stein eriksen

STEIN ERIKSEN

In November 1963 literally the day JFK was killed the first ski show opened in NYC and that evening I had the opportunity to meet Stein. Little did I know I was speaking with a man whom I believe as do thousands of others was the most graceful skier ever. He passed away this past Sunday at the age of 88.

I attended the show because I was on my way to becoming a major supplier of insulation to the skiwear manufactures and a novice skier. He was gracious enough to answer my questions about the difference between the various model skies.

As time went by I became aware of who he was, Olympic gold medalist as well as silver and a world champion skier.

Then one day I read that he was going to be at Hunter College in Manhattan where I was living to speak after a film presentation made by Warren Miller titled “Skiing with Stein”. The theater was sold out. We all watched intently this man ski some incredibly difficult terrain with confidence and grace like no other skier I or we had ever seen. At one point he is shown doing a tip-roll at the side of a cliff that had a drop off of probably 1000 feet more or less. I cannot tell you how fast he was going but I can tell we in the audience gave him a standing ovation.

Several years later he moved from the Rocky Mountains to Vermont to take over the ski school at Sugarbush Valley. I had been skiing mostly at Mount Snow until then but started skiing at Sugarbush so I could see him ski. It was worth the extra hour drive both ways. Many of us would try and that is all you could do, try to follow him; like trying to follow a Porsche with a Volkswagen from 1939. It was impossible. He once caught an edge while giving a private lesson. He just jumped in the air put his feet back together landed tracked a few yards and stopped and explained that is what you do when you catch an edge. About 20 of us tried to catch an edge and mimic him, just impossible but we tried.

For those who have never skied the north east you probably do not know what it is to have boiler plate ice to ski on. Actually you don’t ski on it but Stein did.

After about 5 years at Suarbush he left to open Snowmass which I believe he designed which is in Colorado next to Aspen. That winter I went out there to ski it. It was all of four streets and while I walked down the street he was coming towards me, we were the only two on the street. When we met he asked what I was doing out there, I said believe it or to ski. We laughed but I was surprised that he remembered my face. I never met him after that. He was a gentleman’s gentleman.

I did watch him ski from the top of Snowmass Mountain which was way above timberline, the run is called The Burn, throwing up a rooster tail of snow 5 or 6 feet, probably moving 60 or 70 miles an hour, it was an incredible site to see. He was just the fastest most competent skier with grace that I ever saw.

For those of you who did not see him see if you and get a copy of the film, it is worth seeing. You will see a man whose legs were always together as if glued together.

If you go to the NY Times web site and click on Obituaries you can read all about what he did for the ski industry and what people in the industry thought of him.