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An incredible story of courage and quick thinking has surfaced out of Colorado.
Mickey Wilson, a part-time employee of Arapahoe Basin in Colorado, was out skiing on his day off when disaster struck.
Shortly after getting off a chairlift, his group heard some yells from down the lift and made their way down to investigate.
By the time they reached where the screams were coming from, they discovered a man dangling from the lift by the strap of his backpack.
The man was hanging unconscious from the now-stopped chairlift and ski patrols had yet to reach the area, so that’s when Wilson’s instincts kicked in.
“I’m realizing that this is a life or death situation, so I look up at where he’s stuck in relation to the tower and I realize that with my slacklining background I can climb that tower and get onto the cable,” Wilson explained.
Wilson’s a professional slackliner and he used those skills to climb up the tower and tightrope his way to where the man was hanging off the chair.
Without the knife that he usually carries while skiing, Wilson attempted to use force to push him loose, but the man wouldn’t budge.
At this point the ski patrol had arrived with a knife, which they threw up to the chairlift.
Wilson describes the throw as “the most perfect toss you could imagine.”
With the knife in hand, Wilson quickly cut the strap and the unconscious man fell down into the powder below, where ski patrol took over and resuscitated the man.
Wilson says he collapsed in the chair knowing there was nothing more he could do and he thought to himself, “thank God I’m a slackliner.”
The man recovered in hospital and it was a happy ending in what could have become a news story for an entirely different reason.
If you want to hear the entire story from Wilson himself, Denver7 did a full interview with him at Arapahoe Basin.
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