It’s hard to pinpoint the exact moment when the freeskiing seed was first planted. But it might have been in 1983, when Warren Miller showed up at the ski area now known as Palisades Tahoe, in California, with his film camera. Miller shot footage of a then-unheard-of skier named Scot Schmidt, who was working for the resort’s race department. For the camera, Schmidt dropped steep lines and rocky chutes all over the mountain that few had even considered skiable.
Weeks later, Miller sent Schmidt a letter that said his footage was the most exciting skiing he’d seen and inquired if Schmidt was interested in filming with him again. Schmidt said yes, and the rest is history. That footage, portrayed in Miller’s 1983 film, “Ski Time,” launched a revolution and put Palisades Tahoe on the map as a mecca for a new, extreme style of skiing.
Schmidt was not the first pioneering athlete to show up in Tahoe, but he was perhaps the most visible. Some also credit under-the-radar brothers Craig and Greg Beck, who skied Palisades in the late 70s, quietly filming each other launching 100-footers. But it was Schmidt who helped turn Palisades into ski country’s Hollywood, the place where ski movies were made. Like 1984’s cult-classic “Hot Dog … The Movie,” which starred many local skiers as stunt doubles, and Greg Stump’s landmark 1988 film, “Blizzard of Aahhh’s,” starring Schmidt, Glen Plake and Mike Hattrup.
Around the same time, cinematographer Eric Perlman shot the Egan brothers (Dan and Jon) and the DesLauriers brothers (Rob and Eric) for a video series called “The North Face Extreme.” All of that footage reached mainstream audiences with a clear and surprising message: For the steepest, gnarliest ski terrain and the deepest snow in the U.S., head to California.