AAS - The Albuquerque Adventure Squad

AAS Summits Mt. Sneffels!

2010-07-07T19:26:00.015-06:00

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!

2010-02-26T19:09:00.002-07:00

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

2010-01-04T22:53:00.002-07:00

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!

2009-08-27T21:06:00.005-06:00

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!

2009-08-17T20:42:00.002-06:00

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!

2009-08-13T19:40:00.003-06:00

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!

Bluebird Day in Nambe Chutes

2009-04-18T13:11:00.002-06:00

U.A.E. (Unofficial AAS Event)
Another Ski-Nut John and I hit the mountain above the Santa Fe ski area last month and I thought I'd post this little clip...

Sweeeeeeeeet!

Fear and Loathing on Sandia Peak

2009-03-31T19:12:00.005-06:00

Last week after a nice dump in Albuquerque...... Dan and I put aside our inner fears about slides and hidden obstacles and headed up to Sandia Peak around 8:00pm. We left one car at the ski area parking lot (knowing we may never see it again) and parked at the top. It was blowing hard, foggy and still snowing... We put renewed fears aside, strapped on beacons, shovels and probes and headed out into the void...

We made it to the "Meadow" and as I lead the downhill into the blackness, I heard a scrape, Dan saw sparks and I was down in a whiteout! Dan came to my rescue guided by my screams of pain.... it was only a skinned knee, but the mood was set and we were spooked.

We had to retreat to the treeline to find our way over to the gravel pit and a huge jump left by thoughtless snowboarders. I couldn't help myself and took the jump and barely held on to the landing. We finally arrived at the top of a run, assessed the situation and took these pictures with Dan's phone in case they were our last:

The moon was full but obscured by clouds so we started down first run in the dark... Trouble soon followed and as I stopped to rest Dan stopped just uphill from me and created a slide that partially buried some of the top of one of my skis! He went for his beacon but I dug myself out and instead we dug some brandy out of my pack to calm our nerves...

It didn't let up from there either... With no other options, we continued on periodically checking conditions, avoiding more slides, cliffs and probably a Yeti from what we could make out. More brandy and more bravado and we finally made it to the thick yet safe snow at the bottom of the ski area. Thank GOD!

All in all, one of the most dangerous and scary nights we ever had in the wild.... Truly an AAS event to remember ;-)

2009 Annual Adventure Summit! - Crested Butte, CO.

2009-03-01T14:02:00.003-07:00

Team AAS got together for the annual AAS Summit in Crested Butte Colorado this year. This was the first time every member of the AAS made it to the annual summit!

Mattius led the push to rent a very cushy place right at the ski area instead of a long cold one in a snow cave or trying to sleep on a 60 year old mattress in a dive motel... So indeed we rented a 3 story luxury condo that even had a remote control fireplace! Here's a little clip of the inside: (so what if we had 7 laptops for 8 dudes!)

Is the AAS getting soft? perhaps.....NOT! We have drank the wine of luxury and we did like it..... but we all yearn for the hard side of nature and are already planning next years AAS summit and were thinking of something a bit more primitive, like a Yert in the middle of nowhere!

Thanks to Brian for putting together this smokin' little video:

2009 - AAS Productions

UAE - Nambe Chutes, Santa Fe

2009-01-27T08:23:00.008-07:00

Un-Official AAS Event: - 1/25/09

I just wanted to share a few cool photos of me and 2 other BC Ski nuts in the Nambe Chutes bowl above the Santa Fe ski area last Sunday. I still can't believe how wintery is was up there! We have had no new snow in about 2 weeks and it was so warm at my house on Saturday, I had to remove my sweat shirt while changing my oil.

On arrival at the SF ski area Sunday, it was about 26deg with little wind. I made my now favorite purchase of an $18.00 2 ride ticket and headed up to the very top with Joel and John. (I met them both while trolling for BC partners on a local BC ski forum, yes disgusting I know...)

We were greeted by about 6in. of rime on the entire top of the mountain. There was about 8 to 10in. of new snow and rime that had blown into the bowl.
We dug a quick pit and all decided it was stable and we agreed to do a run one-at-a-time hiding behind rock outcroppings to check it out. We helped ourselves to a steep descent into a widening 30 to 40deg. couloir first. Here's me ripping it up and trying not to over-cook it!

We had a quick snack at the bottom and started the skin/climb back up. The snow was too soft in areas and left us swimming back up a 35deg. slope in waist deep snow... not fun at times ;-) For our second run we chose a wider run and let'er rip! The conditions were indeed stable with about 6 t0 8in. of good snow on top.

Here's Joel at the top of the chutes area proper (no it's not Alaska, it's Santa Fe, man I love this state)

Here's a great shot taken by John of me and Joel climbing out with Snow Science data added for perspective.

We were going to return via the Winsor trail after another run, but as I was getting sick all week I was really feeling tired (as I told my partners, my "Inner Man" was asleep on the couch) So we did the right thing and pulled the plug and traversed the ridge exploring more opportunities for next time. The sun was baking the south facing slopes we used to descend back into the ski area. I fell at least 3 times and got stuck in tree wells because I was getting so fried... After a beer at the mid-way bar we finished the run and I treated my friends to a crash under the beginner lift on the bunny slope because I couldn't even keep an edge any longer! Awesome!

That effort was enough to kick my cold into high gear and today I'm home sick for the second day in a row........ but I'm still grinning like a fool.

Wahatoya: Scree of Vengeance

2009-01-22T18:53:00.009-07:00

On West Spanish Peak, no one can hear you scree....

In December 2007, the AAS made a fateful decision to go to Plan B when a raging snowstorm blanketed our favorite ski resort in nearly seven feet of powder. What was Plan A? An ascent of one or both of the Spanish Peaks, sensuously shaped twin peaks towering nearly 7,000 feet above the plains of Colorado half way between Pueblo and the New Mexico border. Wahatoya is the Ute name, roughly translated to mean "breasts of the world" for their shape and the frequent summer thunderstorms that gather at their peaks, bringing rain to the plains that fed the tribes. We vowed we would return, and on November 21, 2008, Paul, Dan, Kirk, and Brian did.

This is what we wished they looked like. West Spanish Peak is on the right.

Usually by November, the taller peaks on the Front Range have a frosting of snow, enough to fill in the nooks and crannies, making climbing a little easier on a carefully-chosen route. From a distance and from the thin route descriptions we could find for West Spanish Peak, we didn't expect much of a challenge in terms of terrain, though snow cover was unseasonably thin. The AAS AAS-embeled at the Wahatoya Trail trailhead after some sleuthing to find it. We began our climb to AAS Base Camp well after sunset, traveling by headlamp under a moonless sky. On the climb, in thin patches of snow that hugged the daytime shadows, we spotted fresh bear tracks, and passed numerous piles of fresh scat -- something we didn't expect to see in late November, but the unseasonably warm weather had probably kept this one from hibernating.

We chose a ready-made campsite at the pass between East and West Spanish Peaks, with ample snow and a pile of dry wood thoughtfully placed by some previous benefactors. The next morning dawned cold but clear, and having gone to bed late after melting snow to refill our water containers, we took our time getting on the trail.

We soon found our way to a ridgeline that we decided we would follow for four steadily climbing miles to the summit, and set ourselves to the task. Below treeline we walked on thin snow cover and forest loam...but as we passed from Spruce forest to open Bristlecone Pine groves at treeline, we emerged into a scree field as far as the eye could see. Hope remained, however, as we simply assumed we'd find a use trail as we climbed higher, or we'd see firm, windpacked snow that we could walk on. It was not to be.

