Ben Michaels is one of the East Coasts most dedicated skiers. He will LITERALLY ski any type of terrain, in any condition. (Mostly on The Switch) Icy Trees? Check. Deep powder? Check. Spring slush terrain-park laps? You bet. It's no wonder he got over a half million views on his Ice Coast antics alone last season.
But when he is off the snow, he's...a utility worker? Yup, you heard it right. He is a man of many talents, and knows what it takes to get the job done, on or off the snow. We sat down with him to hear a little bit more about it.
We see you skiing all over the east coast - where are you from and what is your home mountain?
I’m originally from Lake George, NY but now I live a town over in Queensbury. I live near a small hill called West Mountain, but I usually make the drive up to Gore or Whiteface for some of the best terrain on the East.
Thats rad, so, how did you go from living out West - to becoming a lineman and moving back east?
I originally went to lineman school while I was living in Utah. I got a job climbing communication towers shortly after and moved back to NY. I did that for about 5 years and traveled all over the northeast. Now I’m working for a power utility company where I’m close to home which has been great.
With working all year around, are you able to ski much? It looks like your always shredding.
I’m mostly a weekend warrior these days but I’ll take a sick day here and there if we get some good snow.
So you must take a lot of sick days, got it - I won’t tell your boss. What was your favorite day last winter? It looked like a pretty solid season on the east.
That’s a hard one. I had a lot of awesome days last year. I’d say it’s between skiing a classic line on Mount Colden from the top ropes in early March. Or my trip out to Utah where we had free refills 3 days in a row.
What was your favorite Shot you got last season? It looked like there were a lot of epic lines had.
My favorite clip is probably the one I have bookmarked on my Instagram. My friends Alex, Will, and I hiked up whiteface and saw the sunrise from the top. We got a few inches of snow that night and wanted to ski the slide facing Lake Placid. We got in there and it was dust on crust with a lot of rocks. Didn’t make it too far down before we hiked back up and over the peak. We weren’t expecting much after skiing some of the worst conditions I’ve seen but when we got in there we realized that aspect had gotten wind loaded that night. We proceeded to ski some of the deepest, blower snow I’ve ever skied in the East.
Damn! That shot is so epic too, love it when it works out like that. Ok, on the other side of the spectrum, what was your WORST day last season.
The worst conditions I skied last year was during a freeride comp at Gore mountain. It was in a familiar zone under the darkside chairlift but on bulletproof moguls. I kinda messed up my line and missed my last air but was stoked to make it out alive haha.
Alright, last question. You have a kid on the way - what will his or her first trick be?
A runny nose butter, or a super-fed.