Mickey Wilson

Mickey Wilson rescued Richard Rattenbury from suffocation, Dillon, Colorado, January 4, 2017. On a snowy morning at a ski area in the White River National Forest, Rattenbury, 30, had difficulty unloading from his seat on a chairlift to a mountain summit because a waist strap on the backpack he wore was entangled in the seat. As the lift continued and carried his seat downhill, Rattenbury ultimately hung from the seat by the tangled strap while his buckled chest strap tugged up to his neck, causing him to choke and lose consciousness. When the lift came to a stop, Rattenbury’s feet were about 10 feet off the snow-covered slope. Alarmed by screams after unloading from the lift, Wilson, 28, a part-time ski instructor who had met Rattenbury that morning through mutual friends, removed his skis and went below the seat, where he saw Rattenbury wasn’t moving. Wilson went to a nearby tower and removed his gloves and a hand brace from a recent injury that prevented his dominant right hand from closing fully. Wearing his ski helmet and ski boots, Wilson climbed the tower ladder, and without a harness, straddled the 2-inch steel cable, placing his weight upon it. Wilson pulled himself, hand over hand, and slid about 30 feet along the cold cable to a point over the seat, where he was about 30 feet above the ground. He dropped himself into the seat, a distance exceeding his height, and kicked at the tangled strap but could not force it to break off. A responding ski patroller threw a pocketknife up to Wilson, who caught it, unfolded it, and sliced the strap. Rattenbury fell to the ground, where first-responders tended to him before he was moved downhill by toboggan to an ambulance, which took him to a hospital. Rattenbury, who suffered a broken rib, was sedated for about six hours, then released the following day, and recovered without any long-term injury. Once the operator restarted the lift, Wilson rode to the base. He was uninjured.