Hopping from ankle-twisting rock to knee-wrenching rock, ranging in size from softballs to small appliances, is hard work. One step is solid, but the next step could have you flailing to stay upright as a hundred pounds of rock slides tinkling from under your weighted boot. We left ABC shortly after 9am, and by noon, we estimated we'd climbed only half way to the summit -- there were nearly 1,500 feet and about 2 miles left. A brief sighting of a small flock of hearty Colorado Bighorn Sheep led by a giant full-curl ram gave us another boost, watching them fairly glide over the loose slopes, but we began to suspect our summit hopes had been dashed. We hiked another mile or so in two hours, and being out of water, searched for a patch of snow to refill from. Here's a collection of videos from Paul taken as we hiked, and after. Walking uphill on scree is hard enough...none of us wanted to walk downhill in the dark, so with a quote on Ed Viesturs' climbing philosophy in our heads, we began our retreat...but not before allowing Eric to partake in a taste of high-altitude camraderie via cell phone.

We finished our trip enjoying a roaring campfire, mountain meals, and spirits while we pondered a return, with skis and snowboards, in spring conditions when firm snow underfoot and longer days above would give us ample time to summit and enjoy the descent as only the AAS can.

Meet Sierra Kolb!

2008-11-06T18:50:00.000-07:00

Baylor Peak - Mountain of Flurry

2008-09-29T16:21:00.002-06:00

It's been a while since the Albuquerque Armchair Schmucks did anything good... so here is some cool stuff like we used to do. Also, this is the short film I put together for the Taos Mountain Film Festival last year. It didn't win, but was considered an "official entry". Got to start somewhere.
Enjoy,
Lizrdboy

Extreme Pool Party in Las CrucAAS

2008-06-08T17:07:00.003-06:00

The Zahnle's treked down to Las Cruces for some mild family fun, but the day quickly turned in to an official AAS event. Things started out at a friends swimming pool with BBQ'd chicken and ribs and cream cheese stuffed, bacon wrapped, Jalapeños. Oh yeah, there was also booze and bravado. Once we got in to pool, things turned extreme quickly!!

Everyone got in on the pool basket ball slam dunk contest. The result was a tie between Paul and Eric - though the photographer deserved all the credit for capturing such fleeting grace.

While there was plenty of danger involved, no major injuries were sustained. Eric scrapped his toe knuckles on the bottom of the pool (there was blood) and one pool chair was destroyed while being used as a diving board.

Next up: Extreme sand sledding!

AAS Plan - D

2008-05-27T21:05:00.011-06:00

Yes Folks........ Plan-D. "What's Plan-D" you say? Well it's a long and complex story starting out with me (Paul) doing the usual spring-time whining to the other members that we HAVE to get cracking and climb/ski a 14er! Well after the first plan of 5 members climbing Mt. Sneffels in Colorado fell through because Brian is getting married soon, Eric is getting married soon, Dan having to travel for 5 weeks in a row, etc, etc.. that plan fell through.

So on to Plan-B, 4 members would still do Mt. Sneffels a few weeks later because the snow was sooooo good. Then more "I don't think I can make it, I have to work" and similar lame excuses, Plan-B was canceled.

A few weeks later after I send even more increasingly annoying emails hounding the remaining contestants, Dan, Kirk and I settle on the closer trip and decide to bag the north Face of Lake Fork Peak in Taos! (I've had my eye on it for 2 years since Eric and I saw it from the Gold Hill climb)

Great! 3 AAS members and were all set......... except the week before (after I had a cold ALL WEEK thanks to my kids) Kirk emails Dan and I to tell us some genus at his company pushed out a bad patch to his systems and he's "Knee deep in a Sh*t Storm" and has to rebuild 20, 64 bit servers! So, now he's out... that's it for Plan-C

Time for yes, Plan-D. Dan is still so swamped at work he and I can't even leave Friday AM like I wanted to so we opt for a late Friday night arrival in Taos and spend it drinking in Dan's condo gearing up for the ascent!

The climb in went great and it was good to be back in the woods on skis again. We both needed it but missed our AAS bretheren... After arriving at AABC (AAS Advanced Base Camp) We took an hour to eat and gear up for the ascent and as the barometer dropped we found ourselves in a nice little storm! (who says ski season is over in May!) I was taking bearings back to camp in case it didn't let up, but in typical AAS style, we pushed onward and upward...

The climbing was difficult with my weakness form my cold and rotten patches of slippery dangerous snow we encountered along the way. We plowed on up and finally made the summit!

I was stumbling like a drunk on the last bit so Danny-Boy took the lead and stormed to the summit! Ahhhhhhh now for the reward...

The ski down was AWSOME! Except for me over-cooking it a bit and crashing in the crud-snow and injuring my shoulders, again... Here it is for your sadistic viewing pleasure.

The snow-gods smiled on us as the AAS completed one last ski mountaineering trip for this season! The angry ski demons in my head are quieted for now and the AAS turns it's attention to Mountain Biking! Anyone up for a little trip ? ;-)

Fin'

Bone-Voyage

2008-02-21T20:26:00.003-07:00

AAS Members Eric, Dan and Jeffe joined Bone buds Tony, Rich, Blake, Steve and Chris for a Bachelor Party weekend in Beckenridge Colorado. Blake brought the R/C helo entertainment, Rich brought the crazy chick(s) stories entertainment, Chris brought the live entertainment, Tony took care of the car bombs, Steve ensured all were loaded with ones, and the AAS boys brought the extreme downhill skills.

The result was a highly successful weekend with plenty of danger involved -- heavy drinking, extreme skiing, skiing while severely hung over, skiing while hung over is freezing and windy fuckin weather... And then there was Jessica and Lisa. Ah yes - those girls sure do know how to make a waning bachelor rethink his life. No pictures but we all know -- yes, we all know.

Bon Voyage Brian, Bone voyage.

High Speed Quads? We got those.

2008-01-29T21:01:00.000-07:00

Well, after a disappointing early-season effort at Wolf Creek back in December akin to a junior-prom date gone bad, the AAS put together a stellar comeback performance at none other than the steepest patrolled ski area in the lower 48, Silverton Mountain over its first weekend of the season offering guided trips. Together we made up fully ten percent of the total number of guests on the mountain last Saturday.

The weekend started for Paul, Dan, Matt, Eric, Jeff, and Kirk on Friday with a warm-up at Wolf Creek and a few turns down Horseshoe Bowl in practically untouched 10-day old powder. Yours Truly had a day shift at the salt mine, but when the whistle blew it was balls to the wall with my buddy Sean for the six-hour drive to Silverton and the first night at the "rustic" Triangle Motel. Some quick introductions for Sean, and everybody hit the rack in anticipation of the unknown that awaited us the next day. Dreams of sparkling pow, alluring snow nymphs, and miles upon miles of fresh turns danced in our heads, with the occasional oh-my-God-I'm-falling-into-the-abyss nightmare lurking in the shadows.

Saturday dawned early as SherPaul bounced from his evening's rest and set to work cooking madly, a veritable one-man beehive of activity. The other members awoke with varying degrees of sluggishness, bum-scratching, and flatulence, milling about collecting gear, eating hastily-assembled breakfast burritos, and dressing for the day. Our pace picked up as departure time neared...we had guaranteed reservations, but the rest of the Triangle Motel apparently was on a mission to get to the mountain and on the waitlist for any remaining at-large slots. There was shouting, boot stomping, doors opening and closing, and engines lugubriously cranking in the negative-20 degree air.

Soon enough we were on our way, one car at a time. A few minutes out of town up a county road brought us to the only chair, an antique obtained from Mammoth Mountain in California. Next to it was a large canvas tent...the combination check-in counter, rental counter, swag shop, and apres-ski bar. A few customary waivers that no one read, and an announcement was made to assemble in groups of eight at the entrance to the lift line.

We drew Jeremy, a wiry, bewhiskered young fellow as our guide. He quickly assessed our competence, made us prove our mandatory avalanche beacons worked, and gave us a quick run-down of all the ways we could die at Silverton Mountain. Undeterred, we paired up and waited our turn in the longest lift line this mountain would see that day. A few short minutes later and we were hoisted above the deep valley shadows into the sun at the top of a saddle overlooking the quintessential San Juan winter view...another deep, sharp valley hemmed by a sheer-walled cirque to our right and twisting out of view to our left beneath jagged peaks softened by well over seven feet of smooth powder, interrupted only by small blast craters and the occasional avalanche track. Thunder rippled off the peaks and couloirs across the valley as more controlled detonations from ski patrol worked to break up dangerous snow conditions out of sight.

