Interview with Mac
About Mac Mac lives in Anchorage but has a condo in Girdwood, a common trend among many Anchorage families. You can tell Mac is a true skiier because he happily skis with friends or by himself, he often spends his free time watching ski videos, and even shops for winter gear online. When we went skiing together he would get quiet but content. You could tell he was completely at home.
Click to see Hannah's Interview
|
I talked to Mac through the screen on my computer. He was cozied in a couch somewhere in LA, where he is currently studying.
“So Mac,” I began, “When did you start skiing? “At like… two” he said slightly laughing. You can tell even he was surprised in his voice. “How often do you go to Girdwood?" “Uh I go out at least like twenty times—well twenty something times a year.” “And you get a season pass and everything?” I asked. “Yeah.” “So when you go out, do you just go for the day? Or the entire week? How long are you stays.” “Well when I get back for winter break, I’m planning to spend 90% of my time there. But during the school year, before I started college, I would just go out there on a Friday night and spend the whole weekend there, and head back on Sunday. It really just depends what my time frame looks like.” I nodded. “Do you primarily ski there? Or do you do other outdoor activities?” “Well I primarily ski. I’ve been there during the summer and you can mountain bike. They take your bike up the chairlift, and you just come down, and it’s kind of a blast. Umm, people paraglide a lot there, too, and do other crazy stuff. A lot of people do cross country there, like my mom. I mean she doesn’t like to ski as much so she’ll cross country or snowshoe in the meadow. “ “Yeah actually I was looking up things to do there and there’s an entire list of stuff!” I said, surprised. “Yeah there’s a lot,” Mac agreed. “It’s a really cool place. I went cat skiing there once, it was the coolest thing of my life.” “What’s.. that?” I asked shyly. “It’s kind of hard to describe. It’s what they use to groom trails, but there is a cabin on the back of it with bus seats in it, and they just take you into the backcountry. “Ooh, that’s so cool! Wait so they drive you up and drop you off in the back country?” “Yeah well they pick you up at the bottom.” “Oh! Remember when you told me about how you went hiking to ski in the back country?” Having totally forgot about that cool aspect of skiing, I grew excited. “When I go hiking, sometimes I’ll do it on the resort—usually on the resort. Just cause it’s way easier to get to. Usually you need a snow machine or something if you are doing it total back country. It’s way more work, but the reward is way better, because it’s just a total pow day.” I laughed, “Pow day. That’s hilarious.” Then I remembered there is definitely a particular lingo in Girdwood. “Share all of your lingo!” “You want to know all the lingo? Uhh, so theres “pow” [I laughed again], which means powder. So that’s pretty apparent,” he laughed. “And then there are “drifts” which are basically mounds of snow that’s collected from wind and you can just bust through them. It’s basically a collect of powder and they are so much fun.” Whoa that’s a drift? I’ve never heard of that. Yeah you usually hit them when you’re doing multiple little cliff jumps. They’ll collect on the edge—they’re called “pillows”, too—and you’ll just go from pillow to pillow. He mapped it out with hand gestures and made deflating noises as his hand went up and down. “Also, if you’re talking about a “fifteen footer” or a “ten-footer” you’re talking about a cliff, like a ten foot cliff. You can also talk about the “side-country” which is.. resort accessible back country, sort of. And backcountry is pretty much hiking to the middle of nowhere and shredding it. Oh, and shredding it is just going sick---“ “Is “shred the gnar” a real phrase?” I interrupted. That phrase was a trend at our high school at one point, which meant something like intensive skiing/snowboarding. “Oh yeah I say that all the time—usually making fun of people though.” He broke the phrase down. “So shred means, skiing really hard, and gnar just means the gnarley. So you’re just skiing the gnarley. And the gnarley is usually pow. So it’s a trendier way to say you’re skiing the pow.” I began laughing out loud. “Okay moving on. There are a few articles that say the cost of living is too high in ski towns (1,4) . How do you feel about the cost of living in Girdwood?” “Its kind of expensive. To buy things you either have to drive to Anchorage or you get it at the merc [another lingo for the town’s only store, mercantile], which is just really small, and everything is overpriced. Housing is also expensive since Girdwood is a resort town.” “How do you think most people afford it?” “It’s like a really a big ski bum town. So I think a lot of people work for the mountain. It’s a big employer. So they get like a free season pass and they kind of just… coast on life.” I laughed at the though, then added, “Is that what you want to do?” “My dream job is to be a ski instructor in Argentina for half the year and then a ski instructor in like Switzerland on the other half of the year.” “Oh wow,” I said, kind of surprised. “That’s interesting; that would be cool. Well I guess you know Spanish already so you’d just have to learn French!’ “It’s kind of unrealistic but oh well”. I read an article, “Top 5 Reasons Ski Towns Aren’t all what they’re Cracked Up to Be” and the number two reason was that ski towns “lack culture” (1) . Mac laughed because I had just asked him an obvious question. “I don’t think so. Girdwood is the most cultured place I know.” “How so?” I encouraged. “Just like, the people that live there. I don’t know they are just completely different from anyone anywhere else you go.” He hesitated, thinking. “It’s just cool. I miss Girdwood more than I miss going home because it’s just so chill. It’s the most relaxed environment ever. “Really?” “Like you know.” “Yeah.” I agreed. I moved on. “Would you say that the people of Girdwood have a "look"? “Yeah of course you know what Girdwood people look like. They just have that—look, and it’s not how Homer people look… like extra tuffs and things. In Girdwood, everyone wears sweatshirts that are too big, and…knitted hats, baggy-ass pants…” I started laughing, “and XXL shirts?” I asked knowing Mac definitely had a few of those himself. “Yeah seriously! Sweatshirts that are meant for 500-pound people. I don’t know it’s kind of funny.” “But it’s not just the clothes that make them different, though. You said that they’re chill?” “Yeah, I don’t know, I’m pretty sure every single person there smokes weed or has smoked weed. There I go laughing again. “It just creates a really relaxed environment.” Mac continued. “Yeah, yeah, totally." There was a slight pause. Okay topic. “Have you been to the Girdwood Forest Fair?” “I’ve been to the Forest Fair like… four times in my life. It’s the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. “ “Really? I think it’s cool.” “But like, last time I went, we went to watch one of the shows, and there was this guy. His name was like Jazzy Fizzle. That was his real name, and his stage name was like Jay Jackson. His names were switched. Like the real name was his stage name and his stage name was his real name. It was so weird. He was literally on stage pretty much naked playing guitar by himself and just yelling a lot. I was just thinking, this is the epitome of Girdwood right here. It was the funniest thing ever.” After a while I stopped laughing and asked, “So do you feel like you are not completely apart of the Girdwood lifestyle?” “I don’t know if that’s the real Girdwood lifestyle…” “Maybe it’s the exaggerated Girdwood lifestyle?” I suggested. “I think if I were on drugs, and had been there, I would’ve been apart of the Girdwood lifestyle. I laughed. Mac continued, “Like all the girls there were like swaying to the music and dancing like nobody was looking at them. I’m pretty sure so many people there were so high.” “That’s probably so true! But did you have the food there?” “The food there is bomb.” At this point I was satisfied with the interview. "Alright, well have a great Thanksgiving, Mac!" I said, and closed my laptop. |