Hundreds gathered in February at Deer Valley to honor the memory of the late Stein Eriksen.
STORY AND PHOTOS BY JOHN FRY
He was our hero. In his beautiful style of skiing and his charismatic persona, he combined the utmost grace we would ever see in the sport.
Stein Eriksen, 88, died just after Christmas in 2015. On February 4, 2016, more than a thousand skiers showed up to honor his memory at an outdoor ceremony at Deer Valley in Utah, where Stein was director of skiing for 35 years.
The ceremony was staged at the venue of the 2016 World Cup of freestyle skiing, a sport first popularized six decades ago by Stein with his famous, widely filmed and photographed inverted aerial. A simulation of that famous flip was performed by Dylan Ferguson, longtime U.S. Ski Team aerialist, to the roaring appreciation of the crowd.
Speakers included Stein’s widow, Françoise Eriksen; U.S. Ski Team vice-president and spokesman Tom Kelly; Deer Valley Resort president Bob Wheaton; Stephen Kircher of Boyne, Michigan, Stein’s first U.S. resort employer; and Stein’s longtime fishing and hunting pal, Jim McConkey.
Friends of Stein also memorialized him with speeches and Norwegian songs at a reception in the Stein Eriksen Lodge, and a party at the Eriksen home in Park City. RIP.
For a full tribute to Stein Eriksen, "The One and Only Stein" by Morten Lund, see the January-February 2016 issue of Skiing History.