All together, we headed off on a short hike up a rise on the left shoulder of the saddle to a nice bowl above a long, wide chute, over 2,100 feet of vertical drop at a fairly constant 38 degree slope. Some more instructions from Jeremy, and we were off one at a time.

A few wind-blown tracks on top, but otherwise soft turns through week-old consolidated powder...not "champagne" powder, but good nonetheless -- anything fluffier would have probably required SCUBA gear and a personal airbag to live through. About twenty more turns through a chute at the bottom and we were down. A quick hike to a catwalk a coast down to the road, and we boarded the "Powder Coyote" -- a hoopty bread van -- for the ride back to the Promised Land to work for more turns.

The second run took us just to skier's left of the saddle into the same backside valley, this time with the hopes of poaching a little powder stash next to a slide slope just before the runout. Seven of the eight made it there...Sean decided to imitate the Silverton logo and slide headfirst past the point of no return, earning him a long wait at the bottom of a chowdery chute as the seven AAS members made turns in knee-deep powder on a 40-degree slope for the remaining 400 feet of the 1,700-foot run. Back to the Powder Coyote. Matt, unfortunately, was utterly blown from working hard for his turns and decided to sit out a run at the bottom.

Nearing lunch time, we decided to hike to the top of our next run, then break for lunch. This hike took us from the top of the lift line on our high-speed quadriceps up about 500 feet to a small flat spot where we enjoyed a calm, comfortable lunch perched high above the valley at about 12,600 feet.

We suited back up and made one small push around a pinnacle, and there it was...the most amazing 10-foot thick cornice hanging over a mandatory 20-foot drop into a chute of the most dizzying steepness...above the most tantalizing expanse of untouched snow. Good thing there was a cut into the cornice a little farther down. The drawback? Jeremy informed us, "under no circumstances should you go straight in. You need to make two quick turns, and it's all gravy. Totally reasonable."

Yes, totally reasonable. Paul, practically bouncing up and down in anticipation, was straining to be the first one in. I was resigned to give it a shot...the first turn would have been heel-side for me, sort of blind, but I figured I could whip it around and plow a bit in the hard snow at the top if I needed to before turn number two beneath the behemoth looming over the edge above, then I would be home-free.

Just a moment's hesitation from Dan...then a squeak from Kirk, and it was all over. Jeremy herded us back down to the lunch spot for a more sensible entry. The disappointment was practically dripping from Paul, slightly less so from me, but we were good sports about it and ended up with a quite splended set of turns in the best snow that day. Unfortunately, an injury in another party nearby requiring Jeremy's assistance meant we weren't getting another shot at the chute...but we would get one more run.

The final run of the day, and Jeremy turned us loose on the front side at the top of another beautiful chute. The snow was a little harder once we dropped in, but it was fun anyway, carving up and down the steep sides of the pipe. The fatigue was evident in everyone but our guide, of course...even for Matt who had been checking his watch for the better part of two hours since we left him at the bottom of the lift. A quick ride in the Coyote and we were back at our cars, dumped our gear, and clomped up the steps cut into the snow for some brewskis and camraderie in the tent. A couple beers turned into several, the party moved to the snowy, wild-west streets of Silverton, and a few blurry hours later the AAS was snoring away drunkenly in our well-appointed accomodations at the Bent Elbow Inn, with local beta on some backcountry routes on top of Red Mountain Pass churning away in our brains.

After a leisurely, slightly hung-over but delicious breakfast accompanied by disgusting coffee and flat, watery OJ, Dan, Paul, Kirk, Sean, and I were the only remaining hard-chargers determined to get a couple powder turns in before the AAS parted for the weekend. Twisting our way to the top of the pass, we gawked at miles and miles of neck-straining terrain shooting skyward from the flat valley floors. At the top of the pass we were greeted by sparkling, pillowy lines rising at safe angles to our left, and a few minutes later we were skinning our way up. One fun, fresh run deserved another, especially after a comical biff from Paul trying to launch a small rock drop onto a steep slope. Unfortunately, the group split trying to find a better run, and neither ended up with anything worth discussing, so we called it a day., and brought to an end a superb 2008 AAS Wolf Cr...er, Silverton Summit.

We'll be back...oh, yes...we'll be back.

Let it be so recorded, this twenty-ninth day of January, in the two thousand and eighth year of the Common Era.

Happy Holidays

2007-12-28T07:49:00.000-07:00

Happy Holidays from your local AAS:

Check this out!

Plan E

2007-12-20T10:19:00.000-07:00

Wolf Creek DisAASter '07
"I need some pain and suffering. Life's just been too [good] lately." - Eric, November 8, 2007

The plan was grand from the start, as all AAS weekend plans are, yet we kept it simple. After approximately 63 emails shortly following a brief discussion at the Taos Mountain Film Festival, it was finally decided that the AAS would kick off the ’07-’08 winter season with an ascent of one or both of the Spanish Peaks, two towering granite stocks soaring over 6,000 feet above the plains in south-central Colorado on the fringe of the Sangre de Cristos. Conditions permitting, we planned to arrive at the Wahatoya trailhead south of La Veta late on Friday, hike/snowshoe/skin to the 10,300ft saddle between the mountains, probably in the dark, and climb 13,625ft West Spanish Peak on Saturday, followed either with some powder turns or an ascent of 12,683ft East Spanish Peak and the hike/snowshoe/downhill glissé back to the cars on Sunday.

That was Plan A.

Plan B was a more traditional ski trip to either Wolf Creek or Crested Butte should winter conditions preclude a safe ascent of the Spanish Peaks. Simple. A win-win weekend, really.

In hindsight, we knew there was really nothing wrong with Plan A. The weather didn’t look that bad for the Spanish Peaks…but there was just so much powder to be had at Wolf Creek. Epic powder. Seven feet of pillowy cold smoke that really belonged in Alaska, especially considering it was the second week of December, and just two weeks prior there had been nary enough to gather a snowball between Wolf Creek and Winter Park. Seven Feet of free Warren Miller Pow jetting in a great white snowgasm from beneath our feet as we carved up to our chests on the Powerline, or perhaps with a nominal fee, beneath Alberta Peak. You see where I’m going with this. Plan B it was.

…Except Plan B wasn’t really good enough. You see, Eric really needed some pain and suffering. Nobody really likes winter camping. Even fewer like winter camping in a 4-person, freestanding 3-season tent in blizzard accumulations measuring around two inches per hour. So, Plan B was enhanced to include a snowshoe/skin in from the traditional Powerline parking area near Wolf Creek Pass and establishing ABC near the top of the Powerline run. After all, powder turns in SEVEN FEET of heaven might be free, but should never come cheap.

We should have known when a) I managed to be almost two hours late meeting Paul and Eric prior to departure due to a funeral service, b) under withering verbal abuse from Paul (albeit in ignorance at the cause of my lateness), I managed to leave my snowboard boots in my back seat and neglect to bring my bivy to cover my non-waterproof down sleeping bag in the transfer of equipment to Paul’s rented seXTerra, c) Dan and Kirk reported that the Powerline parking lot wasn’t just snowy, it was in fact under that same Seven Feet of Creamy Pow-tang. But of course, we pressed on. There was always Plan C.

Plan C was in essence a modified Plan B. After all, no plan survives its first contact with the enemy. There are fog and friction, and these necessitate changes to the plan. So, Dan and Kirk scoured tiny South Fork, Colorado for a hotel room that looked nice, wasn’t the cheapest in town, and had the worst-smelling sulfur-infused tap water they could find. They were successful in their quest, and obtained a room at the Lonesome Dove Inn. Eric, Paul, and I joined them just shy of 10pm after a stop in Alamosa for some delicious Kentucky Previously Fried And Then Microwaved Chicken. There were leftovers.

