Alyeska

[Kimmyt]

Has anyone skied Alyeska?

Headed there with my family over Spring Break to take advantage of our IKON days there. I've done some basic research and we have a place to stay booked, but would love to hear other skier's thoughts on the resort? Any things to consider with kids? I have a 9 (will be 10) yo who is a strong all mountain skier and a 7yo skier who is a green-easy blue skier.

 

[marzNC]

Paging @Olesya Chornoguz . She's been more than once during late season.

 

[Olesya Chornoguz]

Alyeska is not a big ski resort but is a lot of fun, IMHO. The lower mountain has plenty of easy blues and greens and then the upper mountain is a big bowl basically, where it 2-3 groomed paths down and then various off piste segments that bump up. There is also some hike to/traverse to terrain. There is a separate beginner lift that is all greens and is quite flat, when it's warm and snow is sticky really need to carry the speed to not skate/pole.

I only have been there mid to end of April so it was spring ski conditions, and the North Face was closed. North Face is all double black, though not all of it super steep and a lot of wide open faces and some chutes that rarely open from what I have been told. I really want to ski North Face in good snow conditions but in late April that's usually not an option and it's usually closed.

Girdwood is a cute and funky little ski town, has several decent restaurants and a brewery. It also has a small grocery store, but it is small and pricey. I suggest stocking up on groceries in Anchorage before coming to Girdwood if you are buying groceries for the week.

Let me know if you have any additional questions.

 

[Kimmyt]

Thanks! We are planning to spend a night in Anchorage before driving to Girdwood and will hit grocery store there. One of my older kid's friends will be up there w his family at the time (his uncle works Ski Patrol on the mtn) so if the steep terrain is open hoping he can give us a good overview of it.

How are the blues compared to other mtns? Would like to get an idea of the ratings there so we don't overterrain our youngest, although I'm hoping to get her in some additional lessons during the season to amp up her skills before we head up there.

 

[Olesya Chornoguz]

Thanks! We are planning to spend a night in Anchorage before driving to Girdwood and will hit grocery store there. One of my older kid's friends will be up there w his family at the time (his uncle works Ski Patrol on the mtn) so if the steep terrain is open hoping he can give us a good overview of it.

How are the blues compared to other mtns? Would like to get an idea of the ratings there so we don't overterrain our youngest, although I'm hoping to get her in some additional lessons during the season to amp up her skills before we head up there.

I think the blues there are mellow, I mean I like steeps and Taos is one of my very favorite mountains, so it's all relative. I would say blue slopes at Alyeska are comparable to blue at Breckinridge maybe? Does that help? If I remember correctly you are from CO so that's why I brought up Breck for comparison.

There are a few places where there are trail intersections and blue trail goes into a single black, so you have to watch for that on the trail map, they are relatively easy to avoid.

I will PM you with some more things.

 

[Olesya Chornoguz]

I just PM you with some more info.

I meant to also post in a thread that while Alyeska is small, it's still fun and also there is a lot to do in the area if one gets bored skiing a smallish ski area. My recommendation to anyone going to Alyeska for the first time take a day off from skiing for sightseeing or do some 1/2 days of skiing. There is Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, there is sightseeing, boat ours and Alaska Sealife Center in Seward. There is also glacier sightseeing and winter hiking, cross country skiing - all not too far from Girdwood.

 

[Kimmyt]

Thanks, yeah we are big fans of smaller resorts. Interesting to hear you say that the blues are mellow- a few random threads on online forums mention that they are steep? I know though that skiing on a run that is over flat water can make a run feel steeper though, so maybe that is what those people mean (or maybe they are from the the midwest). I consider Breck to have pretty mellow blue runs, so If Alyeska's are similar then that should be beneficial for my daughter who is not as confident a skier as my son.

We plan on doing one day of dogsledding since my daughter is a huge animal person- thinking of Martin Buser's place for that since it gets good reviews. What is your experience with dogsledding outfitters?

Will respond to your message.

 

[elemmac]

We are planning to spend a night in Anchorage before driving to Girdwood and will hit grocery store there.

I'm no help for Alyeska...haven't been. I have flown in and out of Anchorage a couple times and have spent a night in the city on the front end and/or back end of the trips.

In case you're interested:
- Snow City Cafe is a popular breakfast spot...incredibly good.
- 49th State Brewery has good beer, fantastic food, and family friendly atmosphere.
- Moose's Tooth Pizza...really well known and always busy, but for good reason.
- Humpy's Great Alaskan Alehouse, pretty classic bar and grill style restaurant that became one of my favorites in Anchorage (the crab nuggets are delicious).

