We visited Shawnee Peak last Sunday where Governor Baldacci cut the ribbon on the area’s new lift. A new triple chair replacing an older triple chair may not sound like much, but there are some significant differences that make this lift a real move forward. Wider chairs make the ride to the top more comfortable, but that’s not the big difference.

The loading station has a conveyor to move the skiers into proper position for loading onto the lift. Rather than ski into position, the skiers simply stand in place on the belt, which places them perfectly when the chair arrives. Gates open to tell the skiers when to slide onto the belt.

With a conveyor to properly place skiers, the lift can run faster, 500 feet per minute. Not only will the skiers reach the top more quickly, there will be almost no stopping for skiers who don’t get into position. The result will be shorter lift lines and less chance of injury.

To put this into perspective, it helps to know that nearly all lift-related injuries, which are rare, occur loading or unloading. While skiers like the detachable lifts for their speed, ski areas prefer them for their safety. As they slow to almost a complete stop for loading and unloading, falls are few and the lifts run without stopping. The conveyor system at Shawnee Peak performs the same function. And for skiers, it can mean a few more runs each day.

Two days after being at Shawnee Peak I got a call from Kim Stump Chapman. She called to let me know that her brother, Greg, is back in the movie business, welcome news for those who enjoyed his ski films when he used to premier them in Portland. The “Legend of Aahhhs” was first shown at Aspen, but it is coming to Portland on New Year’s Day. The recently renovated State Theater will show the film at 4 p.m. and 8 p.m.

When I talked with Greg the next day, we reminisced about his beginnings at Pleasant Mountain. I’m sure most young skiers who have watched his movies beginning in the late 1980s have no idea how the Gorham native wound up making ski films.

It dates back to 1969 when Rudi Wyrsch became director of the Pleasant Mountain Ski School. Stump was one of a group of young skiers who followed the legendary stunt skiers around the mountain. In those years, only a handful of skiers could be seen performing Royal Christies and other moves, and Wyrsch was one of the best known having performed in a number of films. Warren Miller actually filmed a segment at the Bridgton area. In one sequence he soared off a jump near mid station and landed in the top of a fir tree.

It was only natural for these impressionable young skiers to gravitate to the Pleasant Mountain Masters program, which became the forerunner. Several national champions came out of this program. National freestyle champion Stump got the opportunity to ski in Dick Barrymore’s ski films. That experience and watching the other ski films of the day not only gave Stump a fascination with filming, but the idea that he could fill a gap.

Most ski films of that era were more travel logs than action or adventure. They had plenty of skiing, but it was mostly a combination of skiing powder or families. Kids were always part of the show, and racing cardboard boxes were slipped in for humor. The formula worked, but Stump, with his freestyle background, saw something else. He wanted adventure, specifically, the kind that would appeal to his generation.

“Dr. Strangeglove,” “The Maltese Flamingo” and “The Good, The Rad and The Gnarly” were titles that showed the irreverence and his rock ‘n’ roll soundtracks helped fill theaters on his 100-campus tours. In “License to Thrill” and “Blizzard of Ahhs,” he introduced Extreme Skiing to the ski world through the adventures of Scott Schmidt, Glen Plake and Mike Hattrup. Watching these athletes challenge the steepest terrain, jump from towering cliffs and access remote runs by helicopter thrilled skiers. When asked about his films during one of his many interviews Stump said, “I’m spreading joy and confusion to skiers everywhere.” In 1998, Greg Stump was listed as one of the 25 most influential people in Skiing Magazine’s 50 year history along with Warren Miller and Stein Erickson.

It’s been 10 years since his last film, and Stumpy is back with what he believes is his best yet. He describes “Legend of Aahhh’s” as his most mature film, something he ascribes to being 50. It’s also somewhat autobiographical as he traces ski films from their beginnings in the 1930s, and he assured me there were interesting segments from Pleasant Mountain. He covers his evolution from freestyle to extreme skiing. Even though he describes his early films as the efforts of a bunch of “dirt bag, bump skiing kids from Maine,” it’s obvious that he takes this latest film seriously. He told me Legend has a “big ending” where the last half of the film asks and attempts to answer the question, “is the danger of extreme skiing worth it”. I’m anxious to see the new and the old and to see how those Stump interviews answer the question. See you at the State Theater on New Year’s Day.