BLUE SKIES AND KILLER SNOW

I woke to the sounds of people preparing breakfast in the hut. Eat, get dressed and then head out into the snow, climbing the 800 feet to the summit of Bald Knob. What a view of the Elk Mountains, with a string of snow covered 14,000 foot peaks jutting up before us. Turn around and do some laps in the foot of untracked powder, weaving in and out of the isolated trees. We next ascend a different part of the mountain, in search of new powder on a densely wooded slope. The pleasure to gliding downhill weaving in and out of trees, riding on a cushion of soft white fluff! Hooting and hollering, punctuated with the sound of snapping branches!

Back at the hut and crack open the bottles of tequila. Dinner, more tequila, a game of charades, more tequila and cap off the night with fireworks that I hauled up the mountain! What a blast of a day in a beautiful location surrounded by such beautiful people!

After everyone called it a night and headed upstairs to the comfort of their bunks, I went outside to begin the nights music. I started off with The Killers performance at the Fenix Festival in Arena Santiago, in Santiago, Chile on November 4, 2007. Great sounding recording of their whole show. This was a week before they released their compilation album called "Sawdust", containing B-sides, rarities, and some new material, on November 12, 2007. They were riding a wave of popularity at the time (and still are), and therefor headlined many festivals in Europe, South America and the US that year. They're hot on this recording and the crowd loves it! They were also rocking the McNamara hut that night.

The planets align

A universe poised to speak

No one takes notice

Climb into the trees

Many painful steps upward

Lured by the powder

Cigar embers burn

Tequila and the music flow

Meant to tranquilize

Download it here:

http://rapidshare.com/files/74303245/The_Killers_-_F_nix_Festival__Santiago__Chile__04.11.07_.rar

Van Halen headlined the show tonight! I pulled out the second half of their May 1992 show in Fresno, CA, sending me into a higher state of ecstasy! There was so much tequila drinking on this trip that my flask held only a couple fingers worth, requiring I break out that bottle of red wine I had hauled up, sitting unopened inside the hut. That kept the party going right up until the end! A fantastic recording, even though it had been edited to remove all of Sammy's chatter between the songs, taking away from the concert experience I had grown to enjoy.

Behind the scenes that year, deep animosity still poured out into the open between the long departed David Lee Roth and Van Halen. According to Ian Christe's The Van Halen Saga:

Roth appeared on Howard Stern's radio show in July 1992, offering his pitch to be reinstated in Van Halen. Perhaps sensing some weakness behind the band's protest of continued happiness, he unleashed his cruelest torrent of anti-Sammy abuse yet. "Sammy is a mindless little bridge troll. Everything that comes out of his mouth is word barf. It's the lowest common denominator. It's music for children. Jimi Hendrix never made music for children. The fourteen-year-olds may have loved it, but the Beatle's never made music for twelve-year-olds." "The reason I left Van Halen was they were completely stoned all the time. How do you make music with someone who is completely stoned or copping a buzz on a regular basis?"

Needless to say, Dave's musical career was sagging, drawing under capacity crowds when taking his show on the road. After hearing the news of Dave bashing the band, Eddie replied: "For anybody to think he's coming back is just ridiculous! It was a divorce - and who wants to relive that?"

In bed some time around 1 am.

Powers through the snow

A beauty in a backpack

Tight at forty three

Eddie takes the stage

Beneath the starry night sky

Sends him to heaven

Download Part 2 if USA 1992 here:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=4I0SX0ZG