Trip report: What's it like to ski with MAC?

As I clipped into my skis for the first time – the cool wind hitting my face, excitement filling my soul – I started to push forward… splat. My face met the cold ground – probably not the best start to my cross-country skiing career. Nevertheless, I got up and continued on the trail, thinking to myself that this MAC trip might be a long one.

The MAC I’m talking about is not a McDonalds burger or an apple laptop. The MAC I’m talking about is The Mountaineers Adventure Club, a year-round youth program geared toward exposing teens ages 14 to 18 to safe recreation outdoors. One priority of MAC is providing immersive experiences, which inevitably involves limiting teens’ use of phones so  they can truly live out in the real world. As a relatively new MAC student and self-identifying phone-addicted teen, I wasn’t sure what to expect for this trip. If you’re curious what a Mountaineers Adventure Club cross-country ski overnight is like, let me tell you.

Hitting The Road

Most MAC trips follow the same process: Sign up for the trip, show up to the pre-trip Zoom meeting, borrow gear from The Mountaineers Gear Library (this has saved me multiple times), and show up at the Seattle Program Center before heading to the backcountry. The Methow Valley trip was exactly like this. I signed up for the trip three months in advance, missed the pre-trip meeting (somehow), and then showed up at the program center on a cold Friday afternoon to ride in The Mountaineers youth van. 

The long haul.

The drive to Methow Valley was five hours but felt like an eternity. After multiple bathroom breaks and a quick gas station stop for dinner, we made it to the North Cascades Hostel. At this point, fatigue was creeping in – I had been awake for 18 hours. I threw myself onto my bunk and settled  in for some well deserved rest. 

My Legs' Worst Nightmare

During MAC trips, meals are cooked by us teens. Chefs must buy the food they need for meals and cook for the entire group. I (luckily) was not in the breakfast cooking group, so I got to wake up at a comfortable 7am. 

After breakfast, we got ready for a day of skiing. The first day’s trip was to the beautiful town of Mazama. Taking 30+ teenagers out on a peaceful cross-country skiing trip  is almost impossible,  which is why MAC splits everyone into groups. For the Methow trip, we split into groups based on skill level: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. I have never cross-country skied before and for some reason thought it would be a brilliant idea to try the intermediate group. Spoiler: It was not very brilliant, and my legs would come to regret this decision in the future. 

The flat run of death.

My group went on a 12-mile green run in Mazama. Maybe you’re thinking to yourself, “hey, a green run shouldn’t be too bad, that's the beginner stuff.” Let me tell you, when you fall on every slight decline, and your legs burn with every step, the difficulty gets a lot harder. 

Even though I was dying throughout the ski run, the scenery was top notch. There was not a single cloud in the sky, and although the weather was cold,  the sun always warmed me up. Our track was sandwiched in between huge mountains on both sides and there was white, fluffy snow all around. We literally could not have had better conditions. 

My super intermediate group.

At lunch, we stopped at a cute rest shack where I ate a delectable day-old Pb&J. At this point, my legs already felt like Jello. Somehow, I survived the 12-mile ski run and, by the time my group was finished, it was already 4pm. 

Screenagers! Leadership within MAC

Back at the hostel, I jumped in the shower, then  collapsed on the couch. Like most teens after collapsing on the couch, I pulled out my phone. To be completely honest, almost every teen at the hostel did. But when members of MAC Leadership saw us dilly dallying around and not engaging with each other, they stepped up.

MAC promotes personal responsibility, but what is also important in MAC is group responsibility. At the end of the year, MAC members choose six experienced students to be a part of MAC Leadership. These leaders  are awesome – they plan a lot of our activities and help with logistics such as emails, food, and pre-trip meetings. There's a reason that these people are in leadership – they help keep everyone accountable to upholding MAC values. 

Being held accountable by adults is one thing, but accountability from your peers is what makes MAC so special. Besides being outdoors, the biggest part of MAC trips is being present with other people, and MAC Leadership did a great job at pushing us to connect with one another and build the type of community that MAC is all about. Obviously, people like myself were grouchy at first about having to put away our phones, but we  got games out like Bananagrams and Uno, and before we knew it, dinner was ready. 

