The Birthplace of Freeskiing

Featured Photo: Jeff Engerbretson | Skier: Michelle Parker | Location: Palisades Tahoe, CA

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.

Left Photo: Larry Prosor | Skier: Kent Smith

Right Photo: Larry Prosor | Skier: Rob Deslauriers

In March 1995, Palisades Tahoe hosted one of the first major freeskiing competitions of the era, dubbed the All Mountain Extremes, where skiers and snowboarders were judged on line choice, fluidity and control.

The finals were held on Granite Chief Peak, hosted by Kim Reichhelm and Chaco Mohler, and captured by cameramen Scott Gaffney and Tom Day. Skiers Chuck Patterson and Kristen Kremer launched massive airs to take top honors. It may have been a competition, but it was also a party. Everyone was out to have a good time.

The scene at Palisades took off in the ’90s. Brothers Robb and Scott Gaffney, who were originally from the East Coast, had moved to Tahoe and fell in with a rowdy crew of local rippers, including Shane McConkey and JT Holmes. “When we were on the mountain, we were there to celebrate. It felt like we were part of something bigger,” the late Robb Gaffney once said. “It was either snowing or bluebird, with these steep pitches and snow that could actually stick to it. We had this experience of being completely carefree on the mountain.”

The result was 1995’s “Walls of Freedom,” the first feature film Scott Gaffney made, starring McConkey as a relative newcomer and shot mostly on location at Palisades. “Tahoe had this combination of deep snow, blue skies and clean cliffs,” Scott Gaffney says. “As far as filming goes, it made for the best combination. All of those elements also drew on a deep talent pool.” The mountain’s legendary terrain turned unknown skiers into everyday heroes.

Highly visible zones like the Fingers, the exposed chutes under the lift on KT-22, or Palisades, a hike-to cliff band in plain sight of Siberia chair, or Mainline Pocket made your average ski bum an instant legend with one flashy line. “A majority of the proving grounds at this mountain are visible to everyone. It’s like a coliseum where anyone can watch,” Gaffney says.

McConkey, of course, was a lovable prankster who would go on to make a lasting impact in countless ski movies and contribute to the design of modern powder skis before passing away tragically in 2009. Gaffney would direct dozens of notable ski films after that first one, with early standouts like “Breathe,” “1999,” and “Immersion.”

As a kid growing up in the ’90s on the Palisades race team, Cody Townsend remembers getting in the KT-22 lift line behind McConkey, JT Holmes and Scott Gaffney. Here were his real-life heroes right in front of him, so he followed them—quietly chasing them for hours, launching every cliff and straight-lining every chute they did. Eventually, Holmes noticed their shadow and invited Townsend to join them.

“I knew what I wanted to do when I was six years old: I wanted to be a professional skier,” Townsend says. “I watched Scot Schmidt in Warren Miller’s ‘Ski Country’ and I thought, ‘That’s what I want to do.’” Townsend, naturally, would go on to make history of his own, starring in many ski movies and eventually attempting to ski the 50 Classic Ski Descents in North America.

As time marched on, the freeskiing world continued to emerge, with a wild spectrum of talent and creativity. Michelle Parker, Skogen Sprang and CR Johnson were gifted groms trying new tricks in the park, Kent Kreitler was throwing 720s off cliffs mid-line, and Jamie Burge was landing backflips off Extra Chute in a low-budget 1998 film called “Butter,” shot by Constantine Papanicolaou.

Ingrid Backstrom would see Burge’s footage and it would be part of the reason why, after graduating from college in Washington, the former ski racer would move to Tahoe to become one of the world’s best freeskiers. “I had heard how amazing the skiing was there, so I just went,” Backstrom says. “I remember skiing KT early season and I couldn’t believe skiing could be like that—steep with all of these playful features.”

In MSP’s 2004 film, “Yearbook,” Backstrom had a breakout performance, ripping massive lines in British Columbia and Tahoe that would cement her status as a legend-in-the-making. Meanwhile, Robb Gaffney was away at medical school and decided to write a guidebook to the toughest lines on the mountain Titled Squallywood, it was a bible of sorts that’s still heralded today.

In 2007, Jamie Burge won the resort’s inaugural Freeskiing Open, held on Enchanted Forest off KT-22 and Cornice II. With that, the next generation had arrived, skiers like Mike Wilson, Timy Dutton, Jackie Paaso and Elyse Saugstad quickly joining the ranks of skiers to watch at Palisades.

Left Photo: Emily Tidwell | Skier: Tyler Curle

Right Photo: Jeff Engerbretson | Skier: Noah Gaffney

Photographer Hank de Vre, who’d moved out from New York in the ’70s and knew nothing about skiing initially, was seemingly everywhere with his camera throughout this historic time. For decades, he captured what it meant to be a freeskier at Palisades. He has one of the biggest collections of published photos from this monumental era, with shots like John Treman slashing Kitchen Wall, Erik Roner BASE-jumping on skis, and McConkey doing a spread eagle off Adrenaline Rock. “We were trying to tell a story with photographs,” de Vre says. “The main thing I wanted to bring out in these pictures was the spirit of skiing, the feeling of exhilaration, the freedom.”

These days, Palisades Tahoe is still an epicenter of progression, with a new generation of staggeringly talented freeskiers raising the bar yet again. Freeride athletes like Connery Lundin, Ross Tester, Britta Winnans, Noah Gaffney, Lily Bradley, Tyler Curle, Kaz Sosnkowski, Zeb Schreiber and others are ushering in the next wave.

Their predecessors have left big boots to fill, but it’s clear that every one of these rising stars is—as Robb Gaffney put it—part of something bigger. Their common thread? The storied mountain they all call home, a snow-drenched promised land for freeskiers.

The Birthplace of Freeskiing - Palisades Tahoe