Saturday dawned a slushy gray muck in South Fork, promising better things for the pass a few miles up the road. I of course needed to acquire some snowboard boots…so it was off to the ski area to see what I could come up with. I was on track for a rental pair when I let slip that we were hiking the Powerline all day as well as camping up there, and the guy behind the counter promptly withdrew the boots behind the counter and pointed me to the ski shop across the sidewalk. After re-engaging the mental train on its tracks, I trudged over to see what they had. $200.44 and fifteen minutes later I had a new pair of Burtons on my feet and was back in Paul’s rental on the way to the parking lot on top of Wolf Creek Pass. A quick Rochambeau earned Kirk the privilege of parking his gently-used FJ Cruiser at the Powerline outlet three miles down 160 from Wolf Creek Pass for the shuttle back. Under snowy skies, Dan, Paul, and I shouldered our packs and broke trail while Eric and Kirk staged the cars. An avalanche blocking 160 to the west was keeping the hordes away, so we were in no hurry.

Arriving at a good spot near the top of the Powerline access road, the three of us began the tasks of setting up winter camp. Tamping down the snow, setting up tents – one a Rainier-worthy North Face for Kirk and Dan, and one 4-person, freestanding 3-season tent for Eric, Paul and I. About an hour later, Eric and Kirk arrived and shortly we were ready for our first Powerline lap. At the drop-in, as the others stripped skins and locked down heels in preparation, I knelt in the snow, steaming at a misfortunate binding failure…a critical screw came loose on the hike up and was lost forever. Ever the cool one, Paul advised some MacGuyvering and in a few minutes I was back in business.

Executing Plan C was to this point almost as good as we imagined it to be. This was, however, Plan C’s first contact with the enemy. The fluff was indeed criminally-untouched, flawless, grade-A ski dope. Words don’t do it justice. Dan led us to a section we hadn’t hit in previous trips looking for a nice open glade with a steep pitch – just what the doctor ordered. We missed it, but only just – traversing below it, we vowed to hit it on the next lap.

Plan C was working great! We popped out onto Hwy 160, greeted some salt-o-the-earth electric company line engineers looking for the source of an outage on the circuit, glanced up and down the road, and saw no silver FJ Cruiser. Eric assured us it was just around the corner because the road was a little wider up there. Hanging our thumbs out was getting us no love, so Eric approached the electric co guys and bummed a ride. They were happy to oblige after we had informed them of the location of some downed poles we saw on our run, and Eric was off….

...Only to return about 15 minutes later, still in the passenger seat of the work truck and sans FJ. Hm. Maybe he parked it farther down the road? The electric co guy said he’d drive down the road to the next tunnel, and if he didn’t come back in 15 more minutes, assume the car isn’t there. He returned 15 minutes later, but gave us the thumbs down. Now fearing the obvious…Eric bummed another ride back to the pass to retrieve the seXTerra and info on where cars get towed to from all the way up there. It was having problems starting anyway, I guess. Turns out the State Trooper who had it towed was up at the pass directing snow removal efforts and gave Eric the info. We bungeed our gear to the top, piled in, and headed down the road to get a cell phone signal and call the tow company.

Turns out it was towed thirty miles down the road to Monte Vista, and apparently not long after Eric had parked it…the bill turned out to be a whopping $381. Scraping together what we had and emptying an ATM for the rest, we split the bill and commenced discussing courses of action (COAs) for Plan D.

Plan D consisted of two COAs. One, we go back to South Fork, eat a non-freeze-dried meal cooked by a professional, then proceed back up to the pass (conditions permitting), and hike back in to camp. A sub-plan of this was break camp and return to the Lonesome Dove (or perhaps cheaper accommodations with more palatable water). The second COA was to return to South Fork, eat a non-freeze-dried meal cooked by a professional, then obtain comfortable, heated accommodations (preferably with palatable water) and hike in Sunday morning to break camp and do a final lap on the Powerline before heading home. After some discussion, it was decided that the benefits of a humorous, self-deprecating blog entry (except for Dan – he only deprecates on porcelain, or something) outweighed the pain and suffering that would be endured by returning to camp. Plan D was set.

We checked into Mike and Rita’s (now actually known as A-Different-Mike and Somebody-Else’s) and proceeded to dry our gear by an anemic gas wall heater. Kirk produced a six pack of AAS-approved beer, and we sat down to cheer on Different-Mike as he attempted to knock ice off the DirecTV dish with which we needed to watch Ninja Challenge.

Sunday dawned the day we wished we’d had on Saturday. A cold bluebird morning atop Wolf Creek Pass, and the traffic was already rolling into the parking lot at the area at 7:45am. The powder sparkled, and tiny flakes lifted from the surface by a breath of a breeze hung suspended like in a snow globe. Plan D was shaping up nicely. Another MacGuyver fix to my binding, and we were ready to hike in and break camp. But Plan D was, like Plans B and C, doomed. Eric snapped his binding just as he set off, and it was irreparable. The rest of us headed off, bummed that we’d have to leave one of our own behind at the cars. The camp was something of a surprise when we arrived. Paul’s Family Values tent had buckled under the blizzard and was half-erect under a smooth, foot-deep blanket of snow, which had managed to collect on it despite being hidden under several towering spruces that had provided some protection. Kirk’s North Face was also covered, but taut as when we’d left it. Thirty minutes later, we shouldered our packs again and set off back down the approach to the cars. We passed skiers headed up, clearly eyeing our large packs. “Stay warm?” one guy asked. “Yep! Sure did,” was my reply. Returning to the cars, Paul and I revealed our intent to scrap Powerline Run #2 in favor of Plan E, a tactical retreat in light of the Jurassic-Park-style cascading events of the weekend and in solidarity with Eric. Dan and Kirk intended to attempt to regain some value in the weekend by enjoying a few lift-assisted runs at the ski area, but were ultimately thwarted by two full parking lots (it was after 10am, after all) and dwindling desire. Dan and Kirk implemented Plan E as well, and the weekend drew to a close as we headed back home.

Here's the Vid El Presidente put together!

New AAS Induction

2007-12-16T14:40:00.000-07:00

Welcome our newest AAS....Kirk. We still need to divine an office for Kirk to hold. Some suggestions I have heard to date include Executive Chauffeur or Secretary of Transportation.

AAS Does Crestone Needle & Humbolt Peak!

2007-08-03T10:07:00.000-06:00

When the tough want to take it easy, they climb a 14'er. When your AAS wants to kick it, they drive one of the worst (allegedly) 4X4 roads in Colorado, climb two 14'ers, and catch and cook their own food over fire coaxed from soaking wet wood while engaging in mildly self-destructive behavior as others whimper in the shadows, begging for scraps.

Yes, your very own AAS proved that once again, it is and forever will be the most powerful of all squads dedicated to endeavors of a certain magnitude, by which I mean those things not so difficult that one can't enjoy high-class fermented beverages, rare (legal or otherwise decriminalized) tobacco products, and various other small distractions in a relaxed post-endeavor atmosphere. And then do it all again the next day.

On Friday the 27th of July, your AAS decided to head north for a bit of Colorado flavor, settling into AAS-vanced Base Camp (ABC) in the Crestone Group of 14'ers. I had the honor of being the advance team, making an admirable (if I do say so) charge at the South Colony 4X4 road on Friday, making it about half way up before parking my Subie lest it become a permanent fixture of the landscape. 1,700 vertical feet and about 3.5 miles later, I established ABC in a prime spot at the outlet of Lower South Colony Lake at about 11,600 feet, with Crestone Needle and Humboldt Peak towering overhead on either side, and went off for a bit of relaxing fly-casting for what may be Colorado's native Cutthroat Trout. About a half-hour of that went by before Eric, Dan, Paul, and Kirk arrived fresh from some quality truck rodeo on the back of Kirk's spankin'-new stock FJ Cruiser, which apparently had little difficulty in making it to the end of the road, in respectable company with rock-crawlers, lifted jeeps, and other such Earth-stomping beasts. Not being ones to waste any time, we immediately engaged in a half-AAS'd round of Hackey whilst alternately Paul and Eric fiddled with Paul's pipe in a vain attempt to make it smoke. In a fit of frustration, Paul called on his AAS-honed ingenuity to fashion a pipe from some deliciously zucchini bread-encrusted aluminum foil (thanks, Courtney! And Eric, of course, for sharing).

