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Skipress - SkiPress Canada Vol.22 No.4 - Index

Photo: Scott Markewitz
BY PETER KRAY
He fl ew like a blue-eyed bird
across the silver screen.
34 THE SPRING SKIING ISSUE 2008
THE MOVIE STAR
Scot Schmidt
Scot Schmidt turned his skis into wings. Back in 1983, in Warren Miller’s
Ski Time, the ex-ski racer from Montana made his on-camera debut by skiing
off Squaw Valley’s black Palisades and down its steep Fingers like a
blue-eyed bird across the silver screen.
Skiers who saw that first footage were as shocked by the enormity of
Schmidt’s leaps as they were by his serenity in the sky, with his signature
tip-cross and high-handed piloting. When he repeated, then bettered those
airborne exploits in subsequent starring roles — in Miller’s Steep and Deep
in 1985, then Greg Stump’s Blizzard of AAHHH’S (the ski-cine equivalent
of The Godfather) in 1988 – he changed the face of skiing.
The unstoppable wave of snowboarding had just begun to surge across the
winter world as Schmidt and ski amigos Glen Plake and Mike Hattrup began
to push two-planking past the boundaries, onto peaks and steeps that only
the snow and sun had seen. By dropping cornices and straightlining pencilthin
couloirs, they introduced a new vision of the sport somewhere between
rock climbing and Acapulco cliff-diving.
To the world — athletes, advertisers and everymen alike — it became known
as ‘Extreme.’ In its wake, boundary ropes dropped, Alaska opened and new
ski bums migrated upcountry by the thousands. Ski-fi lm companies sprang
from the slopes, off-piste-loving fat skis fi lled the shops, and a whole new
profession of big-mountain skiers and guides came into being.
At the start, Schmidt worked hard to get ski companies, clothing companies
and resorts to realize that this was “where the sport is going.” After
almost 25 years, skiing is still going that way. And nearly 40 ski fi lms
later, Scot Schmidt remains at its soul-fi lled centre, hanging like a hawk
on the wind.
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Photo: The North Face