TR Alyeska, April 19 - 23 and Heli ski day

[Olesya Chornoguz]

To celebrate my 30th birthday DH and I went to Alaska. We stayed at a condo in Girdwood, small town where Alyeska ski resort is located. We skied Saturday through Tuesday and on Wednesday (my birthday) I went heli skiing. I will be posting in several posts.

Alyeska is not a huge resort compared to some other Western resorts. It has 1610 skiable acres, 3200 feet vertical. Most of it is wide open bowl skiing. Not much if any tree skiing. Most of the mountain is desinated as intermediate trails. Black diamond and double black diamond trails were not groomed. I didn't ski any of the double black terrain because they were very steep and had huge bumps. Base is located at the sea level, so one doesn't have to adjust to being at high altitude.

Day 1, Saturday. Gorgeous bluebird day. Temps were in high 40s F. The snow was great - soft, not slushy. Groomers were beautiful and tons of fun! There was some fresh powder to be had on the top of the mountain. It required a bit of hiking, which I did for the first time. Got some powder turns. I would say that the intermediate terrain at Alyeska is comparable in difficulty to Snowbasin.

 

[Olesya Chornoguz]

This is what day lodge looks like. It has a very laid back vibe and it seems like Alyeska is locals mostly mountain.

Lower half of the mountain - green slopes. Later in the week conditions were very slushy in the afternoon.

 

[Olesya Chornoguz]

The best conditions most of the time were at the top and middle of the mountain. Some of the days the top and middle were icy so one had to ski softer lower half until the upper mountain softens up.

View from Ted's Express - high speed quad, that takes you to the middle of the mountain.

This is a view from the Glacier Express lift that takes one all the way to the top of the mountain.

 

[Olesya Chornoguz]

About to hike for some powder turns.

My favorite view on Turnagain Arm (part of Cook Inlet).

Earned powder turns.

 

[Albertan ski girl]

Beautiful pics! More more more please!

 

[Jilly]

OMG, add another place to the bucket list!! Beautiful and its looks like really good skiing too!

 

[Olesya Chornoguz]

Day 2, Sunday. The weather wasn't too great - it drizzled on the bottom of the mountain and heavy/wet snow on the top. I felt really tired too, for some reason even though I skied all day and hiked for powder turnd the first day. Maybe I overdid it the first day. The visibility was poor too, so we only skied for about 4 hours that day. The really interesting part is that the slopes open at 11 am in spring and close at 6 in spring.
Day 3, Monday. Beautiful weather from there on - sunny 33-50F. I took a group lesson with a PSIA level III instructor, which turned out to be a 2 hour private lesson because there were no other people my level. It was a great lesson and I asked him in the end of the lesson if I will be ok heli skiing, he said I should be fine. So that is when I decided to go for it and book my heli ski day with Chugach Powder Guides.
I took a tram up once and some views from the tram.


This is what their double black diamond slopes look like on the North Face of the mountain. I will admit I didn't ski those. North Face is all double black slopes, steep and not groomed.

 

[Olesya Chornoguz]

Day 4, Tuesday. Another beautiful sunny day. We only for skied for several hours in the morning/early afternoon, and I took another lesson with the same instructor to help me prepares for heli skiing. We focused on pivoting and short radius turns, extension and contraction in the turns and keeping upper body still - the most difficult for me.
We didn't ski all day because we also went to Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center the 2nd half of the day. There we saw black and brown bears, moose, elk, fox, lynx, musk ox and they are also breeding bison. That was a lot of fun.

Day 5, Wednesday. Heli skiing!
I will post in several posts. The days start at 7:30 am at Alyeska hotel for safety briefing for people who are heli skiing with Chugach Powder Guides (CPG) for the first time. We start with presentations and videos about the heli safety and how to behave in the heli and around it, also backcountry skiing safety - avalanches and crevasses. That went on for about 45 minutes, than we had practical training of using our avalanche transceivers and how use to use them to search for someone if they were buried on avalanche. We also were showed how to put on climbing harness - everyone wore those in case we fall into crevasse and need to be lifted up through the belay. Then they demonstrated how to use avalanche airbag - everyone had that also. Basically it was a backpack which was avalanche airbag and in it we had shovel, harness and transceiver. After the safety briefing/demonstration was over we were told to hang out until 10:30 because at this time of the year you have to wait until later in the morning to let snow soften up. At 10:30 we are all changed into our ski boots, gear on and pile up into the van that takes us to helipad, about 30 min drive from the hotel. We arrive take out our skis and back packs, put on transceivers and climbing harnesses, make a small pile of our skis the ground and then crouch down low - prepared for heli to approach us. Then the heli approaches and lands next to us. I have to say when heli lands so close to you it's scary cause it seems like it would land on you. CPG does small groups so it was four skiers, including me and out guide. We cram into the heli back seat which sits 4 people, the guide and pilot are upfront. Then we take off. I loved riding the heli - amazing views and just so cool! Pictures and skiing description are coming in the next post.

