Al Ossinger

    A native of Seattle, Al received a degree in chemistry from Stanford University and did graduate work at the University of Boulder where he became involved in the CU mountain recreation program, eventually spending 13 summers as a guide. He joined the Boulder group of the CMC in 1960 and has been a hike leader since 1964, leading A, B, C, D, backpack and snowshoe hikes. He has served on the Denver Group Council and has been chair of the State Conservation and State Safety and Leadership Committees, and CMC president in 1986. He joined the CMCF board in 1987 and was board chair in 1990-1992, as well as serving currently in that capacity. He is the chair of the academic awards committee and has been in charge of the program to produce brochures on mountain lightning storms, snow avalanches and hypothermia. Together with Jim Gehres and Giles Toll, he contributed his expertise to the CMC Pocket Guide to the Colorado 14ers, published in 1997 by Johnson Books, Boulder. He has climbed all the 54 Fourteeners at least three times. He is also a member of the Colorado Fourteener Initiative Board since 1997 and is the safety coordinator for the CFI’s trail building program. Ossinger is also a member of the Sierra Club and led national backpack trips from 1980 to 1992. He is a chemist with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency at the national Enforcement Investigations Center in Lakewood.