NewEnglandSkier 13, I’m sorry to hear that Al is gone, and happy that Allison is well and still skiing. I’ve told this story before but it might bear repeating. You people be the juudges.
Al was a great guy. I was on the first snowcat trip to the top of Mt. Washington that he and Allison ran after Wildcat closed for the season. I don’t remember the year, but it was a trip to introduce the cat trips to the press.
Al, Allison and the captain of the Dartmouth ski team were the guides. The idea was to take a Tucker snowcat to the summit, ski the east snowfield, ski over to the top of Tuckerman, have lunch which they brought along for everyone, then ski the ravine and down to Pinkham.
Great idea, bad timing. It was the first week in April and expected warmer weather didn’t arrive. Everything was frozen. The east snowfield was pretty good, windpack over ice. A couple of people fell climbing back to the top and slid down into the rock garden, They got bumps and bruises but no broken bones.
When we skied over to the ravine. Al took one look at the ice and said “we’re going down Hillman’s.” There was breakable crust there so he and Allison (who could ski that stuff, BTW) got us down. The ski to Pinkham was uneventful.
In the parking lot, one of the group said to Al, “that wasn’t so bad, was it.” Al looked him in the eye and said, “you’re lucky you’re alive.” Al and Allison had kept things loose and relaxed on the mountain and got us all down. Several people said they’d do it again. I took the trip a few weeks later in warmer weather and it was perfect.
I saw Al from time to time at ski shows in Boston and my greeting always was “you’re lucky you’re alive.” He always got a laugh out of it. I’m sorry to hear he’s no longer with us. Please give my condolences to Allison. She may remember the guy from the Worcester paper who was one of the people who made that first Mt. Washington trip.
