AAS Summits Mt. Sneffels!

DATELINE: 20 May 2010 - After having our sites on Mt. Sneffels in Ouray CO. for a few years, we finally put the trip together! We had 2 teams, Dan Paul & Kirk from New Mexico and Brian & Jeff from Colorado. We all met at a bar in Ouray (surprise) and headed up the 6 mile road that we heard was open to Camp Bird. We knew the mountain spirits were with us when, at the table next to ours, a local guide overheard our plans and gave us the thumbs-up on conditions in the basin area ;-)

Indeed the road was open and we drove up to base camp on Thursday evening. The weather was fantastic and we didn't see any evidence of natural avalanches or other dangerous conditions... Here's a little clip:

Next morning we hit it for the trek up to advanced base camp in Yankee Boy Basin proper at the foot Mt. Sneffels. We made short work of the skin up and commenced to making our home for the next 2 days. We had 5 adventurers so we decided to dig 2 snow caves, the Weasel Cave for the Non-Snorers (Dan, Paul & Brian) and the Bear Cave for the snorers (Kirk & Jeff). After about 2 hours of digging like crazed groundhogs we had our new home!

The next day we fired up the stoves before dawn, made water and breakfast and started our ascent! Conditions were perfect, everything was frozen solid and there wasn't a cloud in the sky.

Here's a clip of the beginning of the ascent up Lavender Col:

After about 2 hours of excellent steep snowfield climbing we stopped for a snack at the top of the Col then shot this clip from the "Notch" just before the final walk over to the summit proper:

It was a fantastic ascent and we put a team on the summit before noon ;-)

The ski down was a bit icy but we all skied/boarded back down and left our tracks on Ole' Sneffels! Paul even took a little side trip to the other side of the basin and got it some fresh lines below Mt. Morgan.

The mountain gods were kind to the AAS and all in all, it was a kick-ass trip and we finished up the 2009-2010 ski season with a BANG! Next ?

AAS Does Utah!

Well...... it's a few weeks now that the AAS completed the annual AAS Summit in Utah! We have all been too busy to post the movie and pics, but I'll get to it soon ;-)

SLC Summit 2010 - No Bone in the AAS

Alta-nate plans made!

Wednesday: Park City
Thursday: Alta - Boneless
Friday: Alta - Boneless / Brighton to Alta BC
Saturday: Solitude
Sunday: Fly out
 
Kitchen Duty
All screwed up because Bone biffed it.

Beer Mules: Anyone driving in from out of state

UAE - The other Matt, & Paul do... The Shield Part Doux!

Another UAE (Unofficial AAS Event)

I thought this little jaunty was worthy of a post, so here it is! I wanted to try out my new glacier harness before winter and get in a little rope work so I convinced Matt from RhinoCorps to join me on Sandia Peak's Shield. He had never been on it before and I jumped at the chance to do it again.

We decided to add a little more drama to the day by rappelling back down the face and hiking out of Waterfall Canyon. Man! what a Bushwack THAT was! After a 2 hour hike in on Rincon trail to the base we summited in about 1.5 hours without roping up. We didn't rope up as usual on the "W" because when we were on it I thought "that couldn't be it" because I remembered it being more dramatic than that, so I kept thinking it was higher! Anyway...

After traversing about .25mi South we found a way down to a Rap point on the face and began a 5 pitch (with 2 60m ropes) Rap down! It was great and thrilling to say the least ;-)

Then we started in on what would turn out to be a 4 hour Bushwack from hell! It was hot, no trails, tones of cactus and thorn trees, etc... The only saving grace was a spring I found coming out of a huge crack in the wall that refreshed us and refilled our water supply..... All in all it was a hard 14, yes 14 hour day... Enjoy ;-)

Dan Get's Hitched!

Our DannyBoy got hitched a couple of weeks ago and I finally got the tame part of the bachelor party video cut together! When he asked what we were doing all I told him was to bring a large jar of Vaseline and rubber gloves ;-) We actually were taking him glider flying! We all survived and had a great time.... we followed it up with a BBQ and waaaaaay too much Tequila at Kirk's pad.

AAS Family Camping!

The AAS finally put together a little family camping adventure to Great Sand Dunes National Park! Hopefully next year Eric and Matt won't be so busy ;-) We all had a great time and look forward to doing it again...


I removed the video for privacy reasons ;-) If you were part of the AAS family you already saw it! Needless to say, we all had a great time and and will put another one on the schedule in a few years!