Skier of the Week: Scot Schmidt

Is there anything sadder than drunk middle-aged white men swapping quotes from an ancient ski movie? There’s pretty much no ski lodge, bar or snow gathering that I haven’t seen, or been, that guy in the last 30 years. If the Blizzard of Ahhhs was ground zero for the extreme sport movement – whose shock waves still reverberate around the world – then Scot Schmidt was the detonator. Just one of the reasons why he is Fat Cantab’s Skier of the Week…

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Every life hangs on a moment. Sometimes you know right away it’s a big deal. Sometimes clarity only comes with time. When Warren Miller saw the footage of this huck at the Palisades in Squaw Valley CA in 1983 he wrote Scot Schmidt a letter that changed his life and launched a totally new career path: the professional big mountain freeskier. Hopefully when your moment comes along they will spell your name right…
Photo: Jeff Engerbretson

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​Influence. Everywhere you look in modern skiing you’ll find Scot Schmidt’s fingerprints. In tangential and profound ways he changed the way people ski - from the 1980s to the present day. Another ski maverick Scott Gaffney has a remarkable ability to be on the scene when ski history is being made; if not in the driver’s seat then riding shotgun, an enviable perspective: “We all wanted to ski like Scot Schmidt, imitating his extreme cross and angulated turns. Several generations later, despite radical progression, everything we see in dynamic big mountain skiing today can probably be traced back to him. He is the root of it all.”
Photo: Chris Noble

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Hollywood movie Aspen Extreme (1993) was never going to win an Oscar (its score on Rotten Tomatoes is 22%) but even people who watch arthouse cinema know you can’t make a pizza without a little cheese. Retaining two of the biggest legends in ski history as stunt doubles elevates this straight-to-video effort. That’s Scot Schmidt (left) and Doug Coombs (24/9/1957 – 3/4/2006) photographed during filming. 

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Why does a 30-year old ski jacket still sell for over $600? Money is an absurd, but convenient, measure of influence in a capitalist society. Collectability is sweetest of all nostalgias – with the comfort of advancing years you can buy what you coveted when young. Steep Tech was the original co-lab between Scot Schmidt and The North Face. He has been sponsored by TNF since 1983 – surely a record in the ski industry…

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Part of the Scot Schmidt legend was created at Island Lake Lodge (British Columbia) where he was a shareholder, director and Lodge fixture. “Those were some great years” said Scot. He adds wistfully, “But we did too good of a job with the media there. We sold the place out, and I worked my way out of a job.” This cover shot, taken next to the imaginatively named “Scot Schmidt Tree” at the resort, is like a Byzantine icon; burnished hues and perfect form leading the viewer to ponder the very nature of existence. Or maybe just wanting to go huck some cliffs…

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This clip from “Groove: Requiem in the Key of Ski” (1991) set the template for an Alaska segment: the mountains dominating every frame, a Vietnam vet pilot, skiers and snowboarders on the same team for once, unleashing a selection of high-calibre weaponry, and as a bonus Scot Schmidt wearing the most recognizable item of ski fashion in history.
Greg Stump’s magisterial editing is like another character in the film; his dramatic tempo and rapid cuts never quite overwhelm the action but always create something greater than the sum of the parts. I hope the latest crop of ski porn can match this artistry and survive the oblivion of skiing’s relentless progression. Slap on your headphones and turn up the volume – it’s time to get a little crazy…

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