You can’t talk about Snowshoe without mentioning Adam McGill. McGill has become synonymous with the mountain, whether it’s charging through Howard’s Hole, putting on a show for the fans, or repping custom graphics on race day.

McGill's presence at Snowshoe is more than just the racing. It's about embracing the event's spirit and engaging with the fans who support him. His dedication to the sport has made him a beloved figure in the GNCC series, especially at “McGill” Mountain.

As the upcoming race approaches, all eyes will be on McGill to see if he can once again conquer the mountain. GNCC Racing sat down with Adam McGill before the race this year to get his thoughts on all things Snowshoe.

GNCC Racing: Although most people at GNCC know who you are, for those who don’t know you, tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into racing. When was your first GNCC?

Adam McGill: So, I’m Adam McGill number 521. I’m also known as the Gator. We just looked at AMA cards today. I’m a 23-year member. My first GNCC was John Penton 2003, I think. It was the first time I entered a GNCC, and regretfully, I’m still here.

You’ve been a big part of the Snowshoe GNCC for years, so much so that fans started calling it “McGill Mountain”. How did that all come about?

We’ve never had a race that they’ve considered like Blackwater, and me growing up, I’ve always been a Blackwater fan, always been a guy that loves the old-school, the guys who made the sport what it is now. So, to have them talk about Snowshoe being like Blackwater, it was almost fitting. I’m a West Virginia guy, I love two strokes, I love to have a good time, and I love racing. It started out that it was about wins, right? I’ve had four wins up on the mountains. I’ve had two taken away from me with some issues. And you know, we don’t hold the most wins anymore, but I can tell you that the fans there, it is something I can’t explain to you and I can’t tell you what the vibe of that mountain is, but when you go up on top of that mountain on Friday it is so tense. It is like you can hear a pin drop on top of that place, and they are just waiting for something to erupt, something to happen. Whether it be a win for me, whether it be something happen in the village, or we party in the evenings. It’s a really awesome venue. It’s something that I’ve taken an awesome super liking to.

I love the vent, and man theres nothing better than going up top that hill with a bunch of McGillbillies and just watching some racing and just partying and having a good time. That will always be one of my favorite places to race.

What's going through your head when you come up the mountain for the race weekend? What are you anticipating the weekend to look like?

Oh, everything's black. It’s all black when I’m driving to the top of that mountain. It changes so much. And what I mean by it changes is you always have Howard’s Hole, you’ve always got the powerline, you’ve always got the ski slopes. The track doesn’t change so much as far as the layout, because there’s only so much there. But you know, they get so much rain, they get so much snow, so things move around. Lines change. It’s constantly evolving, it’s constantly moving or even the spectators.

I mean, God, you’ll get down to the bottom, and there’ll be so many spectators, you have no choice but to go the way they put you. At that point, you know what I do? I hold it wide open, I give them a hell of a show. If we make it, we make it. If we don’t, they pull me through it. And I’ve got a bunch of stories about things like that with people there.

Snowshoe has been labeled the toughest race in America. Would you agree? What makes it so special or so brutal?

I wouldn’t say it's the toughest race in America, but it’s definitely the toughest XC event that we do. And it is one of those events that if you override the bike, you break it; if you under ride the bike, you’re 15th. You get stuck one time. I always tell my dad, when we go up there, and I get goose bumps talking about this, I always tell my father, if we make it through the first lap unscathed, we’re on the box.

Last year, I crashed my ass off and wreck busted the helmet and it rolled my belt pretty good. The year before was when I found out I was diagnosed with Lyme. So we’ve had some tough goes. We’ve had glimpses of hope and stardom, I guess, up there.

But I can tell you if it comes to that event, and we are on the box or if we win it, there will be no more Snowshoe Mountain. It’ll be burnt to the ground. It’ll be McGill’s ashpile. At 4848 up there. And I promise you, the McGillbillies will be proud as hell up there to be dancing in the ashes.

Let’s talk about Howards Hole. What’s your strategy for getting through it? Do you have a go-to line, or is it just survival mode trying to get through there?

There’s so many things that dictate going into Howard’s Hole, and I’ve had people tell me that they’re like other racers will come through and they’re hooting and hollering, but they say when I come down into the mudhole, now granted, I can only tell you about me, because people come and tell me. But when they tell me, when I get down there, the place loses its mind. And like I told you, I have stories of that place.

One of the years, I went in through there, and the McGillbillies go down in there, and they make these lines where they want you to go. And I got stuck, and I remember there was a guy shoving on me and he was pushing and pushing and pushing on the bike, and the bike went free, and I took off, and I act like I was dragging something. I looked back, he’s still hanging on to the grab bar, looks at me and says, “Go, I’m gonna be here if you get stuck again.” I drug him clear through the mudhole and clear to the ski slope, the last lap. I swear to you, I can’t make this up. Literally, I drug him through that mudhole. He said, “If you get stuck, I’m here, dude.” I said okay and just hammered down. But there is no strategy. You can go down there, you can pre-walk it, you can look. It doesn’t make a difference because they’re going to put you where they want you to go. And that’s one thing about Blackwater. You know you go there, you’d ride the track, you’d look at it.

I’ve never been able to go look at Blackwater. Just the stories I’ve heard from Chuck DeLullo, Tom Tolke, Teddy Trey, Gillette, all those guys, and they told me: You don’t pick a line. You go where they want you to go, you give it the best shot you got, and if you don’t make it, they’ll drag you through it. And there’s been times where I swear to you that they would pick the bike up and carry me through it. Like, no bull. I’m telling you, you think I’m full of [crap], but I’m not! I’m telling you these guys will die to get me through this mudhole. And if we don't make it through the mudhole, we are going to party our [butt] off and have a good time until it's over.

