Mikey Erickson Is Utah's Ski Patroller of the Year

Mikey Erickson has been a ski patroller at Snowbasin, UT, since 2000.

During that time, he has encapsulated the spirit of Ski Patrol, from taking on tasks as big as critical as sled rescues, to as small as icing hurt knees on the hill. Erickson was recently crowned  “Ski Patroller of the Year” at the first annual Ski Utah Yeti Awards.

Scott Fetters, Assistant Ski Patrol Director at Snowbasin, nominated Erickson for the award. Read our conversation below about why Erickson was deserving of such an honor.

Snowbasin Assistant Ski Patrol Director Scott Fetters Q&A

Scott, why did you nominate Mikey for this award?

"If you read the description of the award, a couple of different things caught my attention. One of them was a statement about somebody that's out there day in, day out, braving the elements, getting stuff done, and it just seemed to really encapsulate how I feel about Mikey. 

Sometimes, I think he is most in his element when the wind is blowing 30 miles an hour and you can't see. He's just always on the move, always getting stuff done, and he's a super solid workhorse of a ski patroller."

I hear he's been described as the Swiss Army knife of the patrol team. . 

"Those weren't my words, but yeah, it fits ."

Do you have a specific story about Mikey that comes to mind?

"I can think of one incident in particular where we had a cardiac arrest patient and needed to get a patroller inside the toboggan with the patient to perform CPR. That toboggan was bogged down in a flat area up high on the mountain. It took a lot of herculean strength to get that toboggan across the flats in an emergent situation to where we could go downhill again. 

He was the right guy for that. He came and hauled that toboggan. CPR was continued on that patient. We got that patient down the mountain to the helicopter and that person survived what would've been a potentially fatal accident. 

Another thing I really admire him for is he had a very significant accident several years ago in his career, and he bravely spoke about it at the Utah Snow and Avalanche Workshop. 

He's talked about that [accident] locally on some podcasts and he has used it as a teaching point to pass on to the community, to generate that awareness. It takes a lot of courage and it takes a lot of passion to give back to people when it's involving a personal incident. 

Another thing that makes him a real asset to our patrol is that whether it's a little thing like how we set up a rope line, or how we perform ski teams, or large operational decisions, he is always looking to improve our processes.

That giving back and striving to perfect your craft is something I really admire him for. 

I've seen him deal with the small stuff too, like putting an ice pack on somebody's knee. There's no task too big, but there's also no task too small that he doesn't take on. He sees it as all part of the job. 

He doesn't just sit back and wait for the moment to be a hero. When there's something big that needs done, like an out of area rescue in dangerous terrain, or an early morning mission in a blizzard, he’s there. But also, he won't dismiss the small stuff."

I heard that Mike is on a fire assignment, do you know what that is involving? 

"He has a full-time, permanent position with the Forest Service. He works full-time for us in the winter, but he is fully employed with the Forest Service as a fire prevention officer. He is currently on assignment in New Mexico.

Ski patrollers need to make money sometimes too , so that's how he does it." 

Utah Ski Patroller of the Year Mikey Erickson Q&A

When I called Erickson, I joked that I hoped we weren't interrupting his fire prevention work. He told me that on Sunday morning during a fire exercise program, he broke his femur, so he had time to chat.

How does winning this award make you feel? Did you expect to win it? 

"No, I didn't really even know about it. But it does give some validation to a lifetime passion of what I'd like to do. You would think that that just being in the job and all the accolades from my fellow coworkers is enough, but it's always nice to have another type of momentum that says 'people recognize that you really like your job and are good at it,' so that's super awesome."

What makes you passionate about working for ski patrol?

"I love the denture of it, and I love to be outside in a winter environment skiing around. Working with a team of really awesome folks, just the adventure of what can happen every day is so cool. Whether it's a search and rescue or whether it's helping somebody that's injured or whether it's just blowing things up and skiing pow."

Who has supported you throughout your career as a patroller? 

"Our patrol director is good at helping recognize people, and our operations manager, Ryan Woolsey, is good at taking care of his people. Between GR, Ryan, and Davey, they believe in recognizing the people that are doing the work. 

Also, when people started hearing that I got the award, all my friends and coworkers, they would call me and say, 'Hey, I heard you got this award, and we think you really deserved it.' That was that was really special, too."

What has been the biggest thing that you've learned in all of your time working at Snowbasin?

"That's a tough question. The biggest thing I have learned is to never get overconfident. No matter how long and how hard you work at something, you're never gonna be as good as you think you are at it. You're always gonna be surprised by something or you're always gonna see something different. It's just good to be humble." 

That makes a lot of sense. Do you have any words of wisdom or advice for greener ski patrollers or people who want to get better at their job in ski patrol? 

"Keep the passion alive. The challenges of being able to make a living in the job are insurmountable for a lot of people. It's hard to really be passionate and loving for the job if you can't make your rent. I guess my thoughts would be if you can make it work, make it work, but try to keep the passion alive and not get bogged down by all that other stuff."

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