 

[Kimmyt]

Thanks for the recs @elemmac now I want those crab nuggets!

 

[Olesya Chornoguz]

I'm no help for Alyeska...haven't been. I have flown in and out of Anchorage a couple times and have spent a night in the city on the front end and/or back end of the trips.

In case you're interested:
- Snow City Cafe is a popular breakfast spot...incredibly good.
- 49th State Brewery has good beer, fantastic food, and family friendly atmosphere.
- Moose's Tooth Pizza...really well known and always busy, but for good reason.
- Humpy's Great Alaskan Alehouse, pretty classic bar and grill style restaurant that became one of my favorites in Anchorage (the crab nuggets are delicious).

I have been to Snow City cafe and Moose's Tooth and confirm that both have great food. The 49th State Brewery is on the list of the next visit to AK.

 

[Olesya Chornoguz]

Thanks, yeah we are big fans of smaller resorts. Interesting to hear you say that the blues are mellow- a few random threads on online forums mention that they are steep? I know though that skiing on a run that is over flat water can make a run feel steeper though, so maybe that is what those people mean (or maybe they are from the the midwest). I consider Breck to have pretty mellow blue runs, so If Alyeska's are similar then that should be beneficial for my daughter who is not as confident a skier as my son.

We plan on doing one day of dogsledding since my daughter is a huge animal person- thinking of Martin Buser's place for that since it gets good reviews. What is your experience with dogsledding outfitters?

Will respond to your message.

Yes, exactly majority of the blues are mellow. One of the visits I was there I skied with my husband who is a somewhat timid intermediate who is afraid of heights, and he was fine on all of the blue runs I took him at Alyeska. There was one blue run that is a narrow cat track to go around the black and he didn't like that blue run because of exposure (it's flat but narrow and the edge drops pretty far down). I just looked at the trail map - the exposed cat track that is a blue is called Switchback and it is taken to avoid Waterfall single black. Waterfall is not very steep as far as the single blacks go and is wide, but it gets icy quickly if it's below freezing.

All of the blues from Ted's Express (lower lift) are pretty mellow - so lower lift is a safe bet for blue IMHO and that is where I skied when I skied with DH. I think the 1 or 2 only blue slopes that may intimidate an intermediate skier would be from the upper lift (Glacier Bowl Express lift). One of those blues would be Mighty Mite is an exposed cat track that has a steeper wide section that's not that steep, but experts tend to ski really fast on it, I tend to avoid it when it's busy. Another blue from the upper lift that has a steeper section is Mambo, all other blues are quite mellow. If you look at the trail map the area that is marked in yellow (slow skiing zone) are all really mellow blues and greens. If you wanted to ski from the upper lift with your daughter then Silvertip blue would be a good choice - it's mellow, it's on your right when you get off the Glacier Bowl Express lift, next to the patrol shack. The view from that area is breathtaking when the visibility is good.

This is the current trail map from Alyeska web-site, I just looked at it to orient myself about the blue trails.

https://alyeskaresort.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/2020resort_trailmap.jpg

Thank you for asking more clarifying questions - it just dawned on me that it has been a while since I was a timid intermediate and I had to think about what my husband would like to ski to give you a better answer about the mellow blue terrain at Alyeska.

 

[Olesya Chornoguz]

As for dog sledding I think if the dog sledding operator has good reviews online they are probably good. We went with Alaska Husky Adventures https://akhusky.dog/ in Willow and they were great - DH and I enjoyed it a lot. I think @snow cat and her sister did dog sledding with them also.

We went with them because they were still open in mid-April, most other kennels were closed for the in between season break. Willow is a bit far from Girdwood, probably 2 hrs north, so maybe there are operators/kennels that are closer.

 

[Christy]

Sorry to be Debbie Downer and I hope you have a great trip Kimmy but I would encourage people to skip the dog sledding. As someone who has been in the dog rescue world for a long time now and has friends in Northern Breeds rescue, I can tell you that it is a very problematic activity. The best case scenario for these dogs as they age is that the get dumped in shelters, where they are very tough to adopt out because they have no experience being pets. But often they just get shot. My friend's boss who had a sledding operation for tourists just shot her dogs if they acted up or when they aged, and that is an accepted practice. Alaska's animal cruelty laws do not apply to sled dogs and people really hide behind "we've always done it this way" when it comes to things like chaining them to doghouses. There's been some good stuff written about and filmed about the industry, if anyone is interested. I think this blog post sums it up well. I haven't seen the film because I don't think I can stomach it and I've heard too much already. I still can't forget the slaughter of over 100 sled dogs by blunt force and stabbing in Whistler.

