Arctic Valley Ski Area

01/21/2025

The day we've waited for is (almost) here! We are planning to open for the season on Saturday, January 25th. We've been just as frustrated (if not more) than you all have, as we've had near record-low snowfall and lots of warmups into the mid-30s and even low-40s that have hurt our snowpack.

The tentative plan for this coming weekend is to spin the T-bar and Chair 1. Due to low snowpack at the top of the T-bar, we will have a suggested offload (with a sign) just after Tower 6. Why no Chair 2? The 100+ MPH winds on Jan 12th stripped ALL of the snow away from the top of that lift. There is no exit from the offload - just bare tundra down to the entrance to Shooter.

This will be a limited opening, but we'll be open for skiing & riding at Arctic Valley for the first time this season! Come out and celebrate with us.

Read the whole post at https://arcticvalley.org/opening-plans-24-25/ to learn more

01/18/2025

Chair 2 is up and running! We need to thank a bunch of folks who helped us get here: Volunteers Dave and John who helped us get the lift shack reassembled, and Dave again for coming back for two more days to patch the building up and make it probably more secure and weather proof than it’s been in a few decades. Volunteers Tol and Kathryn came up Thursday and Friday to help us sort out the wiring that was destroyed when the building blew off its foundation. And of course our lift maintenance staff, who fixed the T-bar, Chair 1, and found and fixed a bad derail switch on Chair 2 today, while also keeping the rest of our operation running.

Arctic Valley is always a challenge, and we couldn’t do it without our volunteers chipping in when we have events like this.

01/17/2025

Come tubing with us! We’re open through Monday, and have lots of tickets available this weekend. We were above the rain from the last storm, so the tubing lanes are running great!
Book at arcticvalley.org/winter/tubing

01/16/2025

Making progress on the storm recovery! We got the Chair 2 operator station put back together today. Our mechanics also fixed the derailed towers on the T-bar and cleared a couple minor issues on Chair 1 (like that chair hung up at the top). Thursday we’ll focus on a detailed inspection of Chair 2 and getting it running again.

We’ll be open for snow tubing Thursday-Sunday this week. We’re not ready to announce an opening for the ski area yet, but are working towards it.

01/14/2025

Apologies for the delay in updating - no internet at the lodge and no power at Arctic Valley's Anchorage HQ (our GM's home) have made things difficult.

The short version of the story is the wind hit us from up valley - funneled down between Mt Gordon-Lyon and Rendezvous Peak, which tends to strip snow away instead of adding to our snowpack. It's also not the usual direction for 100+mph storms, so our infrastructure is better set up to withstand those high winds coming from the south.

As you can see in the photos, the lift shack at Chair 2 lost its roof and was knocked slightly off its foundation. Both pieces look to be salvageable. Note that this building has been here since the lift was built in 1972-73!

The wind also took out our groomer maintenance tent. We purposely placed this behind our shop so it was sheltered from those high winds coming from the south. It withstood multiple 100 mph windstorms from the south over the last 4 years, but this one hitting us from the north collapsed the support poles on the wind-facing side.

The lifts themselves seem to be fine. There's a derail at tower 1 and tower 4 on the T-bar - both are easy to fix and will be repaired Wednesday. Chair 1 and Chair 2 look to be fine with standard line checks, but we'll do closer inspections on Wednesday once the T-bar is up and running.

Where does this put us with opening? Our first priority is to get the lifts back in operational order and do all our safety checks. After that's done we'll push out and see if there's enough snow to move around to cover the areas that need it. It's safe to assume we will not be able to open this weekend given the amount of work we need to do, and the snow this storm stripped off the mountain. More snow is forecasted for this weekend, so we'll hope to be in a place for some sort of opening next week. More to come ...

John Robinson-Wilson
General Manager

01/13/2025

Welp, our internet connection went down after this 90 mph gust at 3am this morning, and CNFAIC’s weather station at the top of Chair 2 went down after a 107 mph gust a few hours ago. We saw at least one more 90+ mph gust at the lodge about 10am this morning before bailing out.

We’ll have an update Monday.

01/12/2025

Here’s what it looked like when we got back to the ridge today - this is the climb to the top of Military. We had huge wind drifts blow in overnight - this was all a nice grade yesterday. They’re good for road building - but can be a pain to climb.

We got all the way up to the light pole between Chair 1 and the T-bar and were able to build some road up there. More dirt mixed into the snow than we’d like, but there wasn’t a lot to work with.

