max Martin, and Cam FitzPatrick, I highly suggest a quick Instagram search to see what these guys can do. Max is known for skiing big lines with ski-racer speed and technique. Corey can make any mountain in any condition look like the best day ever. Cam rides with effortless style, has deep backcountry experience, and has segments in iconic films like Travis Rice’s The Fourth Phase and Warren Miller’s Daymaker and Timeless on his résumé.
This trio has lived on snow since they were small. Max clicked into his first pair of skis at 18 months old and never looked back. Cam is the son of a former JHMR ski patroller and also grew up on two planks. Corey put on skis as a baby but actually grew up snowboarding alongside his brother and mom.
On Corey’s 10th birthday, he and Cam decided to swap for the day. “That’s when everything fell into place,” Corey admits. Skiing had spoken to him. Soon after, Cam’s dad gave Corey a hand-me-down pair of boots and skis, and suddenly, he was skiing as much as he was riding. On the other side of that trade, Cam strapped into a snowboard for the first time and also instantly became hooked.
Growing up in a mecca of ski culture shaped their childhoods. They spent many days together in the mountains, aiming to emulate what they watched in ski and snowboard movies. “We grew up watching TGR, Matchstick, everything—skiing or snowboarding,” said Corey. “We went to every film premiere from like five years old to now, and we’re still going. Now we have our friends making movies on the same threshold.”
They each recalled hiking up Moran Face in the days before the Teton lift and learning to do backflips. “You were like the Energizer Bunny,” Max says of Cam. They all took turns filming each other; Corey’s parents had a video camera and his brother had editing software. “We were inseparable for years and filmed everything we did together,” Corey reminisced.
Gotta check if those helmet cams are rolling bros.
As golden afternoon light slowly warmed up the Trap Bar, the three friends reflected on the support they each got from their own parents–and each others’ parents–from an early age. They recalled all the parents taking turns bringing the boys to the hill on weekends, and advocating for them to get out of school early on powder days. It truly took a village to raise them.
“I’d think back to when we were in elementary school, and we’d go ski with Max’s mom and be out all day on the weekends, and ski ‘til we couldn’t stand up anymore,” recalled Corey. It wasn’t just ski culture that had been ingrained in them—the mountains gave them a bigextended family. “That’s the most relatable thing about everyone at this table,” mused Max. “We’re all still doing the same thing like we’re five years old. Things change, but the perspective doesn’t.”
Things do change. All three moved away to pursue their own paths in life. When they eventually returned, they found a different version of Jackson Hole than the one they grew up in. The valley is busier, and glitzier. There are fewer and fewer old-time ski bums sticking it out. Corey’s parents moved away a year ago because of the rising living costs. None of the neighbors who lived around his childhood home are still there. “Everything around us is changing, but our relationship with each other has not changed,” he said.
This past August, Cam and his wife René welcomed their son Jet into the world. He’s the first of the three to become a parent, but he hopes that if Corey and Max have kids, they can raise them all together, village-style, the way they were raised. They’ve already made a pact that the next generation will be called Gen Shred.
Cam FitzPatrick is officially a rad dad everyone!
“You don’t come back here to stare at the Tetons. You come back here to spend time with those that you care about,” Corey remarked. “I also think that being pro riders brings us all together still so much. We’re all still pursuing it. You could easily just flake off and never see any of these people ever again. But then the snow starts falling and I know I’m gonna see my homies up there. And if I don’t show up, then they’re gonna quit showing up for me.”
Where can you find Cam FitzPatrick, Max Martin, and Corey Jackson this winter? All hope to participate in the Kings and Queens of Corbets event at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort in February. All three have competed before but they’ve never gone head-to-head. They’re also talking about more film projects in the future.
– IL
If you don’t find @izzylidsky hunched over like a gargoyle editing photos, you’ll almost definitely find her handing out meat sticks on the Tram or crying when her pro-athlete friends take her down things like ‘Spooky Death Ridge.