And if any one person has pied-pipered more folks into the hills to make carving turns a lifelong activity and lifestyle it’s Warren Miller.
It didn’t hurt at all that Warren had been one of Squaw Valley’s original ski instructors. He’d followed Emile Allais from Sun Valley to Squaw Valley’s initial year of operation in 1949. He was one of three instructors. If he didn’t have any pupils that day he’d film friends skiing. So few people came to Squaw Valley that first year, maybe 10 a day, he got to film as much as he wanted until the money would run out.
It was in 1946 that the WWII navy war veteran received a film camera, an 8mm, lent to him by one of his ski pupils who happened to be Chuck Percy, the President of Bell and Howell. He made his first film that year, a roughly put together segment on surfing. Only a few friends watched it while leaning against their cars in the Sun Valley parking lot. Few at that time, including Warren, would have guessed that he’d go on to produce over 750 films, write several books and publish countless articles about mountain life.
Although now retired at age 84, Warren’s uncorked blend of wry humor and unbridled enthusiasm still influence countless generations hell bent on getting their freak on over snowy terrain. And although he is no longer involved with the production of the films that bear his name, for many, no ski season begins until the current Warren Miller film rolls into town, lifting spirits and electrifying energy. His annual namesake film annually draws over 500,000 paying customers across the country.
For decades, Warren’s success, far beyond that of any rival or imitator, came from his knack as a storyteller, his impeccable humor and soulful commentary. His passion for the sport and its culture hasn’t changed. Even at his age he still boots up two to three times a week.
‘I have to admit that I now just go out on the sunny days, but making turns still excites me,’ he says. ‘I hope when you’re 84 you’ll be having as much fun as I still have on skis.’
On Extreme Skiing
When I first started anybody who could make turns and not fall was extreme. I guess it’s what your definition is. There was a 76-year-old woman I met in Vail. I watched her for three days learn to snowplow down a hill. Every run I noticed she had a million dollar smile on her face. At this point of time she was an extreme skier, getting out at her age to learn how to ski. My advice to today’s extreme skiers and riders wanting to go big is that death is the final answer. I know most young people don’t think of dying, but two of them died in front of a camera this past winter.
On His Favorite Skier
Scot Schmidt was the ultimate. He was so good that no one else could touch him. However, I have to say that Tracy Taylor is my favorite. I met her when she was 11 years old. She was born with a spinal disease and can’t walk. She has no knees just straight legs. I took her up a chairlift and skied down with all 35 pounds of her in my arms. I’ve never known anybody who became so instantly overjoyed. I made arrangements for her to visit the disabled ski school in Winter Park. I sent a film camera crew along with her. Although she struggled, she became a skier. In front of the camera Tracy says, ‘I think God made me this way so others could learn that anybody can do anything they want with their lives.’ Today she teaches handicapped skiing in Southern California.
On the Changing Ski Industry
When I started showing my films in 1950 there were fewer than 15 chairlifts in North America. You could buy a cheese sandwich and glass of milk for 10 cents. That was close to 60 years ago and a lot has changed. In 1962 a good day at Vail was 10 or 12 skiers. Now there can be 26,000 on the same permit on a Saturday. Breckenridge will host 22,000 and Aspen 20,000. The drive back to Denver can take seven hours. There has to be a better way. And I really don’t think you can run an area from some boardroom or office in Denver. I also believe that the lawyers, the tree huggers and the corporations should use a little vision. Why can’t you ski from Squaw Valley to Sugar Bowl? We need to open up these types of areas to let the people spread out a bit more.
On the Importance of Being Earnest
I learned a long time ago that you never ruin a good story with the absolute truth. What I wanted to do all along was share with others what I had a chance to see. The real pleasure in life is acquiring something and sharing it with someone else. I wanted to open up others to the doors of freedom. Skiing and filmmaking have much in common. Each is a means of personal individual expression. Each, in its purest sense, is freedom. And while one delivers it, the other captures it, preserving and enhancing it so that others can experience it as well.
On Retirement
For many years I traveled all over the world while I filmed, wrote, edited, scored, booked, and narrated each ski film showing. One year after traveling to 108 cities to show and narrate the feature ski film and after sleeping in 212 different hotels, a friend told me that I could put my voice right on the sound track. It was then that I discovered that other people could do some of the work I had been doing. Pretty soon I had a full-time staff of a dozen people. My son Kurt learned the business and eventually bought the business from me. I stayed on as a scriptwriter and narrator, which was fun. Now at age 84 all the filmmaking decisions are in other hands. It’s my time to ski without a 50-pound rucksack full of cameras and watch others do all the work.
On the Warren Miller Freedom Foundation
My wife Laurie came up with the idea several years ago to teach children how to become entrepreneurs. Today we have over 50 classes in Seattle that promotes jobs for kids. They learn how to make money, how to save it, balance a checkbook, all sorts of things that will help them at an early age learn about money. As a result we have 10-year-old girls baking dog cookies and selling them at a market, or a young boy taking out a neighbor’s trash for a weekly paycheck, or another youth delivering lunch to a business or sorting mail. We have two big fundraisers every year so that keeps us busy.
On Alex Cushing and Squaw Valley
Few others in America did more for the ski industry than Alex. Even though his administration was hostile and indifferent at times to the guest, employees and the environment, I still very much admired him. No one installed better lifts. His whole essence was about the experience of going downhill on skis. Squaw Valley set the tone. It’s always been the trendsetter with some of the best terrain in the world.
On the Importance of Being Warren
I’m sure there are a lot of parents who hate me for influencing their kids into wasting their lives away at a ski resort. In reality they wish they could do what you do because there is no better pure gut feeling of making a turn on the side of a hill. Although I’ve had a bit of success I still feel as if I’ve never worked a day in my life. It’s been that much fun.
Read an interview with Daron Rahlves on the new Warren Miller release, ‘Children of Winter.’
