This is more of an attitude covering a generation of teens rather than a specific person. The skibum is someone who devotes their life to the thrill and sport of skiing. This reveals a prioritizing of life goals directly in conflict with traditional commercial capitalist views. I suppose other sports and fun activities have their versions of the ski bum but in my experience nothing quite matches the exhiliration and satisfication one experiences on a truly great skiing day. Something about being in the wilderness, appreciating nature, physical exertion, and the sensations of floating, racing, or just going really fast produces just the right hormones in the body to make you want to devote your life to skiing.
This now nearly extinct creature lived primarily in the eighties and nineties although you may have found the occasional ski bum in the early years (1960-1979). The ski bum is addicted to snow, especially the elusive powder, and steep mountain slopes whose first priority is skiing, before food, shelter, or money.
This priority ranking has resulted in many ski bums surviving day to day as ski-lift operators and living out of small vans or trailers giving up everything just to ski. While they may spend $30 on new ski wax, $2 deoderant is an unheard of expense.
Mowhawk sporting Glen Plake is one of the more well known ski bums, appearing in many of famous movie producer Warren Miller's movies. He frequently lived out of a small cabin shared by multiple friends, up in his notorious hang out Lake Tahoe where he can stlil be found today.