By Joseph T. O’Connor Explore Big Sky Senior Editor
BIG SKY – Scot Schmidt is a household name in ski patrol locker rooms, tune shops and at resorts around the world. Now folks in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula know it too.
The skiing legend and Yellowstone Club Ski Ambassador received a letter in December notifying him of his induction into the National Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame, located in Ishpeming, Mich.
“I’m stoked,” said Schmidt, 52. “It’s been a great ride – my whole career has been a celebration. But there were no guarantees. Doors kept opening and the phone kept ringing.”
Born in Helena and raised on the slopes of Great Divide Ski Area, Schmidt has starred in approximately 50 ski films, pioneering the era of “extreme skiing” in the U.S. in the early ‘80s. He’s worked at the Yellowstone Club for 11 years, and became the club’s official ski ambassador in 2009. He spends these days showing club members around Pioneer Mountain and getting back to skiing for himself, he said.
Schmidt was inducted at the official ceremony in Park City, Utah on Saturday, April 5 and will be enshrined at the Ishpeming Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame in September.
