Photo by: chrisanthony.com

Extreme skier Chris Anthony shatters all preconceived notions of an occupation, spending more days on the mountain than off each year and regularly tackling sheer drop-offs, un-tracked powder and remote mountaintops.

Anthony, who spoke at DU on Saturday afternoon, described his life both as a recreational and a competitive skier, including his career with Warren Miller Entertainment, the longest running action sports documentary company in the world.

“Skiing is part of my family and a part of how I grew up,” said Anthony. “I started watching the Warren Miller films I think when I was still in the crib. The mountains are part of my backyard, and skiing is a great way to enjoy them.”

Anthony began skiing at only 18 months old after growing up in Park Hill, Colo., in a household full of skiers.

“My parents met in Crested Butte. My dad was a ski patrolman and my mom was working in a fondue house. They’re both ski bums,” said Anthony. “I have a younger sister, and she’s a really good telemark skier.”

Anthony’s competitive skiing career began at 6 years old and continued into his mid-20s, specializing in downhill ski racing.

“My passion is definitely ski racing, but I had to leave it because I wasn’t quite there,” said Anthony, who spent several years on the U.S. Training and Regional teams. “CU offered me a scholarship, and Boulder is just such an amazing place and so close to the mountains.”

At CU, Anthony had to transition from downhill racing to the NCAA events of slalom and giant slalom, working to improve his technical skills. However, the college atmosphere opened Anthony’s eyes to a whole new side of life.

“I got a little distracted by the fact that I was having an enjoyable time just being a student for the first time,” said Anthony. “I decided to step away from the racing competition and just ski for fun, which then led to all this other stuff.”

Anthony received a Bachelors degree in physiology from CU, motivated by growing up near the Olympic training center in Colorado Springs. However, his studies had to overcome a major hurdle during his final year.

In 1990, Anthony received his first phone call from Warren Miller Entertainment during his finals at CU after competing against one of the skiers already set to travel to France for the film.

“It was a dream come true,” said Anthony. “I ran around asking all of my professors if I could go to France to do this. They were all really excited for me, except for my sports psychology professor, who said he’d flunk me if I missed the final. I went on the trip and took the F.”

Anthony is now in his 23rd year with Warren Miller Entertainment and is a central figure in the company’s 63-year history. He has skied and been filmed in locations including Italy, Ecuador, France, China and British Columbia, as well as many destinations in between.

Along the way, he attended graduate school at USC for a while to study film, inspired by the Warren Miller films.

“You’re just always searching as a young student, and hopefully all through your life, for your calling,” said Anthony.

Anthony, now 42, lives in Vail. However, he is still on a quest to explore as many mountains as possible all over the world, whether with Warren Miller Entertainment or through his own adventure camps, where other skiers can sign up to travel with him.

Anthony explained working with Warren Miller isn’t a typical employment scenario. In fact, he isn’t an employee at all. The athletes must simply continue proving their ability to keep the proverbial phone calls coming in.

“This isn’t a heavy cash business,” said Anthony. “The athletes don’t get paid. We get a lot of schwag. I’ll go to ski swaps a lot and cash that in.”

The “schwag” is evident in Anthony’s personal skiing repertoire, which includes 35 pairs of skis.

“They all have a purpose,” said Anthony. “It really depends on the day and the conditions. Having the right equipment for the right day is like having a golf bag full of clubs. This year, the lack of snow has me using skis I haven’t used in years. I’m well-tooled.”

During his skiing career, Anthony has viewed scenery and skied terrain few people in the world will ever see. He has a great deal of experience with heli-skiing, being flown into a remote location and dropped off on a mountain peak.

“There is nothing like flying out of the [helicopter] base in Alaska at zero elevation and landing on a peak no larger than the helicopter itself,” said Anthony. “You see it flying away and disappearing and you’re all by yourself. You have to put that on your bucket list.”

Anthony is constantly taking risks in his career, pushing the limits of what is possible on skis. Some of these adventures end up in the Warren Miller films, but, according to Anthony, most of them don’t.

“We shoot hundreds of thousands of feet of film, and maybe 3,000 feet go into the film. A lot ends up on the editing room floor,” said Anthony. “Out in the field, we aren’t able to review what we’ve filmed. That puts a lot of pressure on the cameraman and on the skier to do it right.”

After appearing in 22 Warren Miller films and with a 23rd coming out in the fall, Anthony is a veteran in the industry. However, he said that today he is skiing as well as he ever has thanks to improvements in equipment, allowing him to ski faster and steeper terrain.

“Now, there are a lot of younger athletes, so I have to crush them with experience,” said Anthony with a laugh. “For my training, I do a lot of hiking and riding my bike, and a lot of plyometrics and explosive work before my knee surgeries. It’s about constant activity and movement and eating well, taking care of yourself.”

Anthony has spent more than half his life working with Warren Miller Entertainment and said he plans to continue his involvement with the company for as long as possible.

“I haven’t experienced [a normal life] yet,” said Anthony. “I grew up with Warren Miller films and ski racing. The most difficult part is when you have to decide to grow up, leave the U.S. Ski Team and go to college. Luckily for me, the door opened up with that phone call. It was an opportunity to delay that process a little longer of dealing with normal life. I’ve just been trying to figure out how to keep it going. I’m not an employee, so I do whatever I can to prove value to them. That’s more of a struggle than skiing off cliffs.”