Let’s be honest—we’d all like to be War­ren Miller.

His is the sto­ry of a ski bum gone right. Like many win­ter chasers, he’s paid his dues liv­ing in a trail­er in a ski resort town and eat­ing ketchup soup, but he’s man­aged to work his way to fame and for­tune with­out hav­ing to resort to cubi­cle life. Along the way, he’s also pro­duced some epic ski films—a few that prob­a­bly got you hooked on ski­ing in a big way.

He’s Been Mak­ing Ski Films Since Before You Were Born
War­ren Miller has been film­ing epic ski films since he acquired his first 8 mm video cam­era back in 1946, where he filmed his first shots in Alta and in Sun Val­ley, Idaho.

At first, he filmed him­self and his fel­low ski instruc­tors to help them per­fect their ski­ing tech­niques. He’d also film his bud­dies surf­ing dur­ing sum­mers spent in his home state of Cal­i­for­nia. Just a few years lat­er in 1959, he found­ed War­ren Miller Enter­tain­ment which has released one fea­ture-length ski film every year since.

You’d Actu­al­ly Want to Lis­ten to His Sto­ries
You might get a lit­tle antsy when your grand­pa starts lay­ing down his “back in the day” sto­ries but Miller’s are actu­al­ly awe­some. He’s been heliski­ing since 1969. He watched Howard Head invent alu­minum skis. He remem­bers a time when ski groomers didn’t exist. You may even want to pick up one of his books.

He Can Over­come Dra­ma
HE doesn’t actu­al­ly own War­ren Miller Enter­tain­ment anymore—his son bought the com­pa­ny and even­tu­al­ly sold it to Time Warn­er which, in turn, sold it to the Bon­nier Group. A nasty 2009 law­suit claimed that Miller didn’t actu­al­ly own the rights to his own name, voice and like­ness after he made an appear­ance in (gasp) anoth­er company’s ski films. The suit was set­tled and he’s basi­cal­ly no longer allowed to be involved in any oth­er ski film. Ever.

Instead of being dis­cour­aged, he turned his atten­tion to oth­er projects—a book of ski pho­tog­ra­phy, sto­ry­telling ses­sions, an auto­bi­og­ra­phy, and his foundation.

He Wants to Help Make Your Dreams Come True
The War­ren Miller Free­dom Foun­da­tion, con­ceived by his wife, Lau­rie, is an orga­ni­za­tion that has helped more than 3,000 peo­ple get start­ed as entre­pre­neurs and busi­ness own­ers. The Foun­da­tion offers lessons for both young stu­dents and adults, equip­ping them with the tools they need to set their own dreams in motion. It’s a per­fect fit—after all, War­ren is the ulti­mate entrepreneur.

He’s Still Liv­ing the Life
These days, you can find Miller tucked away in Wash­ing­ton State’s San Juan Islands—not too far from some choice ski hills. He spends part of the year on the slopes in Mon­tana and a lot of time cruis­ing on his 47-foot yacht. Yep, he’s doing alright.

He’s a Walk­ing Quote Book
We’ll leave you with just a few clas­sic Millerisms:

“Don’t take life seri­ous­ly because you can’t come out alive.”

“The best place in the word to ski is where you’re ski­ing that day.”

“If you don’t do it this year, you will be one year old­er when you do.”

“If I ask any­body who learned to ski after the age of five, they can remem­ber their first day of skiing—what the weath­er was like, who they went with, what they had for lunch. I believe that’s because that first day on skis was the first day of total free­dom in their life.”