Checkin’ In On Alyeska
I discovered Alyeska last season when I was searching North America for resorts that had lots of snow. Today they’re reporting 23cms overnight with a 215cm base. The base is about equivalent to what Fernie has right now. One thing I noticed from poking around their website is that the heli-skiing and cat skiing up there is very reasonable in comparison to what we pay in the Rockies.
After watching about a dozen videos from Alyeska I decided that these two were my favorites because they capture the spirit of youth and provide some pretty great images of what Aleyska has to offer. Enjoy!
Well that was fun. from Luke Tanaka on Vimeo.
All day from Alyeska Resort, Alaska on Vimeo.
Jan 04, 2013 @ 18:57:02
I had a day at Alyeska back in Jan 2003. Interesting ski area. Being as far north as it was, the hours were 10:30 AM to 4 PM. It was still dark at 10:30 (the night skiing lights are on until 11 AM), and dark on the upper part of the mountain by 3:30 (the bottom part was lit for night skiing starting at 3 PM). But in the spring (May) they have sun from 5 AM to 10 PM.
The base elevation is sea level; it’s all of 1 km inland. In fact, you can see Turnignan Arm (the ocean) most everywhere on the mountain. I counted over 40 avalanches visible from the ski area. The place itself is fun but a bit of a “one chair wonder”. You need to get high and stay high to have a good day there (kind of like Kicking Horse) as the snow changes rather dramatically with altitude.
Abso-frigging-lutly amazing scenery.