Famed skier Scot Schmidt pioneered extreme skiing
In the early 80’s the ski world was introduced to Scot Schmidt, a 21-year-old who grew up in a small Montana town and moved to California’s Squaw Valley chasing a ski dream.
Schmidt, who would become one of the most recognizable and filmed skiers in the world, helped propel the explosion of what was referred to in the 80’s and 90’s as extreme skiing. During that time, you couldn’t open a ski magazine or watch a Warren Miller film without seeing Scot’s image.
Nowadays, Scot resides most of the year at the Yellowstone Club, a private ski and golf club in Big Sky, Montana, which is a far cry from his start at Squaw Valley. Scot has earned the coveted credentials as ambassador to skiing at the Club, and he’s held that position for 15 years. A skier myself, I sat down with Scot at his home to reflect on his rise to ski stardom.
» Getting his start
Scot knew early on he would be a skier.
“When I was young, I think I just had won a whole series of races before the Northern Division championships, and I remember being in my room one day,” Scot recalled.
“I’m probably 16 or 17 years old, I told myself I’m going to be a skier, I don’t care what anybody says, I’m going to be a skier. I love this and I’m good at it.”
After beating a bunch of NCAA college ski racers at Northern Division downhill race, “My coach pulls me aside and says, ‘Man, that was, that was phenomenal. You need to get out of the state and get in a bigger program.’ Upon his recommendation that’s when I decided to move to Squaw Valley,” Scot said.
He’ll never forget the day he moved.
“I got dropped off by a bus in the Squaw Valley parking lot with no money,” he said. “I had to stash all my gear in the bushes for a few nights and I slept in an abandoned building for a short time.”
Scot ended up borrowing $350 from his mom to join the Squaw Valley ski team, and for the next two years, Scot’s Squaw Valley race team ski coach waived his coaching fees. In return, Scot would serve as the ski locker room janitor guy.
“I had dreams of getting on the U.S. team and going to the Olympics. That was my goal, but I just couldn’t afford it. I had the points and qualified for FIS races and U.S. ski team camps, but I just didn’t have enough money to travel, plus I was working five days a week as ski tech just to pay bills.”
That first year in Squaw Valley shaped Scot’s life in ways he could have never imagined.
Scot was on a lunch break and decided to hike up to the top of the Valley’s most iconic landmark, the Palisades, which is a huge cliff band with several chutes and rock outcroppings.
“I get to the top and there’s speed skiing world record holder Steve McKinney and his friend Paul Bushman practicing their tucks through the tube, which they’d packed out and made a speed track,” Scot recalled. “They were hitting speeds of 70 and 80 miles an hour into the bowl. I go, ‘I’m going to go get my downhill skis and try that.’ I dropped in on my 220’s and that was it.”
After that memorable day, Scot was having so much fun hitting the mountain with his downhill skis. He spent a lot of time on the Palisades with his longhaired speed-skiing friends going fast, skiing technical lines and sending it big off the cliffs.
Some of Scot’s 80- to 100-foot cliff drops from the Palisades were captured by Larry Prosor, an aspiring ski photographer from Truckee, Calif.
Photo by: Larry Prosor
“I drove to Powder Magazine headquarters in Southern California and hand-delivered these images. Powder Magazine ran a nine-page spread with a centerfold shot “Ski to Die” of Schmidt doing what he did, sending it big,” said Larry.
The Powder Magazine spread caught the attention of legendary filmmaker Warren Miller, and in 1983 Warren sent Gary Nate, their top cameraman, up to Squaw Valley to film a segment for Ski Time and hopefully capture some footage of Scot skiing.
What happened from that shoot propelled Scot into ski stardom.
» The turning point
Scot agreed to go out with Gary and photographer Larry Prosor. They went up to an area called the Eagles Nest, a 55-degree rock face that is an iconic Squaw Valley landmark.
“Scot climbed up the side and disappeared around the backside of the rock, a few minutes later I saw Scot standing at the top of the Eagles Nest. A minute later, he pushed off and hit about three patches of snow and launched into the air reaching 50 mph on a pair of K2 220 cm downhill skis through avalanche debris,” recalled Gary.
Next, they went to Scot’s playground, the Palisades. In looking back, this was Scot’s monumental moment, a turning point in his long ski career.
Schmidt lined it up and then sent it big out and over the rock cliffs. Scot recounted that moment when he skied up to the camera. Gary immediately asked, “If I got you a hundred bucks, do you think you could do that again?”
“I said, you’re going to give me a hundred bucks to do that again?” Scot said. “Yeah, by the end of the day, I’d racked up about $300 worth of jumps because Gary kept asking me to do it one more time. Little did Gary know, I was going to do more jumps anyway before he offered to pay me,” Scot said with a big smile.
Gary wasn’t the only one impressed with Scot’s performance. Not long after the shoot, Scot received a letter from Warren Miller Entertainment that read: “Dear Scot, the footage of you leaping through space in Squaw Valley is the most spectacular footage that’s ever come into my office. Next time my crews go to a foreign country to film a segment, would you be interested in joining us?” It was signed Warren Miller.
Ski Time was released in 1983, and Scot knew things were about to change.