On Saturday morning we were on the trail a little after six, behind several other groups of hikers, moving fast. We achieved Broken Hand Pass at about 12,800 feet in short order, and by 8am we were well past 13,000 feet on the southwest side of the Needle. Some careful scrambling, expert route finding, and superior conditioning propelled us past several other hikers, and we achieved the summit of 14,197ft Crestone Needle with little difficulty under threatening skies and drizzle. Paul achieved new heights, literally, as this was his first 14'er. A somewhat slippery descent had us back to ABC at 11:15, just five short hours after starting, surprising even we elite AAS members. (Side note: Did anyone notice that we passed the infamous Aaron Ralston on our descent? My buddy Sean and his hiking partner stopped and chatted with him after leaving Broken Hand Pass on the descent a few minutes after we did). Eric was drooling over the possibility of catching dinner from a small pond below Lower South Colony Lake, so with an afternoon to pass, we headed down to try our -- officially, my -- hand at the Champagne of Fishing, or the Cadillac of Fishing, or whatever the nickname for fly-fishing is. Three fish landed before our luck ran out at the pool, so we headed up to the lower lake and continued our pursuits there, but after a minor controversy over the adequacy of certain AAS members' knot-tying skills that may or may not have resulted in the loss of what was probably a forty-pound, three-foot Cutthroat trout (if my estimates are correct), we ultimately decided three moderately-sized Trout would be a fine addition to (rather than replacement for) our customary freeze-dried fare.

On-and-off drizzle and glowering clouds told us we were probably going to be in for a soaking...and sure enough, just before dinner we were chased into our tents by the rain. Undaunted, we enjoyed premium tobacco products, our dinners sans trout, and a fine red table wine from the makers of Clif Bar (a blend appropriately called "Climber" -- highly recommended, though they need to get the bottle weight down if it's going to become one of our Ten Essentials).

Around sunset the rain let up and our attentions turned next to cooking our hard-won trout, which had been seasoning in fresh mountain stream runoff for several hours. Paul used a secret AAS technique to produce fire from soaked wood, and soon a roaring fire was the envy of all lesser groups camped in the area. The trout was, of course, delish.

Sunday dawned clear, with stunning alpenglow on Crestone Needle followed by a brilliant sunrise. After some discussion, it was decided that Humboldt Peak was indeed worthy of a morning AAS-sault, Bravado in ample supply as we were at least an hour late getting on the trail despite gray clouds quickly building. Dan, displaying superior hubris and clear disdain for the conditions, threw aside early bonking and summited triumphantly with the rest of your AAS -- let it never be said that a piece of AAS is better than the whole. Er, that is to say, an AAS parted is...well, we stuck together, and that's the main point I'm trying to get across here.

A few hours later found us back at camp and packing up wet gear for the short 1.5 mile hike back to the AAS-mobile, followed by some brief truck rodeo on the way down and a customary apres-hike grease-bomb-n-beer AAS luncheon in Westcliffe prior to adjournment.

Here's the video Paul put together:

Welcome Our Newest Member: Major Bone

2007-07-30T16:30:00.000-06:00

We the, AAS Executives, hereby decree Major Brian Bone a member in good standing of the Albuquerque Adventure Squad. He has shown valor, team commitment, and inexplicable bravado on AAS events (he also brought a good bottle of wine on the last trip). The initiation ceremony is yet to be decided (see law 22) and will be administered at the next event in which the Major Bone is in attendance.

Lake Fork Peak

2007-04-25T22:03:00.000-06:00

Hey Folks !

We did it, last weekend Dan, Paul & Eric headed up to Taos for a little ski mountaineering! We hit the trailhead around lunch Friday. After a nice 3 hour schlog we reached the northwest end of Wheeler Basin and made camp. The snow was plentifull and rock hard. Avalanche danger was pretty much non-existant but we spent the afternoon doing beacon practice and self-arrest drills just to get in the proper frame of mind ;-)

Saturday morning dawned clear and cold. We hit the bottom slopes. After about an hour we started the real climbing with skiis on packs and kick-stepping up the couliors. It stayed cold and semi-cloudy so the Avy danger remained nill. After dropping our skiis on the shoulder we made the summit proper, 12,881 feet! Sweeeeet. We all skiied the steeps through the no-fall zones and had a blast. After a nice lunch we hit more slopes nearer to base camp.

The snow moved in and we retired to the tent. We underestimated our fuel consumption so Paul stepped up, made a fire and cooked dinner for all in the snow under a big overhang. Eric set a new record for staying in the tent with an impressive 18 hour stretch! We woke the next morning to 4 to 6 inches of fresh power for the ski out to the Taos Diner!

Here's a little clip Eric the viking put together:

Another AAS Production!

Keystone CO. - UnOfficial Event!

2007-04-16T20:15:00.000-06:00

Just got back from a few days of AWSOME skiing at Kerstone resort in Colorado. We went up with the entire family for the week but of course Paul found time to hike above the area and hit Bergmans Bowl! Here's a shot above treeline taken by a snow-boarder I asked to shoot some video (as I passed them on the climb, and they were young anough to be my sons ;-) Old dudes ROCK again!

I made the 700 ft. climb in about 45 minutes. I wasn't sure where I wanted to ski down, even after checking in with the ski patrol about where it would be safe without a partner. I was called back from a ridge by the snow-cat driver who was worried I was going off on my own over a cliff ;-) Silly snow-cat dude, he didn't know that AAS members never ski dangerous stuff without a partner and proper equipment! Here's my summit clip:

I skiied a perfect bowl down into the woods on some of the best snow of the year according to the ski patrol dudes I spoke to. Here's a final shot of me in the woods, It was soooooo awsome I really wished I had company ;-)

All in all I am VERY impressed with Keystone resort. Great loooong family ski runs and awsome extreme skiing for Papa......... WE'LL BE BACK !

Sweet Mexican Water

2007-04-09T12:45:00.000-06:00

Not AAS sanctioned, but an adventure non the less.

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=217619

J

Fools & Gold in Taos !

2007-04-06T07:45:00.000-06:00

Hey AAS Fans,

Last weekend Eric and Paul hit Taos for a little BC action and winter camping. We were destined for Wheeler Basin at the foot of the states highest mountain, Wheeler Peak. However as we geared up at Dan's house the on-off switch on Dan's beacon BROKE! Rendering Eric beacon-less... Soooooooo, being the responsible mountain explorers we are (another AAS requirement) we changed plans and decided to head up to Bull of the Woods meadow and climb Gold Hill.

We hit the trail in Taos at about 10:30 PM in a snowstorm ;-) We climbed for about an hour and a half and made camp in a smaller meadow just short of Bull of the Woods. Here's home sweeeeet home.

Paul was a bit sick for the big day, so after lots of high-octane tea and asprin we made breakfeast of now mandatory AAS pre-cooked bacon and other treats, we hit the climb. Here's Eric trying to figure out how to eat bacon with mittens on.

During the climb up past Bull O' the Woods, Paul met a woman snow shoe'er and said she and her 40+ year old girlfriends were in a yert just up the trail and to stop by later for tea, we gladly accepted.

Here's Eric on the climb:

As we approached the summit we came across a fantastic cornice. Here's Paul on the way down it:

We bagged the peak in the company of some Rockey Mt. Sheep and high winds:

On the way down we had hard and variable snow that wasn't the best stuff to ski in, so we hiked through the steepest parts of the woods and made it back to the yert for tea after a 6 or 7 hour schlog! After about 10 hours recovering in the tent, we were ready to pack-out for home.

