Skier Takes Acrobatics to Extremes : Winter sports: Kristen Ulmer enjoys the risk of jumping off 50-foot cliffs. Her brand of thrill-seeking is catching on.

If most skiers fly off a 50-foot cliff, it’s curtains. If Kristen Ulmer does it, it’s all in a day’s work.

Ulmer is widely regarded as the nation’s best female extreme skier, which means she skis off cliffs, does acrobatic stunts and makes runs down hair-raising terrain on purpose. And for money.

“I’ve skied things where if I made a mistake, I would have died or been seriously hurt,” said Ulmer, a native of Henniker, N.H., and a senior at the University of Utah. “The bottom line is, I love skiing. It’s a passion of mine. I love the risk and the adrenaline.

“I guess I have sort of a crazy spirit.”

Few would argue. During one of Ulmer’s first stunts, which was being filmed for a ski movie, she blacked out after flying off a 40-foot jump.

“I was completely out of control and heading for a tree,” she said. “I passed out, which was good because there was no way I was going to land on my feet anyway. I hit the base of a tree and got a bloody nose.”

Instead of scaring her away from the sport, the terrifying experience made Ulmer embrace it more.

Extreme skiing is relatively new. It originated in Europe and caught on in the United States in the last five years.

“There is a real good market for it now,” said Joe Ward, coach for the U.S. men’s and women’s ski teams, who sometimes jumps off cliffs himself. “It fascinates people to see someone involved in such danger.”

In Europe, most extreme skiers prefer steep slopes, while in North America there is more jumping and acrobatics. Ulmer said there are about 30 men in North America who are serious about the sport, and one woman: “Me.”

Ulmer has worked with ski filmmaker Warren Miller and with Scot Schmidt, widely regarded as the finest U.S. male extreme skier. But she also is a serious competitive skier who is the second alternate to the U.S. Women’s Freestyle Ski Team.

Ward said Ulmer would be a long shot for the 1992 Olympic team, but that 1994 is a good possibility.

As a freshman at Utah, Ulmer began extreme skiing and started landing parts in ski movies. Her combination of beauty and skill gave her a steady flow of requests to pose for magazines and perform in films.

Ulmer said the notoriety is nice, but it doesn’t compare to the feeling she has during a jump.

“When you decide to do the jump, you kind of stop thinking,” she said. “Your brain snaps off. The second you jump and there’s 50 feet of space between you and the ground, there’s a burst of something. You really don’t feel anything--until later.

“As soon as the jump is over, you feel adrenaline and you’re bouncing off the walls. It’s amazing.”