After dinner, everyone gathered around and watched the movie The Greatest Showman (which was not very good). After that, the grogginess (or in my case, the pain) from a long day of skiing crept in, so we scattered to our respective rooms and went to bed. 

Unlocking my inner intermediate skier

The next morning, as my alarm went off, I didn’t want to get out of bed. My legs hurt really, really bad. Reluctantly,  I got up and headed downstairs for a fancy breakfast of crepes. Even though my legs could barely move and my arms hurt as if I’d been hit by a giant truck, I was excited for the day. We were skiing the highly praised Sun Mountain, which my friend said was completely downhill. As an avid hater of strenuous work, I was excited to hear this news. 

The legs are dead but the vibes are up!

Sun mountain was (unsurprisingly) very sunny – there was seriously not a cloud in sight. This time around, the intermediate group did more intermediate stuff, which kind of sucked for me. The downhill I was promised eventually came into fruition only after  three hours of uphill. (I had forgotten there's no convenient chairlift in cross-country skiing – of course  we had to hike up to ski down). 

Hiking uphill was a million times worse than skiing yesterday’s flat ground. With every step, I slipped down the hill, and I had a hotspot forming on my heel. The difficulty  made me miss the feeling of sore legs and tired arms. 

Eventually, after a lot of hard work and about ten million breaks, we got to the top of the trail. The  sense of accomplishment and relief I felt reaching the top was something that can’t be matched by anything in the world. Our hard work was rewarded by a looong downhill run. Crisp wind stung my face as I raced down. I felt like I was flying. The entire feeling was surreal, until the track ended and I ate the floor. But besides that minor inconvenience, that downhill was the peak of my cross-country skiing career. 

The added perks of a MAC ski trip

After cross-country skiing, I was able to explore the town of Winthrop with my MAC friends. Winthrop is like a mini cowboy town, and I felt as if I were in a wild west movie. We did some exploring, then  decided to go ice skating at the Winthrop rink. Ice skating was exciting and a bit nerve wracking because of the five-year-olds zipping by who I had to avoid absolutely trucking. 

Back at the hostel, MAC leadership put on a special murder mystery (thanks leadership!). Everybody got their own role, and we scavenged around for clues to discover the murderer. (I guessed completely wrong.) By the time the murder mystery was over, everybody was physically and mentally tired, so I made my way to the sanctum of my bed and toppled into my bunk. 

Oh no! Kai down!

Our last day in the Methow was bittersweet. Hank, our trip leader, decided that in honor of MLK day we’d do an act of service and help restore a cross-country trail. This was straight up awesome. We got to use cool saws, and one trail work coordinator had a full-on chainsaw. I felt like a ski ninja gliding on my cross-country skis and cutting down the brambles in my path. After finishing our restoration work, we skied back to the cars and, as fast as you can blink, we were back in Seattle. 

Inner lumberjacks coming out during our stewardship activity.

I'm gonna MAC the most out of this trip

This cross-country ski overnight was jam-packed, from ice skating to uphill climbs to murder mysteries, and not once was I not having fun. The  trip was particularly unique for me because it was my first major MAC trip – all other trips I had been on were only with five or six  other people. I was nervous about getting along with 30 other teens and doing something I had never done before, but that's what made MAC feel so special: the student  leadership, our wonderful instructors, and parent volunteers made this entire trip feel like one big family. 

Even though I was dying from exhaustion while cross-country skiing and, frankly, nervous about getting along with so many people, MAC made all my worries vanish. Whether I was singing TikToK by Kesha with my cross-country group mates, watching my friend Beckett crash into a tree because he couldn’t slow down, or playing an UNO game that lasted an hour (seriously an hour?!!), every part of the experience contributed to creating  one great community. 

So, what’s  a MAC cross-country overnight  really like? Imagine slipping and falling on your back really hard while skiing, but then getting back up, heading to a cabin, and snuggling up next to a fireplace with a warm cup of hot cocoa, a really good book, and friends that feel like family. That's what a MAC trip is really like.

Gearing up for more skiing on sore legs.