 

[Olesya Chornoguz]

We flew into the beautiful mountains and then landed on a wide open ridge. We exited the heli and crouched down under it until the guide unloaded out skis and backpacks. I took my Savory 7 skis, although I could rent Salomon Rockettes 115 from CPG. The reason I took Savory 7 is I was told that they are not skiing bottomless powder, but mainly corn snow with some stretches of powder that's not very deep. And that was true. The conditions were somewhat variable, but out guide did an amazing job finding good snow. Some of the first few descents had icy/harpack patches on them. One of the icy patches was really steep and I fell on it. People from my group graciously helped me get up and we kept going. The snow got softer later and then we were skiing some amazing corn snow - my absolute favorite! It's like skiing a soft groomer that is soft and edgeable at the same time - so amazing! I was whooping and hollering quite a few times. There were some stretches of nice powder boot to knee high - I had to slow down a bit on those, because I am inexperienced in powder skiing, eventually I was linking short turns down the fall line in powder too and loved it. There were two times when the slopes were scary steep for me, the first time it was the icy slope I fell on the 2nd time I didn't fall and it was powder covered short but steep stretch of the slope. To get to that powder steep we landed on a tiny ridge with super steep slopes on both sides. I remember looking down after we got out of the heli and freaking out a little, it was probably at least as steep as Wildflower at Snowbasin, although probably a bit shorter. But I traversed a bit and then made wide turns across the whole slope and made it down just fine. Otherwise we skied some fairly mellow terrain probably comparable to blue slopes in Utah and some maybe black. We also skied some very mellow low angle glaciers which I really loved cause it helped me to get a feel for skiing powder without being scared by the steeps. I think the most challenging part was the fact the snow was variable - amazing most of the time, but sometimes icy, scraped up or powder interdispersed with ice chunks and icy patches. I fell a couple of times on the first few descents, but then slowed down a bit and got more used to possible snow variability, things went better.

Flying in the heli - looved that part!

Our guide - giving us instruction on where and how we will ski.

 

[Olesya Chornoguz]

First tracks.

 

[Olesya Chornoguz]

 

[NewEnglandSkier]

Wow, that looks fantastic! Good for you!
I've wanted to go to Alyeska for a while and to combine it with a trip to Anchorage to see the ceremonial start of the Iditarod dog sled race.
Looks like you had a great time!

 

[Albertan ski girl]

Sounds amazing! That is so brave and awesome of you to do this! Yay! And have a happy happy birthday'

 

[MI-skier]

What a trip! Fabulous pictures. Alaska sounds amazing. Isn't this the life?!! Thanks for sharing.

 

[marzNC]

Wonderful trip report! Thanks for sharing your experiences and pics. I think I'll put Alyeska on the bucket list for someplace to ski with my daughter in the future.

 

[Christy]

WOW. Great report. And good for you for going for it!!

 

[Olesya Chornoguz]

Sounds amazing! That is so brave and awesome of you to do this! Yay! And have a happy happy birthday'

Thank you very much. I was scared and worried before I did it. I was the least experienced skier in the group, but everyone, including guide was very nice and understanding, they helped me when I needed it. I am glad I did it!

 

[Olesya Chornoguz]

Alyeska and Alaska is soo beautiful! I am having Alaska withdrawal right now, missing the beautiful mountains which are everywhere, together with lakes and various water views. I highly recommend going there for vacation if you are considering it. The locals in Girdwood are very friendly and laid-back. Girdwood, the ski town in which Alyeska is located has some great food - Bake Shop cafe, inexpensive, great for lunch and breakfast and Double Musky for a special occasion dinner and a few others. We didn't even ski the whole week we were there - 1/2 of Tuesday we went to Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center and Thursday we drove to Seward to do some Kenai Fjords National Park glacier viewing and town sightseeing. Seward is a charming little town on Resurrection Bay, has wildlife viewing cruises. We didn't have time to go on one, but someone who went told us they went and saw a humpback whale and bunch of other wildlife. The 1.5 hr drive from Girdwood to Seward has to be the most scenic drive I had to do in my life - snow-capped mountains, evergreen forests and lakes. There is so much to do around Girdwood! I wish we were there longer. Anchorage is not particularly impressive architecturally as a city, but has good food too.

 

[mustski]

I am so glad you got to do this! I must say that I am amazed you are 39. I thought it was your 29th birthday!

 

[Olesya Chornoguz]

I am so glad you got to do this! I must say that I am amazed you are 39. I thought it was your 29th birthday!

Oh my goodness. You are right. I am so sorry that was a typo. I meant my 30th birthday not 39. I turned 30 on Wednesday. Is there any chance moderators could fix the typo? @bounceswoosh ?