Known as "Bird" Wegeman during his early jumping days in Wisconsin, Al brought his love for skiing with him when he moved to Colorado, and the early 1930's found him teaching skiing to a boy scout troop at the Genesee Mountain jump outside Denver. He sought to share the sport with everyone in town - from the fire department to the YMCA, where he began a pre-season dryland program. When Winter Park opened, he became its first ski instructor.

Between 1943 and 1949, Al taught jumping and racing in the schools at Steamboat Springs, the first coach to be hired by a public school system in Colorado. There he developed a training program at Howelsen Hill that motivated many of the youth of that community to join Colorado's Junior National Ski Teams and the United States Olympic Teams. Among them were Buddy, Skeeter, and Loris Werner; Keith and Paul Wegeman; Katy Rudolph; Jon and Jere Elliot; and Marvin Crawford. During this era, he spoke often of developing Storm Mountain for skiing - a dream that was to be fulfilled years afterward.

In 1950, Al was awarded the Halstead Memorial Trophy by the Southern Rocky Mountain Ski Association for his efforts in promoting skiing, both senior and junior, in the area of the Southern Rocky Mountains Ski Association. He also received a memorial award from the National Ski Association of America in recognizing his outstanding service to skiing and, particularly, to junior skiing.

At the time of his death from cancer in 1950, Al was still teaching skiing at Sun Valley, Idaho.