Still Shredding in His 50s: Ski Moviemaker Scott Gaffney Drops 2024-25 Season Edit

To film skiing, you first have to love skiing. 

No one, except maybe the most dedicated filmmakers, will happily leave a comfortable, climate-controlled set and face blizzards, avalanches, and bulletproof ice unless they’re obsessed with the art of sliding down snow—just look towards Scott Gaffney for proof. 

The longtime Matchstick Productions director and decorated filmmaker has, in all likelihood, helped create one or multiple of your favorite ski movies, but Gaffney, now in his 50s, isn’t content only working behind the lens. 

“My favorite thing to do is ski down and jump off of something, just as it’s been for the previous four decades,” he told POWDER in a recent email conversation. 

That drive, presumably, is what’s led Gaffney to upload season edits, starring himself, for the past three seasons on YouTube. His latest was filmed during the 2024-25 winter at Palisades Tahoe, California. A tweaked knee and a hip issue alongside questionable snow held Gaffney back, but still, he found the goods wherever he could.

Check out the edit below, and keep reading for the rest of our conversation with Gaffney about skiing hard in your 50s, navigating rough conditions, and his future plans. Tap or click to watch

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This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity. 

POWDER: How did last winter treat you? 

Gaffney: “I didn’t have the easiest winter last year. I’ve been dealing with a hip issue for a year, and then I went and tweaked a knee really good mid-season. We had a lot of ice last winter right to the top, and that made it really tough to get back out there because we had multiple periods where we got some new snow but had flat light, and you knew the ice was still lingering, but couldn’t see it well. It tested my willpower, but I played it smart and sat out a lot of questionable days. But that resulted in probably skiing the least number of days since blowing a knee in January of ‘09.”

On that note, regarding the ‘Year of the Glaze’, how did you use your knowledge of Palisades Tahoe to avoid the ice and still stack so many clips?

“It’s funny—Shane (McConkey) and JT Holmes used to jokingly call me “Scientist.” It was just a nickname that came about because I would overanalyze everything when storms came through, and after sifting through all of the variables of wind, accumulation, preexisting bed surfaces, potential avy activity, and so on, I’d come up with an educated guess of what was going to be good and what wasn’t.  I was on point often enough that I suppose I earned that nickname, and they trusted me when we’d come up with a game plan on how to ski the mountain on any given pow day. Add another 20 years+ to that knowledge since those days, and fortunately, I haven’t gotten any dumber.

But in a year like last year, I suppose it just comes down to finding those pockets of goodness and maximizing select good days. Many of the shots in my little edit are from one zone: Mainline Pocket at Palisades Tahoe. It’s high elevation and requires a hike, so the snow is always smooth, which for me is almost my number one thing I’m seeking, particularly with a bad knee. Smooth. And when it’s smooth and steep, it doesn’t take much snow to reset. So I’ll bust out several laps on that any day it’s good. I also got a sick morning of some of the best snow of the year, prior to racing to the airport to head to Alaska to shoot Natural Selection. Five or six laps, all amazing, and in a meager year, every one of those laps makes the edit cut.”

You’re now in your 50s, but on any given day, you’re probably skiing better than most of the 25-year-olds out there. Have you found the fountain of youth? Or are the basics like diet and exercise all you need?

“I just fail to grow up. If my wife were sitting next to me right now, she’d be nodding her head at that response. My skiing simply doesn’t mature. My favorite thing to do is ski down and jump off of something, just as it’s been for the previous four decades. And I still find contentment in skiing the same exact lines I’ve been skiing since I moved to Tahoe in ‘93-‘94, and I still dream of those lines and use them as motivation when I’m training pre-season. I just wish I could trick a whole lot more, but that’s just not the strong part of my game. And with the preexisting injuries I’ve had, trying hand drag 3s off cliffs (which I really want to do) and dub backies probably isn’t the smartest, either. 

But still, playing at the level I like doesn’t come without its repercussions. I’m going into this next season hurting in five places, but I just give ‘er really hard in the gym in the fall to prepare for impact, and I try to make smart choices when I’m out there, and what comes, comes. 

I will say, though, that I’m at an age where I really don’t ski “maybes” anymore. I know what I’m capable of, and I’m comfortable with so many lines on my home mountain of Palisades Tahoe that my expectations for myself there are fairly high. But I drop in basically knowing I should stomp it. If I don’t feel that, if I think, ‘maybe I’ve got this,’ I don’t hit it. I still crash from time to time, but that only happens on lines I know I should stomp.”

Your edit included loads of footage. How many days did you get on the hill, and was sorting through all the clips afterward tough?

“Like I said, I honestly didn’t ski that much last season. And I’ve been at this long enough that I know what’s worthy and what isn’t as far as conditions, terrain, and lighting for shots. So, I only rock the GoPro at select times, and that way I don’t have a stupid amount of material to wade through. And for a guy who has spent decades wading through the massive amounts of footage compiled for MSP movies, going through my own few days of GoPro footage really seems like nothing.”

What does the coming season hold for you? Any exciting video projects you can tease?

“I’m just trying to find a variety of filming work. I’m actually answering this en route to a cliff jumping event/shoot in Texas. As for ski filming,  I hope to be part of Natural Selection in Alaska again and would be happy to be in on a couple of MSP segments. I have a couple of ideas for really cool feature action sports flicks, but I need to somehow get those concepts in front of the right people with the means to make them possible financially. I’m not good at that (maybe in part because I’m too focused on just skiing down and jumping off of things).  And personally, on snow, I still have some lines and airs I’m not ready to put in my rear-view mirror yet. Oh, and I need to get upside down and spin more.”

Related: Why Two Teens Jumped Into Lake Tahoe Every Day for an Entire Year