Max Taam

Date of Birth:
December 10 1982

Hometown:
Aspen, CO

What is your primary means of adventure, AKA what gets you most psyched?
Skimo racing and fast and light mountain adventures using skimo gear

Invent your dream adventure by combining five places, disciplines, pitches, peaks, environments, etc. and stacking them together into a combination. Why did you pick each part?

• The day would start eating pastries and drinking espresso at a café in France.
• After breakfast I would ride some buffed out singletrack to the base of the skintrack.
• The skintrack would be at the perfect angle and would include hundreds of kickturns.
• At the summit of the climb would be a steep 3000m couloir, with perfect corn, down to Italy.
• The couloir would end in Italy at a restaurant where a great meal would await. Tiramisu would be served for dessert.
• After lunch we would climb to another summit and ski a 3000m powder filled couloir back to France.
• The day would end by eating large quantities of French cheese

Describe 5 climbs, trips, or moments that have defined you as a mountain athlete:

1. My college crew coach’s very simple advice of, ‘no regrets.’ This defines how I travel in the mountains, train and race
2. Moving to Aspen after college for a year (and now I have been here for 10+)
3. Buying my first skimo race setup in about 2007
4. Racing at the last 4 ski mountaineer world championships (only American to do so)
5. Living in Chamonix for a winter doing the Aspen/Chamonix sister cities ski patrol exchange

Describe your most memorable night in the mountains:
I was doing the Chamonix- Zermatt Haute Route. We were at the final hut, the Bertol. The hut is perched precariously on top of a cliff, with incredible views. To access it you climb up a series of ladders bolted into the rock from the pass below. We arrived at the hut under normal weather, however during the night a big storm moved in. I thought it was a normal storm for the area and that it was nothing to be concerned about. The hut seemed to shake the entire night and we could hear equipment outside blowing around. The next day we learned that the hut guardian was terrified all night and didn’t sleep at all. There were also reports of a neighboring huts roof being blown off and 200km/hr winds in the Chamonix Valley.

What has scared or intimidated you as a mountain athlete?
Avalanches. You won’t last long in the mountains if you don’t respect them!

What would your adventure partners be most surprised to learn about you from before the time when they met you?
I grew up skiing at Greek Peak in upstate NY. I have lots of memories of skiing at night in the rain on the 900’ vertical hill. Often times I would hike the small halfpipe for the entire evening.

What are your top 5 all-time favorite pieces of CAMP equipment?

1. Speed 2.0 helmet
2. Race 290 Crampons
3. Matrix Comp Via Ferrata
4. G Comp Warm gloves
5. Alp Racing Harness

Why are you a CAMP athlete?
They make very innovative gear for traveling fast and light in the mountains.

Tick List

It meant a lot to me when I:

1. Skied North and South Maroon Peak in the same day. This included a rare descent of the west side of South Maroon
2. Finished 10^th in the teams race at the 2013 Ski Mountaineering World Championships
3. Won the 2015 US Ski Mountaineering National Championships
4. Skied the 4 Chicago Basin 14ers in one day

The adventure, route or race I had to train the hardest for was:
The next race. Training is cumulative over one’s life. Everything I have done in the past, will continue to benefit me the future.

The adventure, route or race that wrecked me the most was:
12 hrs of Snowmass MTB race. The suspension in my fork failed and my arms were so destroyed that I struggled to hold on to the bars the last few hours of the race

I most want an all-expenses-paid trip to:
An around the world ticket focused on ski touring. Stopping in as many mountain ranges as possible and just going where the conditions are best

My short list of skiing or adventure goals this year:

1. Northern Norway ski trip at the end of April/ beginning of May
2. Pierra Menta (4 day French skimo race)
3. Patrouille de Glaciers- night skimo race from Zermatt to Verbier