The Al Paul group skiing technique:

Al: "We're skiing to 'here'"

Everyone else: "OK" (Al is gone at this point)

...Everyone skis to where Al said...

Al: (once the last skier comes to a stop) "That's everyone? OK, we're skiing to 'this other place'"

Everyone but the last guy: "OK" (Al is gone at this point)

The last guy: (doubled over) "Where?" (everyone but the last guy is gone at this point)

There were a couple of times when I wasn't the last guy, they were glorious. I even passed Al... once, didn't do it again as I was worried that his gaze (glare) might burn a hole in me.

Circa 2011:

Some Set-up: March break, first big mountain adventure for the kids (Andrew would have been 13 and Charlotte would have been 11). We're in the gondola on our first day and Al gives the family the blow by blow of the meds he is on, how bad his memory can be and what to do if he has a seizure, shows us his radio and what to do to call for help. Gulp.

The Ski Guide: Me, my son Andrew, and daughter Charlotte, up Spanky's Ladder with Al. Charlotte was nervous hiking up and started to get pretty gripped as we began picking our way along the ridge. Al took over at this point and told me to go and ski with Andrew, he basically forbade me from being anywhere near her for the descent. By the time we got to the bottom, Charlotte wanted to go again. Al would have made a good Twinkie.

Singing Pass: My son Andrew and I skied the Singing Pass with Al. Al broke a rear binding on a whoop-de-doo, tried to fix it, no luck. He started one-skiing it out and yelling at us for staying with him, telling us how we were wasting our day and so on, but the gondola briefing was still pretty fresh in our minds. Some dudes happened by and they had some duct tape, Al fixed his binding... for about 100 m; the trudge-out and berating continued. We got back to groomed and Al zoomed away on one ski, still disgusted with the fact that we stayed with him when we could have been skiing. Sure, we missed a lap, maybe two, but we have this great memory (and Andrew and I are pretty sure that Heather would have ended us if we ditched him).

Spreads off Fish-eye, tucking the Saddle, generally making skiing look easy, big huge mitts, ski-posse trail-boss, a never ending supply of stories, "speed is your friend", the best grin.

Thanks Al, we love you.

Team McCallum/Forknall