All in all a great little weekend adveture. Next up........ an AAS assult of Lake Fork Peak ! Here' the AAS reconnaissance photo with a possible route selection in red:

Another AAS Production...... NEXT !

Check out Eric's trip report here..

Fool's Gold

Mammoth-Palooza

2007-03-14T22:14:00.000-06:00

Another not-official AAS event, but some great skiing was done nevertheless. The spring conditions were a bit powder-less, but we managed.

Praying for Purgatory

2007-02-12T21:35:00.000-07:00

Thirsting evermore for fresh power and new lines, the intrepid AAS team headed for Telluride. They were delighted to find countless acres of steep terrain, but dismayed to learn that it was too steep for any snow to stick. Undeterred, they headed for Purgatory in Durango. Would they find the ever elusive POW POW? Or would the spend another day scraping last months leftovers?

Wolf AAS Creek Summit

2007-01-25T18:26:00.000-07:00

The men of the AAS once again retreated to Wolf Creek for a Test-Fest of biblical proportions! A three day event of massive steeps in kung foo POW !

Wolf Creek 2007 !

Unsatisfied with lift accessable areas, the AAS ventured upward to get fresh POW on the Massive Alberta Peak. Here Dan shreads the peak from 11,900 feet! Luckily his film crew and sound mixers were in tow, as always ;-)

On day 2, the AAS ventured out into the PREMO Pow-Pow in the back country. Here's the team shreading a steep in the woods...

Fresh POW in Santa Fe...and we owned it!

2007-01-14T16:59:00.000-07:00

14 Jan 07 - Mark it down! Dan and Eric made it to the mountain at opening and bathed in the 18 inches of new snow! Run #1 - FRESH POW, run #2 - FRESH POW, Run #3 - FRESH POW...and so on and so forth. It was a earth shaking snowgasm! The AAS boys laid it down and shredded 12 runs before 12:30!

Let's let Eric explain it...

Need more proof? Check out the video of the spiritually enlightened duo.

War is HELL!

2007-01-05T14:58:00.000-07:00

Hey Folks,

Our latest ASS pledge Brian Bone, is still in the UAE hoping to get back in time for Wolf Creek 2007 and just sent this email that is so funny I had to save it here for all time ;-) God Speed Brian!

Esteemed friends and acquaintances,

Greetings from (the vicinity of) Doha. As of right now I'm due back around the 20th but come Monday I can submit paperwork to get out of here earlier, hopefully putting me back in the states around the 15th. Pencil me in and I'll keep the committee appraised.

You'll be happy to know my roommate and I passed our most recent monthly dorm room inspection, though we did get marked down for dust (on top of our 8-foot tall steel lockers. In the f*cking desert, oh and I'm a f*cking CAPTAIN), a very slightly dirty A/C filter (in the f*cking desert), and the presence of trash in our trash can. I am not making this up.

Some of the other little nuggets of joy:
- The entire PERSCO team (the people who move you in and out during rotations) assigned themselves to the first plane out of theater this month, without assigning anyone else except for those to fill that airplane. So, a new team, plus augmentees is being brought in to finish the job. Why did they do this? Because they could.
- You know those big plastic garbage cans with the flip-top lids? They placed those next to all the smoke pits, then made a rule that states that they're not for trash, and anyone caught throwing their room trash in them will be placed on weed & butt detail (not as good as it sounds...that's picking up weeds, trash, and cigarette butts).
- Our dorm rooms are 8x8 with two people in them. A month ago, someone decided they could put 4 people in them during rotations, so we all received another set of bunk beds (which my roommate and I immediately disassembled) and two more mattresses (which doubled our current sleeping surface thickness from four to eight inches). Then they discovered they didn't have enough sheets for all the new beds, so they scrapped the whole idea, but didn't take back the bunk beds or mattresses. Which is a good thing, because I can't find the screws any more.
- Over the summer, a particularly good-looking girl kept wearing a set of pink short-shorts with the word "juicy" on her ass, and a tank top, whenever she was off-duty. Well, naturally, someone was offended, so instead of simply making her wear "appropriate" clothes, ALL personnel must now wear either their duty uniform or their PT gear at all times. Even if only to go from your room to the nearest bathroom at 2am to take a piss. For those not familiar with Air Force PT gear, allow me to digress into a short discussion on the style and sizing of said clothing. I'm pretty much joe average when it comes to clothing sizes. I'm 5'10, 185 lbs, wear 34 waist jeans, and I have a 42 chest. PT gear consists of shorts, a T-shirt, and for cool weather, nylon sweat pants and a zip-up nylon jacket, all with built-in reflective properties. Designing these items must have cost billions, because first they needed to design, build, and test a time machine to travel back to 1984 to find the proper material and kidnap a fashion executive from Esprit. So, for me to wear any combination of the above ensemble with any degree of comfortable fit, I have to purchase the following sizes:
- medium shirt
- XL shorts
- Medium sweat pants
- large jacket.
Now, were I to buy all "large" items, I wouldn't be able to go to the gym or in fact sit down in my shorts without my cocknballs taking the path of least resistance to freedom, but that's okay because even when tucked in my t-shirt would come down to the middle of my thighs. Which is okay, because if I had to I could tuck it into my swetapants, or "Hammer pants," with room to spare. The only thing that would fit normally is the highly reflective, non-waterproof, non-insulated, non-windproof Members Only jacket.

Here is Wonder Woman congratulating me on being selected to Major. No, wait...that's my squadron commander wearing her reflective belt, which is required at night when wearing camoflage. So everyone can see you.

War is hell.

Take care, and hopefully I'll see you guys in Pagosa.

Real AAS members do more runs before 10AM than Paulie does all days long!!

2006-12-09T21:06:00.000-07:00

Matt and Dan did a little early season recon at Wolf Creek. We hiked the ridge and Dan went up Alberta Peak, until the rocks started to be hard to ignore.

Yes Paul, Alberta Peak is Ski-able right now.

The powder was hard to find, but we did find it. We explored the Alberta Lift area thoroughly, and found some great steeps and some good powder stashes.

Matt was up to his usual antics jumping....

and uh...you know what usually happens next.

Latir Peak 10-12 Nov 06

2006-11-19T10:20:00.000-07:00

It was the first winter trip of the season for the A.A.S. The goal, Latir (12,708) and Venado (12,680) Peaks. Macaca (James Wedekind) joined Eric the Viking, St Paulie Boy and Dan on his first AAS adventure.

The weather was cold and dry. There was just enough broken ice on Heart Lake for up to punp water from. It was a bit colder than we thought. It was 16 Friday night at beddy-bye time and 25 Saturday night. We woke to 2 inches of new snow in camp Sunday morning and it snowed till we hiked out.

Big Horn sheep managing not to get blown away in the 40-50 mph wind.

The summit day was spent wrapped up in wind proofing; each hiker deep in their own heads, fighting the physical and mental beating the unrelenting wind delivered. We found comfort on the ridges leaning against each other in a huddle like water buffalo, to rest and get a break from the wind! How sweet ;-)

Wind on the summit, wind on the ridges, wind on the plateau, wind on the slopes...and bad wind in the tents. There was snow on all of the lee slopes and we wished we had skis with ski-crampons to take advantage of it!

Paul facing East, performing his prayers to the mountain gods for safe passage ;-)
NEXT MISSION PLEASE !!!

Pre Season Training!

2006-10-17T21:36:00.000-06:00

Dudes!

I was training up in the Sasquash Mt's last weekend and hooked up with these sweeties for a climb up to the ridge and some SERIOUS shredding into the bowl... They were serious Back-Country nuts, no Avy gear and minimal cold weather equipment... don't know how they do it.

These chicks kicked my ass on the climb, I got to get crackin' on the pre season training... I barely got ahead of them at the top for this shot! (however climbing behind them on the way up wasn't by any means un-pleasant !)

