Greg Stump

Greg Stump's ski pioneering began at an early age when he joined a Junior Masters program at Pleasant Mountain. In 1970 at age nine he won his first competition at Sugarloaf and this work on technique led to freestyle, a discipline that took off at Pleasant Mountain in the seventies.

In 1978 Greg won the Junior National overall freestyle championships. His strengths were moguls and ballet which combined with aerials to fill the competition. It was a family effort as one year Greg, sister Kim and brother Jeff all won in their age group. In 1979 Greg won the North American Freestyle Championships at Edelweiss Valley in. Ontario, the first ever International Freestyle Champion.

This was followed by two years on the professional freestyle circuit where he continued to win bumps and ballet to give him overall titles.

His freestyle prowess caught the attention of another ski pioneer, Doug Pfieffer who introduced him to Harry Leonard who featured him on ski decks at his ski shows. This led him to film maker Dick Barrymore and he appeared in Vagabond Skiers. This was Barrymore's last ski film and Stump's next appearance was in a Warren Miller film.

His work with these two ski film pioneers convinced Greg that he could make ski films and this is where he had his greatest impact.

Not content with displaying pretty skiers in powder, his films combined offbeat skiing with rock sound tracks appealing to a new audience. In his first movie he focused his cameras on snowboarders as well as skiers and his 100 college tour helped that sport grow.

Before Stump extreme skiing was known only to a handful of skiers who skied beyond the boundaries of ski areas and within ski areas beyond the bounds of groomed tracks. Extreme skiing appeared in each of his films but in 1988 Blizzard of AAHHHH's brought Scott Schmidt, Mike Hattrup and Glenn Plake together on terrain that would terrify most skiers. They skied near vertical chutes and dropped over improbable cliffs, all shot with great film angles. In his narration and creative sound tracks, Stump set a new standard in ski films.

Each year he brought a new film with more extreme skiing in more spectacular settings. From Chamonix in France to remote Alaskan peaks his skiers and snowboarders challenged the snow and steeps. His use of the latest in music for sound tracks added to the appeal of the younger set and his college tours filled campus theatres with skiers and non skiers alike.

From Blizzard to P-Tex, Lies and Duct Tape in 1993 a film a year introduced a generation to skiing as a way of life, a thrilling, captivating presentation of our sport. For bringing this exciting new life to skiing, Greg Stump has earned a place in the Maine Ski Hall of Fame.