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A Mountain Mecca – Why You Need to Ski Alaska Before You Die

By Julie Brown

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Looking toward the heavens from the top of Hatcher Pass in the Talkeetna Mountains.  PHOTO: Julie Brown

Alaska.

When you fly to Alaska, get a window seat. The view is incredible, if repetitive. Snow-capped peaks go on forever toward the horizon. Alaska is mecca, and a pilgrimage here must happen at least once in every skier’s lifetime.

Contrary to popular opinion, you do not need helicopters or a small fortune to ski Alaska. With a strong pair of legs, a rented RV, and sound knowledge of snow safety and route finding, you can hike to some of the best backcountry skiing in the world from the road. Or you can spend a day gulping in views of sea and mountains from the chairlift at Alyeska.

Skiing Alaska is easier than you might think. But it’s not straightforward. Don’t expect to show up and immediately ski the line of your dreams.

Alaska is 663,000 square miles of land, most of it impenetrable. Storms sweep into the mountains with an overwhelming whiteness that keeps skiers grounded for days on end. Even with a helicopter, it can be difficult to reach the innermost layer of mountains. Alaska’s geography limits access to the few roads that traverse its mountain ranges. For backcountry skiers, that means skinning from and skiing to your car door.

Of course, if you have an extra few thousand dollars stashed in a savings account or a mattress, definitely spend that on heli skiing. It’s the best thing in the world.

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Alaskan homegrown Robin McElroy milks a beauty turn at Alyeska ski resort, which rises straight up from the sea.  PHOTO: Julie Brown

The Skiing

Stick to the passes—Turnagain Pass, Hatcher Pass, Thompson Pass. Turnagain, near Girdwood, is in the Kenai Range. Hatcher Pass is in the Talkeetna Range. Thompson Pass, perhaps the most well-known for skiing, is in the Chugach. All offer a different ski experience.

Turnagain Pass, off the Seward Highway southeast of Anchorage, is a playground for locals. One side of the highway is reserved for snowmobiles, the other for human-powered touring. That separation between motors and muscle was appreciated on a sunny afternoon in March. My group skinned in silence, never crossing a sled track, though we could hear the echoes from two-stroke engines revving across the road. The skinning was slow and steady, but not as difficult as I had thought it would be. Starting at sea level definitely helps. We reached the tree line a thousand or so feet from the car, and climbed a ridge that led to an inner sanctuary of spines and ramps—the kind of terrain I recognized from ski movies.

Turnagain offers a full buffet of skiing for all abilities. Lines that will push your limits and fears, but also soft and low-angle pow perfect for hippy turns. I prefer the latter, and milked as many turns as I could in the golden light and sugary snow.

Hatcher Pass is northwest of Anchorage. The Talkeetnas, which look very different from Turnagain, are marked with granite rock spires and rock-lined couloirs. Alaskans struck gold here in the early 1900s, and miners were the first to ski these slopes. Today, it’s a backcountry haven. It typically gets less snow than the other passes and it’s vulnerable to wind scouring. But when it’s good, skiers drive up from Anchorage early to farm powder 8s and tick lines off the aptly named wall, “Gnar to the Car.”

Thompson Pass, above Valdez, is both the most crowded and the most classic. The World Extreme Ski Championships arrived in Valdez in the early ’90s and kicked off the Alaskan ski craze, showing the world what was possible on these mountains. Doug Coombs and Dean Cummings started the first heli ski operations in Alaska here. Today, heli ski companies, snowmobilers, and backcountry skiers fight for first tracks. But it’s a big place, so you can still find a slice of solitude—especially if you saved a few dollars for a heli bump. The mountains are higher than Turnagain and Hatcher, so they get more snow, and they rise out of the road, direct and steep. Thompson Pass is the picture in your dreams of skiing Alaska.

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The road to Valdez is long and straight, with views of mountains that look like thunderheads. Pictured, the Saint Elias Mountains rise out of nowhere.  PHOTO: Julie Brown

The Journey

Start in Anchorage, but get out of there as fast as possible. Drive an hour down the Seward Highway past Girdwood to Turnagain Pass. The road follows the shoreline of the Turnagain Arm, an inlet of seawater that divides the Chugach from the Kenai Mountains. Turnagain Pass is located in the latter. Morning on this road is stunning. The water is still enough to hold a mirror image of the mountains. A temperate rainforest grows from the shore to the lower elevations of the snow-capped peaks. Sometimes, whales swim up the Arm.

Girdwood and Alyeska are worthy destinations for a day of resort skiing or to spend the night while exploring Turnagain. In a state known for oil and natural resource extraction, Girdwood is the one tiny town where skiers feel at home and a ski resort offers high-speed chairs and well-kept ski runs. The locals work at the resort or at Chugach Heli Skiing in the winter. Come summer, they fish or work construction. Land is cheap here, opportunity plentiful, seasonal jobs abundant. Girdwood is the home of the liberals, the environmentalists, the creatives, the mountaineers, the explorers, and the lovers of nature. It is a tourist destination and idyllic, where places like Valdez, Fairbanks, and Anchorage feel more like military and oil towns.

To get to Hatcher Pass, drive back up Highway One toward the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, known for growing produce, including giant pumpkins and cabbage in the summer thanks to 24-hours of solstice daylight. Turn onto Fishhook Road, and follow that up to Independence Mine. Park the car, slap skins on skis, and go. The skin tracks start at the road and follow steep, swift routes up the slope.

Thompson Pass is a beautiful five-hour drive from Anchorage, past glaciers and the interior Chugach. Take Highway One and turn right at Glenallen to follow the Alyeska Pipeline—a reminder of Alaska’s black gold—up and over Thompson Pass to Valdez. There is a ton of skiing here, so do your research. One book, Alaska Backcountry Skiing: Valdez and Thompson Pass, will get you started.

I don’t recommend staying in Valdez. It’s an oil town, not a ski town. Most skiers spend as little time in town as possible. That said, hotels are fairly cheap here. And the Fat Mermaid serves decent fish and chips.

Rather, rent an RV that you can park in a pullout off the highway for DIY slopeside accommodations. The RV rental business is big in the summertime, but with tourism down in the winter, you can find a pretty decent deal.

Gas is cheap. Stock up on groceries in Anchorage. And time this trip for the late spring. Weather is never a guarantee, so allow time to wait out a few storms. There will be down days to drink whiskey in the bars and play cards. But when the sky pops blue, the light lasts until late at night, so you have time to climb the biggest mountains of your life.

The biggest climb of my life involved a very steep skin track that hugged the shadow line between a concave face in the shade and a sun-baked southern exposure. I focused on my breath. The snow was soft. The kick turns were angled high and sharp.

The higher I climbed the more the view expanded and the deeper into the valley I could see—layers upon layers of vertical wrinkles and creases in the mountains under a blue sky.

It felt surreal. I paused to soak in the moment: I’m in Alaska.

 

Julie Brown is a Tahoe native who loves to ski. She is a freelance writer and the Associate Editor at Powder Magazine. When she’s not in the mountains, you can find her on the beach and swimming in the Pacific Ocean. 

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