Words Mary Fenton I t’s February, and we’re at a cabin in the woods in Skykomish, WA, on an uncharac-teristically cold Pacific Northwest day. Mary Rand lives here with her boyfriend Derrek Lever, their dog Otis and buddy Travis. We’re about 15 minutes from Stevens Pass. “Skytucky” is more of a railroad outpost than a town, and the chickens up the road have their own doublewide trailers in which to roost. Mary has been coordinating the day’s logistics for a couple weeks now, and we load up in Derrek’s truck and head out early, ahead of the traffic. Storms here are measured in feet, and a decent one just passed. We’re here to ride some of Mary’s favorite spots on a down day from filming a forthcoming Vans movie featuring her alongside Le-anne Pelosi and Hana Beaman. It’s dark, cloudy, wet and white on evergreen—the perfect setting for a classic Northwest day. Mary, 26, knows all the parking lots at Stevens Pass by name, and we head into Lot G to suit up. She dresses in black-on-black with black gloves, a black pack, a pop of orange in her goggles, long chestnut hair and slate blue eyes poking out. We’re here on the six-year anniversary of the Tunnel Creek ava-lanche—a massive slide off Cowboy Mountain that killed three of the Stevens Pass family. The air is heavy, and avy danger is considerable. For Mary, who’s equally at ease sending urban features and back-country airs, it’s just another day at work. It’s a job she loves, and she’s good at it. With humble New England beginnings, steadfast determi-nation and enough grit to build a sandcastle, it’s not by chance that she’s on the verge of becoming a backcountry icon. “Mary sent this pillow stack at Retallack Lodge, BC a little too big and went over the handlebars. When the dust settled, she popped up with a smile and announced, ‘That was my first real tomahawk!’ For which Smartwool’s Alex Pashley nicknamed her ‘Minihawk.’ She then got back up there and hit it again— evidence of Mary’s commitment to the backcountry learning curve.” Photo: Colin Wiseman MARY RAND 049
The Snowboarder's Journal frequency 16.1: Page 49
