Cover photo - 10 Barrel Brewing

Lucas Wachs has quietly become one of the most prominent film skiers of a generation. From solo projects with sponsors to collaborations with big-name athletes and heavy-hitting segments in major feature films, he has seamlessly blended his love for the sport with a vision that works as a career.

Last week, I got invited to the 10 Barrel Beer Lodge in McCall, ID, where I got a chance to catch up with Lucas briefly. Unfortunately, he had some pretty gnarly neck pains and we didn’t get to chat much out there, but we made sure to link up after the trip, with Twig on the call as well, to find out more about where Lucas is at with his big sponsor changes.

Thanks for jumping in here Lucas. Can you kick things off by giving us a bit of background on 10 Barrel and what the Beer Lodge is all about?

For sure! 10 Barrel is a local brewery out of Bend, Oregon, and they reached out to me probably five years ago, actually, maybe even earlier than that. They reached out to me as they were trying to get into snow sports and they asked if I wanted to represent the brand on the ski side of things. That led to working together on various projects. It has been great having a brand like that getting into our space and being able to support what I was doing. We've done stuff together, just for 10 Barrel, but they’ve also supported me through Matchstick and Level 1 movies.

Otherwise, they like to throw big parties. They put together their Pray for Snow parties where they have this big kind of movie festival thing at their breweries. They have breweries kind of all over. I think they have four or five across the West Coast. So yeah, at each one they have this big party and show some ski and snowboard movies.

And then this year's thing is the Beer Lodge, which is totally different from anything they've done in the past. Essentially, they rented a house in McCall and are using it as a base to go skiing. They’re also bringing out visitors like you guys, and for us athletes to come there to film and head out into the backcountry. And I think generally just to have a good time. 10 Barrel’s pretty good at that so I think that you know a thing like this is pretty cool because they're able to combine a lot of different parts of the brand and skiing and snowboarding and just bring it all together which is super fun. I feel like it's pretty authentic to 10 Barrel as well.

The house that they rented is pretty funny too. It's a super quirky place that had had sections added on to a bunch of times. It has a huge game room and there's a pool there with a hot tub and yeah, just a lot of shenanigans and good times going down there.

10 Barrel knows how to have a good time. Taking a step back here, you are one of the few skiers who have made it in a big way without any competition skiing. How did you manage to pull that off?

Umm, I guess it's trying to be different. I've always tried to set myself apart in some way if I could and I also just wanted to do the type of skiing that I wanted to do. I think that that, combined with just trying to hustle and make stuff happen, is kind of how I've been able to do it.

At the end of the day, it's just the skiing. That’s what it's all about and if you do it in the right way and find other creative people to collaborate with, you can make a career out of it. I guess part of how I did it was with certain people – filmmakers and photographers in my community that I tried to go get content with. I put effort into making videos and then one thing led to another, and I had a local shop sponsor me. Then they helped me get in touch with brands and reps and that was how I got started. It kind of just moved up from there. I got on shoots with more people, started going on trips, and started to do more stuff with brands directly.

I don't know, the move is just trying to make yourself an asset to these brands and help in any way you can. Whether that's making videos and content, or helping out with developing products and giving feedback, and then obviously trying to have a really good segment to show for it.

Photo - Chris Wellhausen

What were those initial brands that supported you?

I skied for Lib Tech, Dragon, and Dakine for close to 10 years. And now I just signed with Black Crows so I’m skiing for them now.

Right, you’ve gone through some sponsorship changes recently and that switch to Black Crows has turned some heads. How did that come about?

They reached out to me a little while ago, but I couldn't do anything at the time. I was interested though, and then this year, my contract came around. I just wanted to see what was out there, I guess, and see what they had to offer because they expressed a lot of interest. And yeah, it was just a sweet deal. The more I learned about the company, the more that I just liked what they had going on.

It was really hard for me to leave the brands that have supported me for so long and that did so much for me. But at the same time, I kind of felt if I was going to shake it up and do something different, now is kind of a good time to make it happen.

And yeah, that's pretty much it. I was just, overall, pretty stoked about Black Crows and their skis, and the whole deal was pretty cool.

From feature films like Matchstick’s recent Heck Yeah!, to solo projects that you've done with 10 Barrel or with Level 1, you've become one of the most prominent film skiers of a generation. What are you working on next?

Level 1 is making a full-length movie this year, so I've been shooting with them. And then I'm also going to make a short piece this spring for Black Crows. That's going to be kind of a separate thing. It's been a fun season already. We've done a couple of trips for Level 1 and have more in the works but yeah, that's pretty much what I’ve got going on.

Is there a dream project that you would just love to work on at some point in your career?

I have a lot of ideas for trips and stuff to do. I think at the end of the day, getting to hire the right crew and being able to work with my friends or people that I really like to work with is always what I aim for. If you can get all of that and a good budget, that's kind of the dream. I want to get back to Alaska and spend more time up there though. That's definitely a big one that I'm always trying to do but it's kind of expensive and it's hard to line it up with conditions.

So what's your favorite drink to relax after a big ski day?

Hahaha, snuck that in there. I try to drink a lot of water. I’m usually pretty bad about drinking enough water when out skiing so I’ll usually try to have a big water bottle in my truck. So I’ll chug a bunch of water and then follow it up with something simple like a 10-barrel Pub Beer.

Last question and going back to a broader scope here, what’s next in the life of Lucas Wachs? Whether in skiing or outside of skiing?

Right now, I'm just kind of staying the course with filming and trying to produce my own projects. I'm trying to push myself in big mountain skiing, looking to get on bigger freeride lines. Whether it's snowmobile or foot-powered or heli-accessed, that's all kind of the dream for me.

And then yeah I don't know beyond that. I'm just trying to stay busy and make ends meet.

And then with Black Crows, I think that a big part of it is that we will be producing a lot of content together and hopefully be doing some short films and some stuff that's very specific to Black Crows. That was one of the reasons that they approached me as they liked the stuff that I have made in the past. Together, we just wanted to do more of that. So yeah, keep an eye out for it all!

I’m helping a bit with product development and stuff as well, but I mean they're super dialed with ski shapers. And working with Julian Renier, I mean he obviously knows what he's doing with the skis. But I’ll do my best to provide feedback on what they make.

I’m living in Portland right now. I moved here a year ago, my girlfriend's gone back to school. So we're here for the time being, but still spend a lot of time in Bend. It’s only about three hours away, so super easy. We'll see what happens after my gal gets out of school, and we will probably be trying to put some roots down somewhere.

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We’re stoked that Lucas took the time to chat. He has been crushing it and his upcoming projects are sure to be nothing short of spectacular. Have a look at his most recent film with Level 1 “Lost in Thought”

https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/1082858/Lost-In-Thought--2023----Lucas-Wachs---Full-Film