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

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

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!

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 !)

You forgot the picture of us and Simon...

Taos Mountain Film Festival 2006

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

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!