AVSC at 75

Little Rippers from AVSCHistory.  It's one thing that differentiates Aspen from almost every other ski town in the U.S.  Aspen has roots as a Ute Indian hunting ground, a silver mining boom town and over the past 3/4's of a century Aspen has evolved into a cultural and athletic Mecca.  Since 1937 The Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club (AVSC) has been teaching winter sports and life lessons to the children of the Roaring Fork Valley.  If your math is rusty...that means 2012 marks the 75th Anniversary of AVSC.  That pre-dates the Aspen Skiing company by 10 years.  2011 was a big year in the history of AVSC as it was named USSA (U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association) "Club of the Year" and also was chosen for the "Top of the Hill" Award from the Colorado Ski Hall of Fame.

Click 4 Pix:   AVSC at 75

AVSC Executive Director Mark Cole recently spoke at The Aspen Business Luncheon hosted by Todd Shaver.  Cole and a few of AVSC's coaches shared some of the details about AVSC's 75th Aniversary Season.  Almost 2100 children will participate in AVSC's Winter programs this year, a new record. Coaching is available in Nordic, Alpine, Adaptive and Freestyle disciplines for both skiers and snowboarders  through AVSC   450 of the kids compete at the nationally ranked team level, about 650 children are on scholarship.  Almost 25% of all kids in the Valley participate with AVSC in some capacity.

AVSC has a long list of alumni who are World Class performers and Champions.  Names like  Andy Mill, Casey Puckett, Gretchen Blieler, Dave Stapleton, Jen Hudak and more.   Currently AVSC has begat top riders like Wiley Maple, Katie Ryan, Noah Hoffman and Torin Yater-Wallace.

A long standing Aspen tradition is the AVSC Ski Day.  AVAC Day is when Aspen Mountain opens up for friends of AVSC one day prior to the actual opening day.  A $40 donation ($20 for kids) gets you out on Ajax a day before the general public.  This year AVSC day was a super-beautiful bluebird day and Ajax was groomed to perfection and ready 4 shreddy.  165 acres of finely tuned white gold was skiing like it was mid January.  Some of you may recall last year's AVSC day which was a full-on POWDER Day.... going HUGE on day 1.   Either way...Bluebird or POW POW getting out there with the skiers, coaches, parents and friends of AVSC is a treat, but you better bring your A Game.  Those AVSC kids rip!!!

AVSC is to be congratulated on their 75th Aniversary.  Training World Class athletes is an important job...especially in Aspen.  Training the 2000 or so kids who are not World Class is a special task too.  Establishing core values of team work, discipline and training will help AVSC kids in any  future endeavor they choose, weather its academics or athletics.  If you've ever seen a pack of uniformed 10 year olds ripping down the mountain at mach speed, screaming with the joy of freedom and sporting huge smiles on their faces...then you know what AVSC is all about.

Congratulations to AVSC on 75 years and good luck for a great 2011/12 Ski Season in Aspen.

CLICK 4 PIX:  AVSC at 75

Todd Shaver hosted the AVSC for Aspen Business Luncheon.

LET'S RIDE. AVSC SKI DAY 11.23.11 The Tierney's, Zak and Parker.

On the Mountain in Aspen. Yeeeeeeeeah. Click 4 pix.

Ajax: Over and Out

Ajax Closing Day 4/10/11Aspen Mountain shut it down in style yesterday with a POW POW party second to none.   AspenSpin declared the 6 inch rule in effect...and our entire staff got the day off (with pay) to shred, to get social and to celebrate another super-siiiiiiiiiiiiiiick ski season in Aspen.  Loyal A-Spinners will recall that day #1, waaaaaay back on November 24, 2010 (AVSC Day) was a snowy POW day too.  Our last day of the season, April 10, 2011 brought icy cold winds and a fresh dumping to Ajax.  The mostly local closing day crowd was expecting sunny skies and warm temps....but old Ullr will play his tricks.  Surprise.....a thin layer of freshies on top of the coral reef ---or in some places ice-rink style concrete.  