2006-10-15T09:45:00.000-06:00

You forgot the picture of us and Simon...

Taos Mountain Film Festival 2006

2006-10-14T05:40:00.000-06:00

Eric, Kirk, Christina, and I (dan) made the trek to the 6th annual Taos Mountain Film Festival. Paul, Erika, and family made their annual pilgrimage to Taos Ski Valley to see fall colors and hike to Williams Lake. The weather was perfect for the film festival (i.e. it rained Saturday and Sunday -- and snowed in the higher altitude), so Paul and his son Karl joined us for a film or two.

We decided that this did qualify as an AAS event in that there were several AAS members present, we got to see a lot of outdoor adventure film footage, and I almost fell off a curb into a large truck so we had the appropriate level of danger requiste in an AAS event. I think we will categorize this type of event as an educational seminar/conference event.

Anyway, the films were great and we saw some really good rock climbing, mountaineering, skiing, and kayaking. I think by the end we had gotten our fill of films for the year. Really, how many times can you see some 20 year old kid rip down a 2000 foot 50 degree slope and only make 4 turns the whole way? I think 100 is my limit. I must say the tribute to Doug Coombs was nice and really showed a big mountain skier with style and grace. In the footage he carved turn after turn down the steep slopes.

One of the highlights was having beers with Simon Yates Saturday evening. Eric and I purchased signed books before his slideshow. Later that evening we ran into him at a local bar and bought him a few beers. He was really quite down to earth and interesting to talk to. He definitely had some interesting commentary on Joe Simpson and Touching the Void.

There were many other highlights to the films and events, but I am not going to rattle on about it anymore. This local film festival could make for an annual event.

Angelfire to Taos - Fall 2006 Cold & Muddy

2006-09-28T18:38:00.000-06:00

Well, we did it again! Our now-annual ride of the South Boundry Trail between Taos and Angelfire, NM.

Dan, Ian & Paul hammered out this little juant. Last year in early October it was still hot, this year in September is was 25 degrees in the morning and we were greeted with 2 to 3 inches of awsome snow! Gotta love the weather at 10,000 ft.

This year our route started at the F.R. 76 Trailhead in Angelfire and we took the main trail (except for one bad turn and a nice job of "Route Finding" with map and compass) to Taos. It was 24 miles and took us 6 hours ;-)

It was considerably more effort than normal, riding in the snow which turned to slush, which in turn, turned to MUD ! Downhilling in the snow added a real nice extra bit of danger to whole affair ;-) But by the end of the ride in Taos, it was 70 and dry as a bone! We also made great use of some duct tape and chain lube for Ians split shifter cable at the start of the ride... McGiver has NOTHING on us!

Success ! Yea ! It was an AWSOME ride. We were quite muddy and stinkey at the end of it all... but not too stinkey to proceed directly to a pub for beers and eats. The waitress tried un-successfully to seat us AWAY from the other patrons ;-)

This has to be one of the greatest rides in the world, especially in the fall with the golden Aspens and snow capped peaks. We made it with no injuries, without getting lost and had a blast. Truly an AAS event!

Truchas Take 3 - U.E. (unofficial event, Erika's not a member yet!)

2006-08-28T20:09:00.000-06:00

Were not done with Truchas yet!
My wife Erika and I set out on a questionable-weather weekend because we got Gramps to watch the kids, to bag Truchas, again!

Erika has blister problems right from the start ;-( She was psyched but I guess those boots are OK for 2 milers with no backpack only... We took the usual long route up through Jacks creek, which was more like Jacks River after all this rain!

Weird Creatures: Paul found a cool Pterodactyl eggshell on the way up... and you thought Dino's were all gone.

(ok, it was actually half of the biggest puff-ball muchroom I have ever seen! There were more mushrooms in the forest after all of this rain than I have ever seen in ANY forest)

Wildelife: Along the hike we saw these elk, some deer, marmots and the usual cast of chipmunks squirrels and all the rest of the usual suspects.

Awsome Views: We made it to Jacks river and Camp 1 by 19:00 Friday evening planning to hike up to East Pecos Baldy lake early Saturday morning. Once there we'd setup camp and go fast-and-light up to the peak, to save Erika's feet the weight of a full pack on the attempt.

Camp 1 However, the mountain weather had other plans. We woke to steady rain and lost 3 hours waiting for it to stop, fooling around in the tent and cooking under the poncho-tarp.

The Assault: We arrived at the lake by noon, setup Camp 2 and headed off with questionable skies for the shortcut over the saddle to Trailriders wall. But alas here as you can see, the clouds moved in and a few loud claps of thunder and a wall of rain to the north sent us scrambling back down to camp 2. We did 90% of the work and were only 1.5 miles from the summit slopes! As luck would have it it cleared 2 hours after we got back ;-(

Lounging back at Camp 2: Well, summit fever didn't keep us from pulling the plug when we needed to... But the weather wasn't done with us yet! After a nice afternoon around the fire, we were chased into our tent at 21:00 by a WALL OF RAIN. Now I have been in a lot of weather in my time, but never, that much rain and lightning and thunder... My little (really really really small) tent really IS bulletproof! We awoke dry and with at least 3 hours of sleep... after a long night.

Mountain Beauty: Yup, as usual in the end, the beauty of the mountains, accessed by Human Powered Adventure, is reason enough to do it all over again.

Next, in September, my annual Angelfire to Taos Mt. Bike Death Ride !

Truchas Take Two

2006-08-14T21:38:00.000-06:00

The A.A.S. was back to the best mountains in New Mexico, the Truchas. This time, the plan was a ridge run from base camp atop Quemado falls. Matt, Dan and Eric braved stinging hail stormes, munched plump, wild raspberries and dodged Smurf sized mushrooms on the way to our goal.
On Saturday we slogged up the grassy slopes of Middle Truchas (13,066) then continued on to Truchas (13,102).
With storm clouds rolling in, we pushed on towards North Truchas (13,024). A nice exciting ridge provided some fun 3rd class traversing until we reached the pass just below our final peak.
At that point, we realized the steep descent back to our camp was all we had energy left for. We stumbled down to the streams, ponds and meadows below and politely passed some high altitude grazing cows. Beef at 11,000 feet? Matt, who had spilled his mountain meal down his pants the night before (trying to keep warm while cooking...), seriously considered his chances of landing a steak dinner that night.
Back at camp, Dan and Eric wandered down the trail to find Quemado Falls. The rain fall in the area had the falls running at high volume. Very cool.
The rest of the trip was spent playing hack sack, debating ultra-lightweight backpacking strategies (waxing body hair... every ounce counts), napping and making new AAS laws. It was a very successful AAS outing.

Mt. Conness - Yosemite Nat'l Park

2006-08-05T16:13:00.000-06:00

Another unofficial event from Lizrdboy... I spent birthday #33 in Tuolumne Meadows, climbing with friends. The goal was the West Ridge of Mt. Conness.

Yucky looking storms convinced us to forego the 12 pitch 5.6 route and instead we scrambled up the 3rd class ridge to the summit.

The storm met us at the summit with loud thunder claps, but Justin, made time for an Extreme Dew pose before we scurried down to the tents

At the safety of the tents, we watched the storm blow by.

Truchas Bagged...Done....That's One Peak in the Bank...Next! NEXT!

2006-07-04T14:02:00.000-06:00

Eric, Paul, and Dan successfully bagged Truchas Peak this past Sunday morning. The trip was great and the scenery was spectacular. We hit the trail Friday evening and hiked in four miles to Jacks Creek. We arrived at the first camp around 10:30PM.

The next day we hiked to Pecos Baldy Lake for a quick lunch and to fill up with water. We climbed up to a saddle and down Trail Rider ridge line toward Truchas. We had to move fast to get off the ridge as the thunder and lightening ushered us down the trail. We got rained on Saturday afternoon, but the rain did not last too long.

The wild flowers were also in full bloom and we saw many columbine, california corn lily, paint brush, and dozens of other species of alpine wild flowers. Eric really liked the columbine.

