For the last two decades Kristoffer has been establishing first ascents and descents around the globe as a professional climber, skier and photographer. Kris is a certified AMGA Rock and Alpine guide and will achieve his IFMGA mountain guide certification in 2015 (upon completion of his final ski exam in April 2015). During the mid 90’s Erickson helped usher in early mixed climbing with many first ascents as well as unrepeated ski descents in his native state of Montana. He began logging trips across the border into the Canadian Rockies when he was a boy and began pushing his abilities on some of Canada’s biggest ice routes when he was in his teens. In Peru during the 90’s he made first ascents on Caraz III and Santa Cruz Norte as well as an early repeat ski descent of Artesonraju (6025m) and a first descent of the NE ridge on Tocllaraju (6032m). In 1999, at the age of twenty-five, he pioneered first descents on several unnamed 6000m peaks in Tibet during an attempt to ski the south face of Shishapangma (8012m). He continued to expand the limits of ski mountaineering in 2000 with a first descent of “The Shield” on Huascaran Sur (6788m) in the Cordillera Blanca. In 2000 he also began exploration of the coastal mountains of the Antarctic Peninsula, which has led to dozens of first descents during his eight visits to the region. In 2002 he became the first American male to ski from the summit of an 8000m peak with his descent of ChoOyu (8201m) in Tibet. Kris continued to establish first descents and ascents in the Himalaya of Nepal with a ski descent of Rakse Peak (5600m) in the Far Far West region and a winter ascent of the East Ridge of Tawoche (6501m). He returned to attempt a ski descent of Shishapangma (8012m) in 2007 and tried unsuccessfully to ski Gahserbrum II(8035m) in 2008. In 2010 he logged twenty-three descents on peaks in the Artic region of Svalbard. That same winter with fellow TNF athlete Herve Barmasse they battled the brutal winter conditions of Pakistan’s Karakoram on an attempt to ski Yazgill Peak (6502m) while also establish several new ice climbing lines. He is one of a few people to have skied the Lhotse Face with an attempt on the West Couloir of Lhotse (8501) in 2011. Kris has made ski descents of the Direct Nose on Alpamayo Pequeno and the French Face on Huayna Potosi (6018m) in Bolivia. In 2012, he became the fifth person to climb two 8000-meter peaks in twenty-four hours when he linked Everest and Lhotse during a filming project for National Geographic. He’s continued to open new mixed lines with the completion of "The Nutcracker", a 200-meter mixed route in Hyalite Canyon with Conrad Anker. A line which parallels the historic Winter Dance route that he helped open in ’98, and in 2007 free climbed the aid pitches of Winter Dance with Whit Magro.
In 2014 Kris moved his home base from Livingston, Montana to Zawiya Ahansal in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco where he lives with his wife and daughter.