The Passing of Legend Stein Eriksen

[Tricia]

Sad news today - International Skiing History Association reports the passing of Legend Stein Eriksen at his home in Park City, Utah.
Olympic Champion, Face of Skiing for a Generation Stein Eriksen

 

[Philpug]

Noooooo.

 

[Rudi Riet]

Sad news, indeed. He was a gentleman off and on the slopes. I feel very fortunate to have met him and skied with him at Deer Valley.

 

[Pat AKA mustski]

The end of an era.

 

[KingGrump]

One of my idols. RIP.

 

[quant]

He is skiing in waist high powder with Alf Engen and Tony Sailer somewhere in heaven.

 

[Tominator]

So very sad - Stein was everybody's hero when we were kids:

My Stein story goes back to April 1965. My family skied Aspen and Aspen Highlands and then Vail the week of April school vacation - the only time I've ever skied out west. I was 16, and my brother was 12. We were skiing a run called 'Forever' on a back bowl at Vail called 'Sundown' in mid-morning spring corn. There were 4 guys skiing together ahead of us who were ridiculously great skiers. When we got down to the bottom of the lift we saw that they were Stein Eriksen, Pepe Gramshammer, Anderl Molterer ("The blitz from Kitz"), and Ernst Hinterseer! We followed them for a few more runs down the same slope, and then deciding that we might be annoying them, moved back to the front side. I was standing across the slope about 400 yards down from the top when Stein came swooping down and made a big GS turn around the tips of my skis. His smile was blinding! I thought it was really cool until my brother pointed out that it was probably his way of saying, "Get out of my face, kid!" I'll never forget it!

RIP, Stein.

 

[Living Proof]

Let's always remember and celebrate his contributions to skiing. He lived a great life, RIP Stein!

I am always struck the body positions, what we now call counter, the pic in the OP says it all.

 

[Gerry Rhoades]

Let's always remember and celebrate his contributions to skiing. He lived a great life, RIP Stein!

I am always struck the body positions, what we now call counter, the pic in the OP says it all.

Back then it was called reverse shoulder. I remember spending hours trying to look like that, and failing.

 

[Tom K.]

RIP. He, among many others, made Norway proud!

 

[Johnny Style]

When I think "skier," I picture Stein. His style is iconic to our sport. The hair (never a hat), tanned face, Norwegian sweater and turtleneck, stretch pants, crazy moves...they all conjure up images of what I want to be. Stein = Style.

 

[Rich McP]

I'm rarely really moved when I learn of someone's passing...this made me say Oh Noooo! So sad.

 

[Lorenzzo]

I got the news blast this morning from DV. That guy led quite the life. Based on outward appearance he had been in physical decline since a collision on the slopes several years ago. Before it he never looked anywhere near his age. The same held true after the collision but unfortunately in the opposite way.

A good friend of mine was his neighbor for years in Thaynes Canyon. Unfortunately they had frequent altercations because Stein's dogs took to pooping in my friends yard and apparently Stein was unapologetic.

During the height of their differences it became custom for them to launch snowballs at each other from concealed positions. They couldn't exit their homes without risk. They both wintered at Deer Valley and skied over each other tails whenever possible. My friend as a skier is no slouch. He started the Masters racing program at Park city.

Eventually their childishness turned into mutual respect and my friend is now full of grief over Stein's passing.

 

[Kneale Brownson]

Sorry to hear about his passing. Stein had a pretty good life until that kid popped out of the woods in front of him.

Stein and his sidekick, whose name I never can remember, very generously helped a lot of high school ski race programs get started in communities around northern Michigan when he was at Boyne Mt. He had a sincere interest in helping folks enjoy skiing.

 

[ski otter 2]

Stein was one of my roll models in skiing as a teenager and after. His skiing style was so distinctively his own, very wonderful.

Several times skiing in Aspen in the early sixties I was skiing on the same run as Stein. One of my strongest memories of skiing back then included Stein, of a day skiing Ruthie's Run over and over, in maybe three or four inches of new snow, very few other skiers making tracks there, for whatever reason. He was one of those few skiers, and he happened to be skiing along side me when I first saw him. I followed behind him just far enough back not to bother him, I hoped. Just to watch him ski and get in the rhythm, so to speak. For run after run, maybe half a day. What fun.

What a true star of our sport.

 

[KevinF]

I started skiing in the early '90s, but I didn't "really" start skiing until the early 2000's. Regardless of what date you choose for the start of my skiing career, it was decades after Stein's racing career had ended, decades after anybody (but him apparently) had made a "reverse shoulder turn" (I don't even know what that is).

The point being that he seems to be one of those people who managed to stay famous long after any reason for being famous had faded. I had heard of him forever, but I never knew why I had heard of him other than there are some trails in Sugarbush named for him.

So, the question I have for those of you who are more closely associated with Stein... What was his relevance to today's skiing world? Why was he still famous 50+ years after his fame should have faded?

 

[Jim McDonald]

Hmmm, you could ask the same Q about Babe Ruth, Muhammed Ali or Pele, or Sonja Henie or Billie Jean King. Each of them transformed his/her sport, took it to a new level, inspired generations of kids to get off their asses and DO something athletic.

 

[DanoT]

I think that part of Stein's fame and popularity in the US is that long after his racing career ended he became actively involved as director of skiing at a succession of resorts and as such he was also involved in marketing himself or as we say today "his brand" would lend credibility to the resort. Nancy Green has done similar things in Canada, although on a much smaller scale.

 

[pete]

very sad, read many a good story of him from many of you who met him or knew of others knowing him. RIP

 

[ski otter 2]

Any program Stein headed became an instant sensation, like Billy Kidd at Steamboat, for example. The kids may not know where all those cowboy hats on skiers at Steamboat come from, but people who saw Billy Kidd back then remember.

Same with Stein Ericksen, only more so. Anyone who went to Aspen much back in the late fifties and early sixties has memories of Stein. People may no longer ski in his style, but it is incredible, and fun to emulate for a run or two, try it.

I used to enjoy doing (poor) imitations of great skiers' and racers' distinctive styles: for example, the arms spread like wings for the Herminator, the forceful square-shouldered forward poling of Karl Schranz, the relaxed whole body, hand/wrist curl of Ted Ligedy, the cannonball compactness in the fall line of Sean Pettit - or the shoulder/arm/whole body movement of Stein Ericksen.
I've especially enjoyed the feel of imitating Stein.

One day back in the eighties I was doing that Stein thing on GS skis down Andy's Encore at Copper Mountain, turn after turn, and when I stopped, a beautiful woman stopped along side of me and said, "You are just a wonderful skier, beautiful turns!"

Maybe I shoulda credited Stein, but I didn't.