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Alyeska |
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Friday, 21 March 2008 |
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – You vow to avoid clichés about the size of things in Alaska, where “big” is an automatic adjective.
It’s hard to avoid, especially if you’ve seen a few Warren Miller films with the mandatory footage of the death-defying runs down some truly awesome faces. Most of that comes from the helicopter ski operations in the neighborhood, but some is shot at Alyeska.
You can’t help but think big when you’re in the neighborhood of Mt. McKinley, at 20,320 feet, the tallest peak in North America, the one the natives call Denali.
So if I told you my big day of skiing was at a mountain with a peak at only 3,939 feet — half the peak elevation of Bear Mountain — you’d wonder about my concept of big.
A day spent skiing Mt. Alyeska was a day in appreciation of big-time skiing, for the sheer steep of it. For starters, although the highest lift-served place on the mountain is only 2,750 feet about sea level, you get 2,500 feet of vertical when you go top to bottom.
Like most ski areas with a dispensation towards the steep, Alyeska tries to downplay what quickly becomes obvious: this is a mountain that rewards those who can make tight turns on steep faces. If you’re comfortable in chutes like New Year’s or Christmas, this is nirvana, but neither of these trademark chutes offers much to celebrate if you’re timid.
The statistics might deceive you into bringing your intermediate friends along to Alyeska. The mountain lists 11 percent beginner terrain, 52 percent intermediate, and 37 percent expert. Believe the latter and the former. Doubt the middle number.
Alyeska offers 1,400 acres of skiing, serviced by six chairlifts, a tram and two surface lifts, but most skiers will use only two chairs, or the tram and one chair, to get around on a big day. The reason is that the mountain lays out in such a way that the majority of the 60-plus runs are accessible off one chairlift to the top.
On our visit last week, I couldn’t help but notice the modest number of runs graded and groomed for intermediate skiers and riders. Most work their way down the middle of the mountain’s terrain, but peeking over the side to skier’s right heading down the mountain are the many black diamond and double-diamond runs of the North Face. You enter most through gates in a rope-control line designed to keep intermediate skiers from accidentally visiting the North Face.
“We get a lot of intermediate skiers, and there’s plenty of groomed terrain,” said Summer Stone, a mountain host, “but the people who really get the most out of this mountain are the ones who appreciate the North Face runs.”
On this day in late February, two of the best runs on the mountain were open for only the second day of the season. The two holiday-named runs had been closed following a series of large avalanches, and while locals were flocking to New Year’s and Christmas Chutes, the fact that each requires an uphill hike of perhaps 7 or 8 minutes helped keep away the timid.
That left Summer and me with a “crowd” of six skiers and boarders and leaving each of us plenty of room to start our 2,500-foot vertical descents in the chutes. In little more than half a day, we’d racked up 18,000 vertical feet, which is a big day at most major mountain resorts.
Alyeska’s bigness begins with the snowfall, where more than 600 inches fall in an average year and 1,100 inches — nearly 100 feet — of snow fell in one recent season. This year’s total will pass 600 on the next storm, with most of the wet months of March and April to go.
Most of the skiers that come to ski Alyeska stay at the hotel by the same name, located at the base of the mountain, and owned in cooperation with the resort.
Mark Weakland is general manager of the Hotel Alyeska and a veteran of big mountain skiing. His most recent experience was at Jackson Hole, Wyo., where big-mountain skiers make regular pilgrimages to bow at the thrones of Steep and Deep.
“This mountain has a lot in common with Jackson Hole,” said Weakland. “What we’re trying to do now is get the word out to the many skiers that have never left the lower 48 about the quality of skiing available near Anchorage.”
Aside from the challenging terrain, Alyeska has one other major benefit: it’s located about 40 minutes outside Anchorage, meaning skiers can headquarter in the city and drive to the mountain at their convenience, if not staying at the mountain hotel.
During our stay, one of the major ski clubs from Chicago was visiting, and from the whoops of joy in the cocktail lounge after the events of the day, they were clearly enjoying their visit.
Alyeska, however, does not draw big numbers, keeping the slopes uncrowded. A big day might attract 3,000 skiers, but a big day for me was skiing the chutes of the North Face and never venturing higher than 3,000 feet above the sea.
Reach Bob Cox with comments at
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The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily represent policies and opinions of the staff or owners of the Mammoth Times. Reader response is encouraged. –MT
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Last Updated ( Friday, 28 March 2008 )
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