Stories and Memories

If you have a story or memory from an Albuquerque Ski Club trip that you'd like to share on the website, you can e-mail it to us or you can type it in right here in the text box below. We'll get it posted!

Nice Rack!

Wolf Creek, 2004

To help everyone with holiday spirit, John had attached antlers with ornaments to his helmet for our Wolf Creek trip. At one point we heard a shot ring out and we were just sick. We knew that he'd probably gotten shot and would end up strapped to the front of some other ski club's bus! But thankfully, they missed him and we were able to take him home tied to the front of our bus.

John's reward (thanks James!) for all the kidding he endured was a great T-Shirt with a male elk on a snow-board and a female elk on skis both thinking the same thing about the other: "Nice rack!"

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Moon-Pie

Wolf Creek, 2003

(The three participants in this story shall remain nameless but all three of their names begin with M and they are relatives.)

M & M, after partying far too hard on Friday night were too toasted on Saturday (especially after the hot springs!) to do anything but hang in the room, order some pizza-pie and go to bed. Meanwhile, M thought M & M would be joining her for Chinese dinner out. She threw a snowball at their second-story window to get their attention. M looked out the window to see what was up and told M that it was M down below. M said, "Wait, wait! Let's moon her!" So M waited while outside, M wondered why they'd peeked out but didn't open up. Next thing she knows, there are big hairy hams pressed against the glass.

Of course, M & M collapsed with laughter but M was severely traumatized since it was just wrong on so many levels...

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Waitress Sings the Blues

Crested Butte, 2003

A number of us were having our Saturday dinner at the Sheraton restaurant. Let's see... Bill, Mimi, Mikey, Mark and his crazy friend Jeff, Russell, Dan, Ed and Paul. There's a picture in the Gallery. Jeff brought his guitar down from the room and we attracted a young woman from a neighboring table who found us more fun than her own gang (which included her husband and another relative I think - it was her birthday!).

The waitress came and asked if we'd like to hear about the dessert options. Mark responded that we only wanted to hear them if she presented them as a blues song. To our surprise and delight, not only did she do a blues number, she did it quite well! Jeff was able to capture this on his digital camera and we hope to have it on the site eventually.

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Wet T-Shirt Winner!

Wolf Creek, 2002

Gin-Gin forgot to bring her swimsuit! Hot tubs are a big deal to us and one of the best things about our Wolf Creek trip is The Springs Resort - natural hot springs right on the river. Very nice. So... forgetting your suit on this trip is no good...

Fortunately, she was able to borrow some shorts and wore a T-shirt and was still able to enjoy some good soak-time.

Now, back in the day, we used to present awards to everyone on the bus ride home. Naturally, Gin-Gin received the "Wet T-Shirt Contest Winner, Wolf Creek 02" award. And, also naturally, this information was posted on our web site on the now-defunct Awards page.

Well, Gin-Gin is a high powered professional type and some other professional person did an internet search for her for professional reasons. And what should that search turn up but that Gin-Gin was the winner of a wet T-shirt contest!

Luckily, Gin-Gin's professional status was not harmed in any way.

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Johnny's Longcut

Crested Butte, 2001

If you have a Crested Butte trail map, pull it out now. (Or, you could click here.)

We'd taken a short bathroom break from the high steeps and upon exiting the lodge, found the Paradise lift temporarily shut down for some maintenance on a tower. So we slid over to the Teocalli lift to do a short one rather than standing around waiting till they reopened the Paradise lift. At the top of Teocalli, we began discussing where to go next. Some wanted one thing, some another. We agreed to go do "Twister". After examining the trail map, we saw that there was a catwalk from where we stood to the Twister lift called "Bubba's Shortcut". It would require skating and pushing from the get-go and of course, John set out as our leader.

If you've got the trail map handy, notice this shortcut from the top of Teocalli, passing right at the very top of the Keystone lift and on over into "Peanut" and then the Twister lift. We are skating and side-stepping our way toward the top of the Keystone lift when John suddenly takes off into the trees. He claims he couldn't see the trail we were looking for so he headed for what he thought was it on the other side of these trees. We trudged along behind him...

Look closely at "Bubba's Shortcut" on your trail map then look just up the mountain on the other side of those trees we were trudging through. Yep, that open space there is where we spent 20 minutes or so wading uphill through the powder. Fortunately, John continued as our leader and did all the hard work of breaking trail. But even so, he'll never live it down... There's a shot of us doing our cross-country thing in the gallery.

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"Watch Out For That Tree!"

Crested Butte, 2001

John was leading us up the T-bar and Poma lifts to the high and steep stuff. I was having fun although there were a number of rocks to avoid... On the lower part of the North Face, I was trying to get out of a rocky spot and ended up losing it. Of course, on slopes that steep, you've got to do some self-arresting. But Mark says, "You didn't stop yourself! Those three trees did!" Well, I don't remember that, but I do recall Mark asking if I was OK and commenting that he thought I was gonna actually take out one of those trees.

I was OK, but I was a bit shaky. Everyone was waiting though, so I got myself together and took off probably before I should have. After a couple turns, tips crossed and down again. This time after I'd self-arrested and stood up, there was a four-foot pine sliding down the slope towards me. I grabbed it up and shouted a primal yell of victory, celebrating my little conquest. I carried it down to the rest of the gang and had my picture taken with it. I speared it into the snow on the side of the run and we went on to do that run again.

That time down, I decided to get the thing and keep it! I snagged it while skiing by and stuck it down the back of my coat. I skied a few runs with it that way as we made our way over to the front for lunch. Mark said you couldn't even see my head from behind so it looked like a tree skiing! Cool! I would've kept skiing that way but it wasn't that comfy (and I didn't wanna get hurt by it either). I left it at the restaraunt over lunch, took it to the motel room and then brought it home. It decorated our living room for about two months!

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Ski or Shred? It's Come to Blows!

Telluride, 2001

We got off at the top of the lift and a young snow-boarder dude and an older skier were getting verbally abusive and began shoving each other. Next thing we know, an actual fist-fight is going on there in front of our eyes! Apparently, something had happened back down in the lift-line. The skier claimed the boarder cut him off or went over his skis or something and the boarder says the skier shoved him without any provocation. I spose it was probably some of both...

People are trying to break it up, yelling at the lift operator to get out there and do something, etc. He comes out and they break it up. He also tells them to wait until a patrol comes to sort it all out. But the boarder mounts up and takes off with his pals. We never heard if they tracked him down or not, but the way it stood, the patrol only got the skier's (and his pals') side of the story...

A very different thing to see on a beautiful day on the slopes!

Warren Miller says something like, "There would be no wars if everybody skied." I spose the skier in this case might agree with the literal meaning of that quote. I say, let's broaden the meaning and agree with Val who was telling these guys, "Hey you can't fight here! This is a HAPPY place!"

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The Orangutan Insult

Telluride, 2000

Mimi's award for the 2000 Telluride trip was "The Worst Orangutan Insult to a Non-Member."

The gang was in the hot tub and there was a fellow also in the tub who was not with our group. This man was apparently quite hairy and Mimi made the comment to him, "You look like an orangutan!" He didn't seem too pleased (and neither were the ABQ club members) so Mimi tried to fix it by saying, "No, I like that in a man! Really, it turns me on." etc. etc.

I don't think anyone bought it though...

Mimi's version of the story is that her first husband was also quite hairy and she actually really does like it. Now we just try to keep her away from hairy men on our trips.

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The "Bunny" Slopes

(This story is not actually from a Ski Club trip but it did happen to two of our members and was so funny I'm adding it anyway.)

Skiing at Santa Fe...

Later...

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