4 pix.  WINNING and BI-WINNING

It was another great season all around in Aspen.  Our auditors are still crunching the numbers, but A-Spin , who hit every single POWDER Day this year, calculates that we had between 20 -25 legit Pow days with 8-10 Epic ones.   Ajax Mountain is always groomed meticulously for  the upscale tourists, but it was the non-groomers that really shined throughout the year.   Our favorite runs skied great from Nov to April.  Bell Mountain, The Dumps, Walsh's and Trainor's skied like it was mid-winter...allllll season long.  We did experience a heat wave  in March when sunny temps exceeded 45 degrees for 11 days straight...but that was followed by some huge Spring storms. It was no 07/08...but it was waaaaaaay better than last year.  We don't measure skier visits...we measure face shots---and there were tons for everyone. 

Click 4  closing day pix: 

WINNING (on mountain)  

Bi- WINNING (off mountain)

Speed Kills...and it chills at SchneeTag.

As always the party scene in Aspen exceeded expectations and this season did not dissapoint.  There were no bomb threats, no reality TV crews, no power failures...it was just good clean fun.   The World Cup led into Christmas led into Winterskol, led into Presidents Day, led into Spring Break led into closing day.  It was a like a huge weekend but it lasted 5 months.  Sheeeeez we're tired, but as predicted....we finished strong. Basically, by every measure we killed it, on mountain and off.

 See the closing day pix. click WINNING (on mountain). and Bi WINNING (off Mountain).

Closing Day on Ajax included the 40th Annual Bell Mountain Buck Off, The Red Bull Schnee Tag pond skim and a raging indoor /outdoor rave at The Sky Hotel.  The sh*t went out of control one more time.  Its hard to describe the energy in words--so click the pix.  WINNING.   We're not quite ready for ski-hab yet, Aspen Highlands is still open for 2 more weeks.  We gonna hydrate and get ready to rock it for Aspen Highlands closing day on April 24.   Until then, we're gonna try to keep the black side down.

Bi Winning...its what we do.

Community of Life.

Summit for Life 2010. Click 4 pixThe 5th Annual Summit for Life (S4L) operated like clock-work on Aspen Mountain Saturday Night.   Over 400 (new record) up-hillers  climbed Ajax in support of the Chris Klug Foundation (CKF). Freezing cold temps, zipping winds and POWDERY conditions could not stop the skinny skiers, hikers, snowshoe-ers, runners, skinners etc. etc. from climbing over 2.5 miles and 3,267 vertical feet.  AspenSpin took the 18 minute gondy ride up top to party with almost 600 people (new record) at the Sundeck. 

Education  about organ and tissue donation is the main focus of CKF and S4L.  Learn more..click CKF.  Over $100,000 was raised by S4L 2010.  Many organ recipients and their families travel to Aspen every December just to hike Ajax.  "It's a celebration of Life, it's a Community of Life" said a hyper-ventilating and icicle covered hiker at the finish as he was greeted by his wife and grand children.   Times ranged from "sub 50's"  (yeah, 50 minutes) to more than 3 hours.  Everyone finishes.

Hijinx at the Summit. Click 4 pix.Summit for Life is a well-oiled production now.  After 5 years, CKF 's S4L has grown to include a full weekend of activities including a posh dinner  and blow out party at Pacifica.  The Aspen community pitches in with both hands.  Its good people doing good stuff and having a good time doing it.  The volunteers are well trained and ready to help.  Check the huge list of Sponsors and Partners at the CKF website. 

Want to see photos?  

CLICK  SUMMIT FOR LIFE 2010

 3,267 vertical feet later. Click for pix

 Raifie Bass trekked to the Summit of Ajax. S4L 2010.

Aspen Spun

It's all over except the Arthroscopy.  Aspen's ski season came to an explosive end on Sunday.... but what a way to go out.  A picture perfect Colorado blue-bird day greeted the revelers and rippers on Ajax.  You can kiss the Aspen 2009/10 ski season goodbye (except for private ski day today and 2 more add-on weekends). 

AspenSpin documented the POW, the PIX and the PEOPLE...

Click.  ASPEN SPUN  and LAST LAP (pix on FaceBook).