How does the energy from the fans at Snowshoe compare to other races on the GNCC circuit?

Snowshoe and Ironman are the two most similar races as far as energy. But the only thing I could tell you is that the difference is, you have, I don’t know, the number of people, you have, say, 15 thousand people at Ironman spread across a whole field, and you congregate them to a concert. There might only be 3,000 people at the concert, 2,000. When you go to Snowshoe, there ain’t [crap] anywhere else, except for in the middle of that village. And you have everybody that’s at that race and the middle of that village, and they don’t care what happens, they just want to have a good time.

I’ll never forget one of the years I was racing, this guy came up to me, had his hand all wrapped up in gauze, and he comes up to me and he’s like, “Hey McGill, you remember me?” And I’m like “Uh, not really.” You know I've been drinking crown, we’ve been having a good time. And he goes, “Well, remember when you got stuck on that rock and I pulled you off?” “Yeah,” I said, “what happened?” He goes, “You smashed my hand between a rock and the footpeg.” It took all the skin and everything off his hands. And I felt so bad, I felt so guilty because of what I did. And he goes, “McGill, it’s cool dude, let's have a beer.” And I’m like “Sure!”

So I mean the fans there are very equivalent to Ironman, but it's such a different vibe. I don't know if because its like the mountains and corn. You know I always say like my corn fed hillbillies and my mountain hillbillies its totally different people. They mix and they like to have a good time, but, man, there's just something about that mountain. I don’t know if the elevation gets everybody going crazy because there's less oxygen up there. I don’t know, but there is something special about that place. Even in years to come, as long as they have the event, that is probably one event I don’t know if I could ever miss.

Describe the Snowshoe GNCC in three words.

Expect the unexpected. That’s what I would say for Snowshoe. You have no idea what the [heck] is going to happen.

You did some special graphics for the race last year. Tell us about those graphics and give us a little hint about your graphics for this year. Are you doing a special set again?

So I’ve been working with Pro Graphics and Liz Harper since she started. We always wanted to do something cool, right, to show her talent. And you know, the new materials or machines, what the machines can do. And I never would’ve expected it to do what it has done, but its got to the point now where everybody expects it.

And not so much when I say the fans expect it, right? But it’s like the other racers are now doing their thing or theme machine for the event. It’s not necessarily a Snowshoe themed machine, but it's just a themed machine for that event, which makes it even more unique. So like you know, I’ve got my hands in that. It’s super cool to do something one of. We’ll never have another event like that. You know, at a ski resort. You know, we had Wisp in the past. It wasn't the same. It’s not Snowshoe. So to have that, and for people to take notice of it, is really cool, and to leave that stamp.

As far as this year, I’ve had some ideas. I thought about like some Mike Tyson kind of stuff. I thought about some Canadian kind of stuff. I’ve thought about it. So there all kinds of things that are running through my head at all times. And when it hits me, it’ll hit me. I’ve had people give suggestions and things like that, and I’m not quite sure what direction I want to go, but when we do it, I promise you, it’ll be a huge, huge deal. It’s always an event I look forward to going to. Win or lose, we’re having a hell of a good time on the mountain.

What would you say if you had to explain the Snowshoe GNCC to someone who has never heard of it before?

If I’m going to tell somebody about Snowshoe, prepare to see things that you’ll never see at another event. Be ready to destroy every part of the machine and your body for a cup. But there is nothing better than that cup. I’ve got one cup, I have multiple other trophies. There will always be a special place for a Snowshoe victory. I love talking about the event because it's something that I really enjoy.

But to explain it to somebody, it’s tough. You’ve got to experience it. I would put Snowshoe like Baha. You have no idea what you’re getting into. You know there’s a race, you know there’s hotels, and you know there’s places to eat. Everything else that happens it could be super chill, or it could be you could end up in the back of the cop car because you threw the cooler through the back window. I don’t know!

Do you have a favorite Snowshoe memory or moment?

Yes, I do! My favorite Snowshoe memory that I have was one of the wins I had. When I got the trophy, it was a snow globe. And the snow globe was set in a block of wood, and the snow globe had a Honda in it that was the number that was amount of wins it was. So, it was my third win. I was on a Honda when I’d done it, and it was in the SnowGlobe. So that's the biggest thing that I remember about it.

One of the memories as far as a race, was the year that I broke down going into Howard’s Hole. I have never watched a GNCC since I’ve started and that was in 2003. I got to watch my first GNCC that year and I would never picked a better place to watch it than down there in Howard’s Hole with my fans. And them guys like to have a good time!

Who do you want to thank for supporting you this season?

Obor Tires, Moose Racing, Parts Unlimited, Lone Star Racing, Klotz, Micah MacDonough, Penske Shocks, HiPer Technology, Leatt, Ryno Power, Tire Blocks, ProGraph-x, ALCO cleaners, Induction Solutions, DP Brakes, Hinson Clutch Components, Michele Manshack, MZM Perfomance, Twin Air, Fasst Company, ODI, Cycra, Peak Powder Coating, Sunstar Sprockets and Chains, Works Connection, Ultimate Poly Products, Wiseco, QuadTech, IMS, RG Motorsports, Cometic Gasket, Evans Powersport, Outerwears, HC Conditioning, Loud Performance, Pivot Cycle

Final thoughts heading into Snowshoe this year?

I would like to give everybody a heads up, stay out of my way, cause the Gator is hungry. Let’s take the mountain back, baby!