Most ski towns can name their founders, but Red River's ski story has a rarer kind of hero: a man who arrived as a teenage ski bum, fell in love with the mountain, and worked his way up every rung of the ladder until he owned the whole mountain. Andrew "Drew" D. Judycki, born November 30, 1947 in Greenfield, Massachusetts, was on skis nearly as soon as he could walk. His father, Frank, taught most of the local kids in Athol, Massachusetts to ski, and Drew's older brother Denny remembered riding the rope tow tucked between their dad's legs, skiing three or four days a week all season long. Skiing was not just a hobby for the Judycki family; it was the family language.
Drew's destiny changed in 1966 when he graduated from Athol High School and faced a choice that would shape the rest of his life. He had football scholarship offers from Eastern schools, but he turned them all down and enrolled at New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas, New Mexico, for one simple reason: he wanted to ski in the Rocky Mountains. During his freshman year he took a job on the ski patrol at Sipapu, and soon after he became a ski instructor at Red River Ski Area. He joined the Professional Ski Instructors of America in 1968 and earned his Stage 1 certification in 1971 and Stage 2 in 1973. He graduated in 1970 with a degree in journalism, but his heart was already on the slopes.
What followed was a career climb as steady as a chairlift ride. Drew worked as ski school supervisor at Red River for two years after graduation, spent a year as ski school director at Angel Fire, and then returned to Red River for good. Over the next three decades he served as ski school director, marketing director, and general manager, buying the area and becoming its owner in 1984. Along the way he coached the Red River Junior Racing Team and the University of New Mexico ski team, hosted school ski programs year after year, served more than once as president of Ski New Mexico, and even served on the Red River town council from 1974 to 1978. He ran the town's ski area the way he had once taught beginners: patiently, personally, and with total devotion.
Asked in a 1996 interview about his improbable path from ski patrol to sole ownership, Drew answered simply: "This is the only thing I ever wanted to do, and I am real fortunate to be able to do it." When he died on May 26, 2008 at the age of 60, after 35 years as a Red River resident, he was still the sole owner, president, and general manager of Red River Ski Area. Friends, family, and colleagues gathered on June 28 at the Red River Ski Area Chalet on Pioneer Road to celebrate his life, and the town still honors him each year with the Drew Judycki Memorial disc golf tournament, played on the mountain he called home. In a town where skiing is a family business, Drew Judycki was the family man who proved that a ski instructor's passion can carry a whole resort.