The Complicated Ethics of Dog Sledding

Front-runners in the 2018 Iditarod are closing in on Nome, Alaska, and 60+ mushers and over 850 sled dogs are not far behind on the roughly 1,000 mile course between Willow and Nome. This year’s Id…

jarusesky.com

Review: ‘Sled Dogs’ Exposes Abuse of Working Animals (Published 2017)

The documentary filmmaker Fern Levitt wants to shut down the dog-sledding industry. She makes a moving argument.

www.nytimes.com

 

[Olesya Chornoguz]

Sorry to be Debbie Downer and I hope you have a great trip Kimmy but I would encourage people to skip the dog sledding. As someone who has been in the dog rescue world for a long time now and has friends in Northern Breeds rescue, I can tell you that it is a very problematic activity. The best case scenario for these dogs as they age is that the get dumped in shelters, where they are very tough to adopt out because they have no experience being pets. But often they just get shot. My friend's boss who had a sledding operation for tourists just shot her dogs if they acted up or when they aged, and that is an accepted practice. Alaska's animal cruelty laws do not apply to sled dogs and people really hide behind "we've always done it this way" when it comes to things like chaining them to doghouses. There's been some good stuff written about and filmed about the industry, if anyone is interested. I think this blog post sums it up well. I haven't seen the film because I don't think I can stomach it and I've heard too much already. I still can't forget the slaughter of over 100 sled dogs by blunt force and stabbing in Whistler.

The Complicated Ethics of Dog Sledding

Front-runners in the 2018 Iditarod are closing in on Nome, Alaska, and 60+ mushers and over 850 sled dogs are not far behind on the roughly 1,000 mile course between Willow and Nome. This year’s Id…

jarusesky.com

Review: ‘Sled Dogs’ Exposes Abuse of Working Animals (Published 2017)

The documentary filmmaker Fern Levitt wants to shut down the dog-sledding industry. She makes a moving argument.

www.nytimes.com

Christy, I have extensively talked to the operator staff of the kennel (Alaskan Husky Adventures) we went for dog sledding and it's not like what you described above. At least at this particular kennel. This is a kennel dogs from which that race in Iditarod. They care for their dogs very much and the dogs are like their family and are valued elite athletes - that is how they described the dogs to us. They talked about how they work on training them and making sure the dogs do not overtrain when preparing for racing and do not get injured. They also talked about how they try to understand the dog personalities and understand which dogs want to lead and are suitable for being lead dogs in the sled. It sounded like a deep and caring relationship with the dogs.

The dogs that retire from racing either serve in recreational dogsledding or are adopted. The sled driver we had for dog sledding said she herself adopted multiple dogs from the kennel and she talked about how she had friends adopting dogs from the kennel too - a lot of wonderful stories on that.

And yes, the dogs love to run in a sled, I saw with my own eyes how happy and excited they were when the staff was preparing sleds for the guests.

 

[SnowHot]

@Kimmyt I have not but Phil has skied it. I know there was some discussion on SkiTalk about it a while back. I'll see if I can find it.

 

[Christy]

@Olesya Chornoguz I know there are going to be some companies that are more ethical than others, and I hope that is one. I will point out that nothing you said really contradicts my main concern (and as a longtime animal rescue volunteer what I know most about)--what happens to the dogs after they outlive their working/profit-making lives (also, the culling of dogs that don't work out). All operations will tell you they adopt out their dogs, and I'm sure with some operations, than can happen to some degree, but this is a massive industry these days--nearly all of the millions of tourists that go to Alaska want to dogsled--and it is a fact that a huge number of dogs are "disposed of" or dumped on shelters where others do the dirty work for them.

I would just encourage everyone to think very, very critically about any business that uses animals for profit. (Horses are the other one I'd red flag. They are likely to have very bad outcomes once a commercial operator can't use them anymore). My own bar is, what happens to the animals after they've outlived their working lives? If the owner keeps its retired animals on site and cares for them until the end of their lives--a ranch that I visited to do a weeklong riding clinic last year does that--perfect. If you just hear "they are adopted into loving home..."--be skeptical.