Pro Skier McRae Williams from X Games to Off Grid

McRae Williams was destined to be a pro skier. Born and raised in Park City, UT, McRae is a slopestyle master who also happens to love shredding pow and building kickers in the backcountry. He’s now sponsored by Volkl and Backcountry.com. Back in the day, McRae put in years of hard work earning him a place amongst the sport’s elite with stealthy technical moves. He has three X Games slopestyle medals, including slopestyle gold from Tignes in 2013, and just missed a spot on the 2014 inaugural Olympic slopestyle team. McRae successfully competed in 2015 and 2016, landing a host of podium finishes from X Games Aspen, U.S. Grand Prix in Mammoth Mountain to Fenway Park’s historic big air event. Watch his episode of Legends In the Making.

Give us a peek of your early years.

I’m super fortunate to have grown up in a town like Park City and in a place like Utah, such amazing terrain and beautiful landscapes. I started skiing at the young age of three. I grew up skiing at Park City Mountain Resort.

Park City is definitely a kind of proving grounds in the ski world and has produced a few legends of its own. I remember skiing in the park, at ages 12 or 13 years, and today, the scene is still kicking. It’s so cool to see all the young kids following in the same footsteps that myself and guys like Joss (Christensen) and Alex (Schlopy). Tanner Hall was born in Montana and moved to Park City at a pretty young age. Growing up in that environment was super cool and I probably took it for granted often.

This is your second season filming with TGR. How’s the transition from contest life where you spent the better part of a decade?

I like to bring a little bit of the park flavor to the backcountry. It’s cool to have a different outlook on things and to choose tricks that complement the terrain and angles of the take offs. A lot that goes into exploring in the backcountry that’s different from the typical park setting where everything's perfect. It can be super challenging and so much fun. It's new and bringing back that spark that I felt when I first started skiing park.

McRae Williams lets it fly in the Colorado backcountry. Photo: Nic Alegre

So you got a call from Colter …

Colter (Hinchliffe) is the man. He's a funny character to have around. Definitely kind of a no filter type guy. Anyways, Colter reached out and showed me some shots of this zone he had found in Colorado. I was immediately intrigued, there was some super cool looking terrain he had found and we started to piece this trip together.

I got Simon (Hillis) in the mix, we met on location last winter, and pulled a production crew together. We made it out here by the skin of our teeth, braving some some inclement weather. Where there's a will, there's definitely a way.

What made this trip so special?

Growing up in Utah, I'm right in the middle of everything and find myself kind of going west a little more often, maybe to the north, but rarely do I come east to Colorado. Over years while on the comp scene, I’ve probably driven over 100 times in my life out to Summit County and Breckenridge.

It was cool to finally bring the sled out there and get off the beaten path into the backcountry and see what Colorado really has to offer. I just love the idea of a quiet place like this as opposed to the classic resorts where we're used to skiing with millions of people. It can get overwhelming, y’know. It’s good to be out in a remote area.

McRae airs on the side of fun. Photo: Nic Alegre

Tell us about staying in a Tenth Mountain Division hut.

Our backcountry mission involved staying at a super historical place, a hut of the Tenth Mountain Division of the Army. Back in the day, these huts providing housing as the units trained skiers for service.

In 1940, the head of the National Ski Patrol, Charles Dole approached the Army Chief of Staff, George C. Marshall, about potentially starting a ski army division. He had seen the success of Finnish soldiers’ tactics on skis against Russian troops, piquing his interest. Some of those involved with this new winter army division went on to start places like Aspen and Vail. Yeah, we owe a lot to them for creating the places that we ski today.

Having this hut as our basecamp, it really takes you back. Just trying to imagine living at a time like that. There’s all this memorabilia on the walls, with stories and the awards that the soldiers earned. It's pretty special. It’s impossible to not realize that you're in the very place that these guys used to train. It’s pretty intense stuff. It was an honor to be able to stay at the cabin, and

experience and learn about it. I’d say that those who served in the Tenth Mountain Division were definitely legends.

Tell us about the zone.

It’s pretty unique terrain out here. Kind of Red Rock-esque. Colorado's pretty infamous. This area that we're in had a lot of mini golf features, short little shelves and benches that were super playful and pillowy.

McRae brings the slope style to the natural environment. Photo: Nic Alegre

Any objectives on this mission?

My main goal is to stack clips and have a good time doing it. This trip was definitely about a great crew, history location and exploring everything that Colorado has to offer. Yeah, for part of the trip, weather wasn't really on our side. We'd been kind of poking around trying to make things happen. I ended up coming across this just perfect roll over knuckle, with a nice little pine tree sitting on it. It was the perfect spot to build a wedge. We broke out the shovels and got to work and luckily, we had a big crew. At some point, the sky popped blue and we got a super sick session.Everybody ended up getting some good tricks on the jump, even the crew.

What was the balance between sleds and skins like?

Touring on these legendary, historic roads and trails that these people used to navigate on was pretty cool. Exploring on the sleds is always a good time. And, it was cool to take the sleds out of the picture and go for foot power. Really do it the way the soldiers used to, putting ourselves in a position that they were back in the day. It was a little more peaceful not having the blaring engines.

How would you define a legend?

Legends are inspiring. It's what gives us motivation to up our own game and to strive for that legendary status. To have the influence of legends or legendary places, it kind of imprints on the brain forever.