Skier Lets Extreme Talents Fly -- Local Skier Stars In Action Film

It is as predictable as late-October snow on Mount Baker.

Every fall, sports moviemaker Warren Miller rolls into town with another ski movie to stoke the adrenaline pumps of snow-starved skiers.

And at every show, a small group of hot-dog skiers - most legends in their own minds - seek access to the legendary Miller, hoping to slip him a note or a videotape. Their goal: Convince Miller to put them in a ski film, opening the floodgates to fame, fortune and that rarely attained highest plateau of skidom: Professional ski bum.

Mercer Island native John Tremann remembers the day well. Five years ago. Fifth Avenue Theatre. Nervous, he approached Miller backstage and spat out a sentence which, in the skiing world, will get you laughed off just about any mountain.

"I know I can do some of those things Scot Schmidt is doing."

Schmidt, then the king of high-mountain cliff jumping, starred in many of Miller's 1980s films, later becoming a poster boy for K2 and The North Face. Miller, who did not become the king of action sports film by turning away potential prospects, didn't laugh at Tremann. He just offered four words of advice. "Send me a tape."

Tremann did. Miller was impressed. Much filming ensued. And sometime this week Miller will be returning the favor, sending a videotape back to Tremann.

This one won't be a homemade demo tape. It's the real thing: "Endless Winter," Miller's 46th annual film, which debuts here next

Thursday at the Fifth Avenue Theatre. Warren Miller will narrate. And John Tremann, who had roles in two previous Miller films, will star.

For Tremann, a 1987 Mercer Island High School graduate, it's the final leap into professional extreme skiing's Very Big Time. His film segment - a spectacular extreme-skiing sequence in the rugged, out-of-bounds high country of Blackcomb, B.C. - is a film highlight. Fittingly, it's the most extreme skiing piece in the 90-minute film, filling the same role as many of Schmidt's legendary cliff jumps.

Tremann, skiing with fellow pros Brad Vancour and Gregg Harrington, drops into chutes, holds edges on near-vertical faces and slices through waist-deep powder with the easy, powerful grace of a gymnast. But audiences might gulp when they see him ski to the top of an improbable rock outcrop, slide to a stop, and look down. Straight down, 90 feet.

Tremann hesitates for only about a second, then leaps. We won't spoil the ending, but suffice it to say Tremann is still skiing at the end of the clip.

That jump was hardly earth-shattering for Tremann, who has made a career of skiing gracefully over and through places all other living creatures fear to tread. A lifelong skier who made his first turns at Stevens Pass, Tremann spent a year as a Washington State University student before moving to Olympic Valley, Calif., to pursue commercial ski work full time at Squaw Valley.

He is considered the world record-holder for ski cliff jumping, thanks to an incredible, 145-foot vertical drop he took several years ago at Donner Ski Ranch, Calif.

That jump came during a day of great skiing in six feet of new snow, and was far from premeditated, Tremann recalls. "I didn't seek it out," he said. "It was there, the conditions were good, the vibe and everything felt right. I'd never done anything that big, but I was lucky. I pulled it off."

The spur-of-the-moment leap put Tremann, now 27, in the spotlight. It also raised the bar of extreme skiing a notch. Sadly, that level soon proved deadly to at least one of his peers, illustrating the inherent danger of the sport.

In 1993, Paul Ruff, another California professional skier, attempted a 150-foot, record-breaking leap at Kirkwood, summoning camera crews to record the event. His leap fell short, and he hit the rocks, dying instantly. The reverberations are still felt in the skiing community.

"When you're dealing with skiing, you have to do things for the right reasons," Tremann said. "He (Ruff) had committed himself to that jump. He was going to do it that day, regardless. It was tragic. Skiing's definitely a high-risk sport. But you can't let the glamour of the sport get ahead of you."

In that sense, an appropriate amount of fear is a healthy thing.

"I would be lying if I said I was never scared," Tremann said. "But if you're smart about what you're doing, then the fear is less. Like that jump at Blackcomb. I had such a good week. I hadn't fallen all week, and I was really familiar with the conditions. It felt right."

The key to walking away from the bottom of every jump, he adds, is knowing which ones to walk away from the top of.

"I've been lucky, and I've had some close calls," he said. "If anyone wants to do radical free skiing, you have to understand you're going to take some hard licks. You just want to make sure you don't take any that will take you right out of your sport - or out of your life."

Tremann now does much of his skiing at Squaw Valley, a thrill-seeking community he describes as a college town without a college. In his spare time, he's working on a college degree, which he hopes will lead to a career as a commercial spokesman.

Meanwhile, if the skiing company he keeps is any indication, his many years of suffering through obscure ski-modeling jobs and other part-time work is finally paying off. A new national Rossignol advertising campaign features a series of noted skiers who have ridden the company's boards to international glory: Alberto Tomba. A.J. Kitt. Picabo Street. And John Tremann.

Don't be surprised if the ad ends up in the hands of some 17-year-old hot-dog skier, who just might sneak it backstage at the Fifth Avenue, swagger up to Warren Miller, point to Tremann's picture and lay it all on the line:

"I know I can do some of those things John Tremann is doing."

If the past is prologue, one or two of them probably can. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 46 years of ski flicks

What: "Endless Winter," Warren Miller's 46th annual winter sports film. Price: $12.50 for Seattle shows, $11.50 for all others. Ticket outlets: Fiorini Sports, Alpine Hut, The North Face, Sturtevant's Sports, Everett Ski Shop, Parkland Sports, Mount Constance Mountain Shoppes, TicketMaster. No service charges on ski-shop tickets. Bonuses: Free mid-week, early season (before Dec. 16) White Pass lift ticket with admission. Where & When: -- Two shows daily Nov. 2-5 at Fifth Avenue Theatre, Seattle. (The 2 p.m. Nov. 5 show is a benefit for The Seattle Times Fund for the Needy, with special $10 adult/$5 children admission price.) Warren Miller is scheduled to appear at all Fifth Avenue shows. -- 8 p.m. Nov. 12, UA Seattle Center. -- 7:30 p.m. Nov. 7, Bremerton High School. -- 7:30 p.m. Nov. 9, Everett Civic Auditorium. -- 6 and 9 p.m. Nov. 11, Pantages Theater, Tacoma. -- 7:30 p.m. Nov. 14 and at 2, 5 and 8 p.m. Nov. 19, Meydenbauer Center, Bellevue. -- 6 and 9 p.m. Nov. 8, Mount Baker Theatre, Bellingham. -- 6:30 and 9:30 p.m. Nov. 10, Washington Center for Performing Arts, Olympia. Groups: Discounts for groups of 10 or more (282-62340). More on movie-maker: Warren Miller, a legend among skiers at age 72, might not be as quick on his skis as he was 50 years ago. But Miller, now a part-time Washingtonian, is even quicker with a quip, a smile or poetic line of narration. See The Times' Nov. 5 Pacific magazine for a profile of skiing's most enduring figure.