Meet the Raicho team - Marty & Chris!

Hey there! I'm Marty. Let me introduce myself and tell you a little bit about myself and my wife Chris.

Chris and I met in Sydney in 2015 and got married in 2016 before moving to our new home in Seattle for work. I work at a tech company, and Chris works as a legal professional. At the end of last year, we expanded our little family when we got a puppy together - Smokes! We picked Smokes up from a puppy rescue up here in the Pacific Northwest as a 10-week old puppy, and he's doing great.

I've known both Luke and Jules for more than a decade now, When Luke mentioned to me that he was looking at establishing a ski lodge and asked if I was interested, I couldn't have said "yes" any faster than I did! Chris and I were both super excited. Chris is a fantastic host, and she has mentioned from time to time getting out of the corporate life and doing something like opening a bakery or working in a restaurant or bar. I'm just in it for the fact that it will mean more ski trips to Japan!

I'm grateful to the rest of the team who are doing a lot of the dirty work at the lodge since they are based in Japan, so I'm trying to pitch in where I can on the website and other things that I can do remotely. I'm looking forward to our new hotel accommodation opening this season, and I'm sure I'll be there for work (and for play) pretty soon and very often!

When I was growing up in Australia my uncle and my parents would bring me skiing every year at Thredbo and Perisher. I started snowboarding when I reached university and I have never looked back. The conditions in Australia are pretty icy, so the powder conditions in Japan were a total revelation! Christine just started snowboarding a couple of years ago after we got married. Her first experience was pretty bad… she had a full day lesson in blizzard conditions, plus the magic carpet was out, so she was hiking up the hill all day! Naturally, I didn’t think she would want to do it again after that, but she’s an incredible person and surprised me (and I’m pretty sure at that point she was only snowboarding so that I wouldn’t feel guilty about going up the mountain!). She’s progressed in leaps and bounds from there and we’re planning a few trips together this season.

Here's a pic of Chris and I frolicking in some Seattle snow at Steven's Pass in the 2017/18 season. I'm the one on the left! (Haha! you may have just noticed my penchant for making lame jokes!)