I can’t quite recall exactly when / where ( mid-nineties I suppose ) I met Al, he’s just always been a part of my Whistler world, always ready to go chase the pow or whatever mother nature served up for us. When others may not have been keen to head up to see exactly what had gone on overnight on the mountain I could always pretty much guarantee that Al was ready to roll and check it out even if it wasn’t an amazing “ pow day”. My experiences over my time here in this crazy little town certainly wouldn’t have been as memorable, entertaining or exciting without his presence. He showed me around these immense mountains, dished out the goods as it were.

Ski touring became a huge part of my life in the mountains and again Al was often my wingman along with a number of others, on innumerable trips off the back of Whistler or Blackcomb. I recall one instance myself, Ian, Dave and Al were doing a lap through an area called Golden Gloves and it was deep, the trail out was buried and easy to miss. As Ian and me waited on the trail out having noticed a marker on a tree, in the distance we saw the Paul brothers, hooting and hollering, consumed entirely by the joy of pow skiing, launch with reckless abandon over the trail continuing to ski down through the woods. They eventually realized their mistake and stopped and began the long struggle back up to the trail. It took a while, steep terrain, deep snow, as Al would say “ nipple deep on a G-raffe”. As they struggled up myself and Ian took great joy in taunting and tormenting them until they finally made it back up. Good times!

So many stories to tell. I recall myself and Al heading into our ski cabin on this old terribly unreliable snowmobile ( arctic cat previously mentioned by RT ) it would run then quit for a half hr then you could start it again. One night on our way in, it stalled and we tried and tried to get in going but eventually gave up and so we geared up and got ready to ski tour in the rest of the way to the cabin. In doing so we had to decide what we could carry with us. I remember Al had brought in an appy shrimp ring, the ones you get from the grocery store. He says “ no way I’m carrying this thing in my backpack”. I still have a vivid memory of Al winding up and firing that shrimp ring frisbee style into the night. The sled then of course started moments later and he said “ there’s no way I’m going to go find that shrimp ring!” Funny the things one remembers.

Had so many great trips into that cabin with Al. Once while we were both in there with another good friend Brad “bubba” White. He ( Bubba ) had spied a couple of narrow chutes he thought we could ski off the backside of a nearby ridge, so off we went. We had to skin up this steep slope, boot pack then make a sketchy traverse across a little powder field above some cliffs. At the time I don’t think I’d had a more frightening moment on skis. Al a calming influence “ just go, don’t think about those big cliffs under us” ya ok. The reward was well worth the risk and I’ve skied that line numerous times over the years and always remember that first time!

Another great quality of Al’s was his ability to convince tourists that they really didn’t want to get on the Gondola with us, best to wait to the next one. Of course, it was done in a tactful and gentle manner J. This allowed us to ‘prepare’ for our day of skiing. That’s all I’ll say about that! other than there is a Japanese gentleman out there that knows what I’m talking about! So many mountain memories. Spread eagles off the Fisheye roller. Flying through Kybers. Racing up the east col on Blackcomb on our skins so we could pass about a dozen people and get to Corona first. Al, “ we’re gonna get ahead all these *@%?:! “ I think my heartrate was around 220! The awesome pics taken at dawn during his grooming shifts, amazing shots. Screaming at anyone and everyone from the chair lift “ SEND IT JERRY !!“ followed by that trademark cackle of a laugh! Also, the much-appreciated weather updates as he’d be up there all night long grooming the hell out of things, and I’d wake up flip on the phone and have messages telling me how much it snowed, where it would be the best skiing or simply “ don’t bother stay in bed!”

I remember those parking lot days. I’d hop out of bed, throw the skis in the truck and head up to lot 7 where Al was residing in his late model white and green Dodge campervan. “Ski in Ski out baby!!” I’d bang on the side of the van and out he’d hop out ready to roll, the routine that entire winter! I recall this was about the time met the wonderful Heather. I remember this because one morning as he geared up outside the van he told me that he’d met a super cool girl and things were looking good and my response was “ Ya but have you told her you live in van yet? “ I believe that was the beginning of that ski season because we’d hadn’t had a lot of snow, a bad start to the season, and the posse had a good time giving Al the gears that it was his fault because his attention was on a woman instead of skiing. Right choice not listening to our jibes as he found the most amazing, energetic, beautiful wife to spend his life with. Who as it turned out used to spend her summers hanging on my home turf, small world and all that.

Been skiing together ( and golfing, sorry Heather I think I’m responsible for Al’s golf addiction ) for many, many years, in powder, slush, dust on crust, on ice, every imaginable condition, including a couple years ago in some variety of snow which resembled skiing through knee deep road slush, loved every minute of all of it. This past year was no exception with great days on the mountain and in the backcountry off Whistler, and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. I could go on and on as the good times keep on percolating up out of the memory, so many !

I guess I’ll finish the way I started by saying Al has always been such an important part of my life in the mountains and this town. My experience would not have been as rich, entertaining, rewarding or laugh out loud funny without my amazing Whistler legend of a friend Al. Love you buddy !!