“The first time I flew to (Los Angeles) and I went to Warren Miller’s office on Pier Avenue and I saw it on the big silver screen, it was just like, oh God, here we go. I really felt deep down I tapped into something at that moment. I knew this was going to be a fun ride that we can do for a while.”
» Reaching stardom
For several years Scot traveled and shot ski films with the Warren Miller film crew. By 1988, he switched gears and started filming with Greg Stump Productions. His role in “The Blizzard of Aahhhs” catapulted Schmidt into national stardom and included many mainstream TV appearances. One of the more notable appearances was NBC’s Today show with Bryant Gumbel.
Scot continued shooting with Greg for several years and by 2000, he had built up enough of a name for himself and a following. People wanted to ski with Scot. He started replacing filming with corporate and private ski adventures, organizing powder skiing trips to Canada with small groups of people.
He also started skiing with a few select guests who owned homes at the privately owned Yellowstone Club. Warren Miller had one of the first homes on the mountain and was the Club’s original ambassador to skiing.
Scot would eventually become a Club ambassador alongside Warren.
“After 25 years of filmmaking and travel, standing around waiting for the camera, waiting for the cloud to blow off, you weren’t skiing, you were working and then add in your commitments to your sponsors, with lots of travel for them at trade shows and shop visits,” Scot said. “This gave me the opportunity to get my passion and groove back for skiing. Skiing every day at a really fun place with good people and good skiers.”
Over the years, Scot and Warren struck up a very close relationship.
“Warren was kind of a father figure to me,” Scot said. “He’d always pull me aside and coach me a little bit. Even back in the early days when we were up on stage at the (Warren Miller) movie premieres, he’d help me with my delivery and my articulation, with pausing and getting the attention of the crowd. He was always telling me to sign my name so people can read it, look people in the eye, really have your story lined up. Because when you’re with Warren, you’d hear the same stories over and over, but his delivery was always great and spot on.”
Warren passed away in 2018 at 93 years of age.
“Warren skied right up to the very last minute he could,” Scot said. “He kept sneaking out of the house going skiing.”
In some ways, Warren’s spirit lives on in Scot.
“Oh, yeah,” Scot said. “I ski by his memorial every day. It gives me goosebumps. He had a big effect on a lot of people, and he changed my life.”
» Living a dream
Scot’s success didn’t come without a lot of resistance and negativity from close friends and family at the start.
“It was tough. I was discouraged by a lot of people,” Scot said. “It’s not practical, you’ll be a bum, there’s no money in it … and they were kind of right.”
Scot’s unique talent and exposure has provided him some lucrative contracts with several ski-related companies like Stockli, Salomon, K2 skis, The North Face and Leki ski poles, just to name a few. Scot was the guy who broke the mold for freeskiers/film skiers who didn’t fall under the traditional “ski racer” umbrella. Until Scot, no one other than ski racers had received sponsor contracts with paychecks.
Schmidt’s contracts paid off handsomely for both he and his sponsors. You couldn’t open a ski magazine without seeing an ad or a photo of Scot, his image and likeness being used to sell ski gear. One of Schmidt’s most loyal sponsors, The North Face, collaborated with Scot and together they designed the Scot Schmidt Steep Tech line, which created a cult-like following with skiers and non-skiers alike. The Steep Tech line was a major player in helping build The North Face brand, and it’s still in the company’s lineup.
It’s been 40 years since Scot’s first film. Since then, he’s gone on to appear in over 40 films, three of them major motion pictures.
Today, at 61, Scot sits in the living room of his home in the Yellowstone Club. It has been a lifetime since he was dropped off in that parking lot in Squaw Valley with only his ski gear and a dream. Passion and focus drove him to the spot he’s always longed to be.
“At a young age, I knew deep down I was going to be a skier, one way or another. I always dreamed of having a little ski cabin that you could ski to and from. I pictured more of a forest-service- lease-kind of cabin on the side of the mountain somewhere. I didn’t imagine … I never expected it to look like this.
“I think I was shooting a little low,” he said with a grin.
Scot can’t be certain what the next 20 years will hold. But he knows this:
“I have skiing right out this back door at one of the smoothest ski resorts on the planet. If I can ski as long as Warren did and enjoy it as long as he did, I think I will have done something.” N
For more exciting photos from the Scot Schmidt/Larry Prosor collection check out www.larryprosor.com
By Bob Legasa
Photography By: Freeride Media
As Featured In: Winter/Spring 2023
A special nod to Scot Schmidt
It’s September. Ski season is coming…
As a kid, I remember heading to the local video store and renting the latest copy of Warren Miller Films. This year it’s White Magic. “YES!”
I race home and insert the VHS tape into the player. I’m in my parent’s living room, but in my mind I’m thousands of feet up, staring down the barrel of a rocky chute.
Slipping on my “Scot Schmidt” Solomon SX92 Equip boots, I click into the bindings of my Rossi skis and watch in awe as Scot smoothly carves the steep & deep terrain like it was his backyard. Moving along turn for turn with Scot, I felt alive and knew deep down this was my calling.
To think, decades later, I would have the chance to grace the cover of Nspire with such an iconic person is humbling, to say the least. And to all of those iconic adventurers who have lit a spark in many of us, my glass is raised in appreciation to you. Cheers for your Nspiration!
Andreas John, owner
Nspire Magazine