The day after Mickey Wilson harrowingly saved a man dangling from a chairlift by the neck at Arapahoe Basin, the Durango High School graduate went back to the ski area to take advantage of a huge powder day.

“Sometimes they say there’s no friends on a powder day, well, sometimes there’s no work on a powder day either,” Wilson told The Durango Herald last week.

Without cellphone service, there was no way for Wilson to know news of the rescue, in which the 28-year old professional slackliner climbed a 25-foot chairlift tower and slid 30 feet across the cable to reach the man, was spreading like wildfire.

“I came back from skiing, stoked on the powder day, and there was a note on my locker that someone wanted to talk to me,” Wilson recalled. “That was probably the understatement of the week. I had no idea my world would be turned upside down.”

Indeed, life has changed for the slackline enthusiast and part-time ski instructor, who now lives in Golden.

Since the Jan. 4 rescue, Wilson has appeared on “Good Morning America,” interviewed with countless publications, including Men’s Journal and Inside Edition, and most recently told his story to Ellen DeGeneres on her show.

“The rescue’s been the easy part in this whole experience,” Wilson said. “Turns out dealing with all these media people is way harder.”

Despite his newfound notoriety, which he admits will probably be short-lived, there’s only one thing Wilson says he seeks to gain: using the experience as a platform to talk about the benefits of slacklining.

“Those are skills I learned while slacklining,” Wilson said of his ability to reach the man who was quickly approaching death. “Had I not been a slackliner, I would not have been able to cross that cable as easily I did, or at all.”

Slacklining closely resembles tightrope walking, and was developed by mountain climbers as a way to test their balance, eventually evolving into a sport of its own.

Wilson discovered slacklining while attending the Colorado School of Mines, and actually “hated it for the first year-and-a-half of college.” It wasn’t until his sophomore year, when he saw a friend do a backflip on the slackline, that he was sold.

“That was the moment where I said, ‘Holy cow, slacklining is awesome, and I just need to work a little harder at it,’” he said. “And that’s what I did.”

Wilson went on to start the Mines Slackline Club, and he competes in slacklining tournaments worldwide and has won several Red Bull events.

“I make more money than most slackliners, but that’s only because slackliners don’t make money,” Wilson joked. “It’s such a small sport, but some of my friends are some of the best athletes in the world, and I would like to see a day where slackliners can support themselves and their family.”

Wilson is grounded, though, when he talks of his future. He says he intends to use the master’s degree in physics he earned in 2012, maintaining a 4.0 grade point average while skiing 70 days throughout the season. He also studied abroad in Australia and Norway.

“I always tell people your 20s are for physical pursuits, whatever you want to do with your body,” he said. “In my 30s, I’ll probably transition into using my physics degree. For certain things it’s good to have a plan, but sometimes that’s not the case.”

Wilson’s plan for the short term is to promote slacklining, and he said since the rescue a Google search for the obscure sport drums up a wealth of information.

“I think I can do more good for the world by introducing people to slacklining,” he said. “Everyone in the world can benefit from slacklining because everyone can benefit from more balance.”

The other component of the experience, of course, is that Wilson’s quick thinking and incredible skills allowed him to save the life of a man he had met that day, through a mutual friend.

While medical experts say people have about five minutes without oxygen before the onset of irreversible brain damage, Wilson was able to reach Richard, a 30-year-old Broomfield man who has declined to disclose his last name, in four minutes. As a result, Richard only suffered a broken rib and some bruises.

“I’ll never forget those five minutes,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone in such peril, someone dying like that. I’ve always been pretty respectful of life, and do the best to make the most of it and enjoy it.”

Wilson was born in Vail, but his family moved to Durango when he was 6 years old, and he attended Sunnyside Elementary, Escalante Middle and DHS. He moved to Golden for college. He still has family in the area, and has a strong opinion on what people from Durango should be called.

“I just hate the word Durangoan, and I love Durangatang,” he said. “I’m kidding, but I’m not. People mustn’t forget who our ancestors are: We were meant to climb, balance – and slackline.”

jromeo@durangoherald.com