Sunday morning we were up early and climbed straight up the side to the knife edge on the north side of Truchas, then along the edge and into a couloir and right up to the peak.

On the way back we saw dozens of Big Horn Sheep (don't tell Paul they aren't mountain goats). We also saw a deer and many marmots during the trip.

Truchas Peak - Dark & Scary !

2006-06-30T06:09:00.000-06:00

Ok, here's the Pre-Trip post. Dan, Eric & Paul will attempt a summit dash of New Mexico's 2nd highest peak. It'll be tough, because Eric has to WORK late, and we will do a reverse-Alpine Start........

What ?!? Oh, normally you start out on peak day really, really really early in the dark morning, but we will start out really really late on pre-peak night. Hike in as far as we can in the SCARY darkness, camp (in the scary darkness) then up early for the establishment of camp 2, and a dash to the summit (if the thunderstorms hold off).

So, that's the plan but we'll see what REALLY happens this weekend! Hasta!

Pablito

Skiing in Summer...anyone

2006-06-01T05:40:00.000-06:00

Anyone interested in a ski mountaineering trip June 16-18th, or June 30th-July 2nd? Or biking?

AAS Laws

2006-06-01T05:33:00.000-06:00

As per lizrdboy's last comment, I suggest we discuss bi-laws and such. With respect to how one becomes a member, I think a new member needs sponsorship from an existing member, and must participate in two AAS events, and then must be accepted by a majority of the members involved. With respect to what represents an AAS event, I think we should have at least two existing AAS members in the event, and the event should involve some sort of outdoor sporting event that includes the risk of serious injury or death. Climbing, skiing, and biking seem like a great list of specific acceptable sporting events. I am not sure we need an acceptable beer list...or maybe we need a beer blacklist. I vote that the beer black list include coors and bud or bud-like beers.

I also nominate Paul as AAS President, as he is the biggest AAS in the group ;-), however, I don't think any person in the AAS should hold more than one office.

Sundance Mt. X-Treme Ski !

2006-05-30T12:25:00.000-06:00

Hey Team,
Just got back from a quick Ski-Mountaineering adventure in Rockey Mt. National Pk. CO.
The entire family was camping there, so Dad brought his equipment in hopes of a sneek-peak-bag and some spring snow! The back-country gods were with me, as I met one of the few back-country skiing rangers (Tyson) in the park within ONE minute of checking into our campground! When I asked one of his co-workers of he was the kind of guy that's stupid enough to wake up at 05:00 am to ski and she said yes, I knew I had a partner!

Here we are at 06:00 ready to shread! My wife Erika was glad I didn't end up doing it alone, and the fact that Tyson was an EMT and said he could "Postpone Death" was very comforting!

Here's an awsome set of cliffs we skied the side of. Our high-point is the red dot (Tyson fell into a small bergschrund here ;-) No worries...

There was some nice exposure climbing up the side of the cliffs. The jump off the lip and the steep ascent back up are the pic's below...

(I can't get the Pic's to line up with the words below here so...)

1) The ascent back up the side of the cliff

2) Me jumping the lip on the left, after launching from the side of the cliff... I was supposed to yell as I jumped so we could get me in the air, but I was kinda concentrating and forgot!

3) Tyson climbed and skiied well all morning then I got him about to bite it at full speed after jumping the lip at the left... I shot late and got the whipe instead of the pretty jump... I think he's now officially in the AAS !

All in all, it was a GREAT morning of skiing and climbing. There were MANY more places to ski and I think we all need to go back there next year for a little spring ski action !

Cooke's Peak - 20 May 06

2006-05-21T16:18:00.000-06:00

Not a sanctioned AAS event, but a worthy adventure nevertheless. James "Weeds" Wedekind, myself and Matt (a shinny new Lt fresh out of AFIT) took 7 hours to make the 12 mile roundtrip to the summit of lonely Cooke's Peak (North of Deming). The hot weather and scant trails were the main obstacles. The summit was quite satisfying: small and airy with vertical cliffs dropping off on three sides. We were repeatedly buzzed by swallows practicing their dog fighting skills - impressive.

Closures in the Sandias

2006-05-21T10:51:00.000-06:00

Some parts of the Sandias are now closed. The bike trails at the ski area are still open though. Below is the link to information on current closures. Basically the forest is closed, except for picnic areas and the trails around the ski area.

Forest Closures

Sandia Peak (The Shield of DEATH)

2006-05-16T19:33:00.000-06:00

Yea!
I found this old Pic of Team AAS's ASSult of "The Shield" route on Sandia Peak... Sweeeet!
Jason, Dan, Matt & Pablo getting down to business...
There's a complete narative in the Team Rhino link below ;-)

So Eric...how is your bike?

2006-05-16T14:12:00.000-06:00

Someone needs to ask fellow founder EChedder about the proper method for washing ones' car (at a commerical site) when a bike is 'attached' to the vehicle

Biking in NM May 6th and 7th

2006-05-16T12:01:00.000-06:00

Eric (a.k.a. LizardBoy) and Dan did a 20 mile loop ride in the Jemez on Saturday. The ride started on USFS road and ended up on a jeep trail. It was 10 miles of climbing and 10 miles of flying down hill. Dan really likes his new bike. After the ride we had a toast.

Sunday Paul, LizardBoy. and Dan did two laps down the Sandia Peak Ski Area trail. Remember, just because its down hill doesn't mean its not hard. Did I mention Dan really likes his new bike?

While we were riding down the ski area Eric decided to get technical on us and show us how it is done. He proceeded to go medieval on a rock with his chain ring. Paul and Dan learned a lot about technical riding that afternoon.

New Oakleys!

2006-05-16T09:57:00.000-06:00

HA !

I'm sick of you guys making fun of my cheap sunglasses so my wife finally got me the latest polorized racing shades from Oakley! Eat my dust Nancy-Boys...

2006-05-15T18:38:00.000-06:00

Hola AAS Master!
It's LizrdBoy representing the LC. It's dry and dusty here right now and the Lincoln Nat'l Forest is closed - booo. It rained hard last night though so maybe things will change for the better soon.
I hope Cibola stays open. I left some Specialized ore on Sandia last week
and hope to return on Memorial day weekend to redeem myself.

AAS Admin's

2006-05-15T09:37:00.000-06:00

Dudes, as you A.A.S. Team members confirm your memberships, I'm making you Admins... Big mistake I know...

Also, Dan send me some Pic's of the Sandia downhill action (or post some here and add your wisecracks!)

Forest Closures???

2006-05-13T11:56:00.000-06:00

Looks like many of the forests are having fire restrictions. Does any one know if they will be closing they to bike and foot traffic like they did a few years ago? Hope we get some rain soon.

Peace
Ian

Team Rhino

2006-05-09T10:03:00.000-06:00

Team what ?!?

Team Rhino... Most of us are professional geeks and we work at RhinoCorps here in Albuquerque. I thought I'd post a link to our existing Team Rhino website. (I'm updating it in all of my "Spare Time")

Here Tiz!

New Toy

2006-05-08T19:12:00.000-06:00

Just got a new dirt machine ;-)

It's SMOKIN' I can't believe the advances in bike technology in the last 8 years since I bought my old Trek Y5. It feels like a human powered motorcross bike...

However, as Dan mentioned, "There was never anything wrong with your old bike till I got MY new one!" HA !

Here's to human powered ADVENTURE!

Ski Craziness

2006-05-08T13:04:00.000-06:00

Here's a link to our 2005 Ski season stuff....... Were working on 2006 ;-)

Here Tiz!

2006-05-04T10:43:00.000-06:00

Welcome NetHeads

2006-05-04T10:30:00.000-06:00

Hey Folks,

Here's our latest stupid-human trick. Start Blogging about our outdoor adventures. Were a group of local-yokals who love to Ski, Bike and Climb.

If we had one, I believe our creedo would be "Life's too short to be so damn serious, so get Yer ass out there and have some fun!"