ADKmike
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2020
Day 2, Sunday: Caught a redeye flight from Seattle to Anchorage, putting me in AK around 2am. This would be my first time in Anchorage, which wasn't my final work destination, but close enough to be within an hour flight of where I needed to end up by Monday. Since it was already 2am, and even later by the time I got my rental car, I did what seemed like the most logical thing, and slept in the car until 5:30am or so in a parking lot of a major hotel chain I frequent. It was a little cold, but since it was April, bearable and semi-glamping in relation to winter camping. Awoke from a half sleep, and in true glamping fashion, headed down the street to be the first customer of the day at Starbucks and catch some free wifi.
Aleyeska is about an hour outside of Anchorage, the road to get there follows the Turnagain Arm which spills out into the Gulf of Alaska. Weather was socked in and rainy, and it would be Aleyeska's closing day. The hope was for it to be just cold enough to be snow at elevation, or at least just not rain. The place gots over 600" a year, and is right along the coast, so pretty much juts right up from sea level.
I never had heard of Aleyeska before having to go to AK for work trips and looking into skiing options. I mostly knew Alaska from heli-skiing segments in ski films, but discovered that Aleyeska is really the only major ski resort in AK. Its situated in the famous Chugach Range, so while I wouldn't be skiing any big AK style lines from the heli, it was just such a great opportunity to be able to ski in the Chugach at all, it would be something I probably would have never experienced if it weren't for work travel up there. So stoked it's on my list of places I've been to now.
Pulled into the place with rain pouring, but a look at the radar on my phone indicated a flash of blue as the radar cycled around. It was going to be borderline, but I was skiing in whatever was going to fall.
Caught some breakfast, as I was super early, then headed to the tram, got ticket, and waiting for opening.
About halfway up the tram, things changed for the better. Rain turned into a complete nuking of snow, and stepping out of the tram house, it was obvious it was going to be quite the closing day of my season. Probably about a foot down, and just absolutely dumping.
After a couple hours, there must have been 2ft of fresh on the ground. Being that it was a late season storm, it was a bit heavy, but it is a coastal range as well.
F yeh. It was deep.
Visibility was horrendous, vertigo at times, so picture taking was tough. When clear the place has really cool views, according to the google images.
From halfway down you could just start to make out the Turnagain Arm and the town of Girdwood
Tramhouse and north side
Some really fun spaced trees to end the day
Then back to Girdwood to check out Girdwood Brewing, do a fly by of Chugach Powder Guides hangar down the street, and back to Anchorage before flying to work on Monday.
While at the airport I bumped into the family that owns Points North Heli. They had the hats on and I recognized the logo from ski vids I've seen. Chatted with the owner real quick, was pretty cool to meet them.
Was a hell of a way to go out on the 18/19 ski season, and a possible once in a lifetime experience to ski the Chugach.
Photos below show what I would have seen if the weather was clear. You can see the tram house/lodge I was taking some of the pictures from.
Aleyeska is about an hour outside of Anchorage, the road to get there follows the Turnagain Arm which spills out into the Gulf of Alaska. Weather was socked in and rainy, and it would be Aleyeska's closing day. The hope was for it to be just cold enough to be snow at elevation, or at least just not rain. The place gots over 600" a year, and is right along the coast, so pretty much juts right up from sea level.
I never had heard of Aleyeska before having to go to AK for work trips and looking into skiing options. I mostly knew Alaska from heli-skiing segments in ski films, but discovered that Aleyeska is really the only major ski resort in AK. Its situated in the famous Chugach Range, so while I wouldn't be skiing any big AK style lines from the heli, it was just such a great opportunity to be able to ski in the Chugach at all, it would be something I probably would have never experienced if it weren't for work travel up there. So stoked it's on my list of places I've been to now.
Pulled into the place with rain pouring, but a look at the radar on my phone indicated a flash of blue as the radar cycled around. It was going to be borderline, but I was skiing in whatever was going to fall.
Caught some breakfast, as I was super early, then headed to the tram, got ticket, and waiting for opening.
About halfway up the tram, things changed for the better. Rain turned into a complete nuking of snow, and stepping out of the tram house, it was obvious it was going to be quite the closing day of my season. Probably about a foot down, and just absolutely dumping.
After a couple hours, there must have been 2ft of fresh on the ground. Being that it was a late season storm, it was a bit heavy, but it is a coastal range as well.
F yeh. It was deep.
Visibility was horrendous, vertigo at times, so picture taking was tough. When clear the place has really cool views, according to the google images.
From halfway down you could just start to make out the Turnagain Arm and the town of Girdwood
Tramhouse and north side
Some really fun spaced trees to end the day
Then back to Girdwood to check out Girdwood Brewing, do a fly by of Chugach Powder Guides hangar down the street, and back to Anchorage before flying to work on Monday.
While at the airport I bumped into the family that owns Points North Heli. They had the hats on and I recognized the logo from ski vids I've seen. Chatted with the owner real quick, was pretty cool to meet them.
Was a hell of a way to go out on the 18/19 ski season, and a possible once in a lifetime experience to ski the Chugach.
Photos below show what I would have seen if the weather was clear. You can see the tram house/lodge I was taking some of the pictures from.
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