Hunting Holidays
By: Jason Tross

Andy Mahre and Washington Cascade ski area White Pass are synonymous in the Pacific Northwest. He lives right up the road from the lifts in Gleed, where he is rebuilding an old pickup truck and working on his dirt bike. Freeskier caught up with him at White Pass a couple days ago during some downtime and non-stop snow for some added holiday cheer. Santa’s still giving too. Snow is forecast as far out as NOAA will forecast.

Happy Holidays buddy. Whatcha doin’ up here?

Visiting and just getting ready – ready for the filming season and work year to start and trying to get into shape.

Why did you come up today?

Just up for another day skiing. Well, actually snowboarding.

And why are you done snowboarding at 10 a.m.?

Cause I just dislocated my shoulder – again. Third run of the day…

Bummer. Hope it feels better soon.

Yup.

What did you do for Christmas?

Hung out with my family. Did not ski! Actually haven’t done that for a couple years. We all usually ski on Christmas. I got a nephew now though. He’s just over a year-and-a-half so we just went sledding. Just hung out with the family pretty much and did that whole deal. Let my little nephew get his first face shot. That was a good thing to witness. Ya know – be a part of.

How long have you been coming up here with the family?

22 years. Well actually all my life, but 22 years skiing.

Why here?

Close to home and good people – good terrain.

Mom and dad brought you up here as a kid..?

Yup.

Is this where you learned to ski?

Pretty much – born and raised. My grandparents used to own that house right over there. My aunt and uncle live over there now so we used to just come up and stay right on the mountain – 50 feet from the chairlift.

So is that why you decided to hang up high school sports for skiing?

Yeah – well no. I just had more fun skiing.

So how was Santa Claus to you this year?

Pretty good.

Any notables?

A set of handlebars for my dirtbike. I was gonna buy them, but somebody else bought em’ for me. Oh and some Carhart pants. I’m in there now! I was gonna buy those too.

So what are your plans for New Years?

I’ll be here actually, hanging out with all my friends.

After that? Getting on the road?

On the 4th I go to Retallack for four days, come back here for four days and then on to Japan for two weeks. That sends me to the end of the month. And I’ll probably figure out to do next from there.