Scot schmidt biography

The father of extreme skiing, Scot Schmidt, is at home in Montana

By Emily StiflerExplorebigsky.com Managing Editor

In a training run at the 1979 Northern Division Championships downhill race at Bridger Bowl, Scot Schmidt crashed high on the course, flew into the fences, and was knocked unconscious. Covered in bruises, he wasn’t sure if he’d compete the next day.

But he rallied, and then he won.

Race officials thought something was wrong with the timing—there was no way this skinny 18-year-old had beat all the NCAA racers. But the next day Schmidt did it again. And the following day, he won the Giant Slalom in his class.

It was the winter before Schmidt’s high school graduation, and he’d already won the Hancock Cup downhill at Red Lodge, as well as a handful of other races in the Northern Division that season. Every weekend during high school, he traveled from Montana City, his hometown south of Helena, to train and race with the Bridger Stockli scot schmidt.