We also did recon at the top of the T-bar on skis. There’s not much snow up there, but once we get the winch cat up there we can dig into a couple stashes and try to cover the t-bar track.

More to come!

01/11/2025

View from the ridge! We received about 5” of new snow in the past 24 hours. Reports from a few backcountry skiers today were that the conditions were great. So where does this put us with opening?

It’s a bit complicated. Though some sheltered areas are great (Shooter, Ptarmigan Bowl, Brandy) it’s still thin at best on the ridges we need to access those areas from the lifts. We also have a large storm moving in this weekend, with forecasted winds at 100 mph Friday night, and up to 90 mph Saturday night and Sunday. So our ability to safely evaluate those areas and work with the groomers will likely be impacted.

The good news is there’s more snow in the forecast, and the wind this storm cycle should be from the south, which generally helps us. We’ll have more info as we know more!

01/08/2025

The storm on Monday and Tuesday left us some snow - 5-6" initially, which compacted and blew down to about 2" when the temperatures went above freezing and the wind picked up on Tuesday. The good news is there's more snow in the forecast this week and weekend. We still need a sizeable amount of snow to provide enough coverage to open for skiing & riding.

For more context on our late opening this season, see our latest blog post at https://arcticvalley.org/welcome-to-2025/

We've been sanding the road to keep it passable; we dumped two truck loads on it Tuesday, plus one dump truck spreader load from the road contractor, and another truck load today. We'll put at least one more truck load on it tomorrow (Thursday) as well.

Keep your fingers crossed that the weather cools down! We're grateful for the snow up here at the lodge, but having to constantly sand the road is expensive and time consuming. As always, we update road conditions at arcticvalley.org/conditions.

01/08/2025

Here's the current view from our we**am. Our caretakers are reporting 5-6" of new snow at the lodge - fortunately we stayed above the rain level for this storm. We'll have a full report Wednesday with how much further this gets us towards opening. The forecast is looking good for the next week, with more snow consistently heading our way!

Note that while the ski area was above the rain level, much of the road was not. We did sand the road today, however exercise lots of caution, and definitely have studded tires if you decide to drive up.

01/01/2025

Happy New Year! We hope it brings lots of snow - quickly.

📸: Rich Todd

12/28/2024

Arctic Valley's date night special is back! Get two tube park tickets, two individual pizzas, and two drinks (beer/wine or non-alcoholic) for just $75! The special is only good for select Thursday and Friday dates, for the 5:00 and 6:30 sessions, with reservations available a month in advance. First available date is January 9th. Book at https://arcticvalley.org/winter/tubing/

Want to make your own date night special on a weekend? Book two tubing tickets and grab food and drinks from the Afterglow Pub when you arrive! Our kitchen is open until 6:30pm.

12/26/2024

It’s not the storm we’ve been waiting for, but it’s a start!

Snow is returning at last! Snowfall is expected across Southcentral from Thursday to early Friday with the highest amounts occurring in Valdez and Turnagain Pass. Slow down and watch for snow-covered roads and lower visibilities during snowfall if travelling.

12/24/2024

Happy Holidays from Arctic Valley! We're still waiting on significant snowfall to open for skiing & riding, but our tubing operation is up and running full speed ahead, with all four lanes open. We're sold out through this weekend, but still have some tickets available for next week.

Need a last-minute Christmas present? Grab a tubing or skiing gift certificate at https://arcticvalley.org/product-category/wps_wgm_giftcard/

Thanks for your continued support (and patience!) as we wait for Mother Nature to prod Ullr into sending snow our way.

12/19/2024

Snow evaluator Griffin is still unhappy with the amount of snow we’ve received at Arctic Valley this season. As you can see in the background, we’ve only received a dusting of snow in the past week and will have to continue delaying opening until we receive substantially more snow.

The forecast is calling for a storm this weekend, though the current snow forecast is well below what it would take for us to open. Let’s hope this is the start of a pattern change that will keep storms rolling through and lead to a great winter!

In the meantime, we are open for snow tubing during the holiday break. Tickets are going fast, but you can grab yours at https://arcticvalley.org/winter/tubing/

12/14/2024

Snow tubing is open at Arctic Valley! We have tickets available for the 1:30 and 6:30 sessions today, and all sessions Sunday (11:30, 1:30, 3:00, 5:00, 6:30). Buy now at https://arcticvalley.org/winter/tubing/

The ski area is not yet open due to lack of snow. See https://arcticvalley.org/2024openingdelayed/ for details.

12/12/2024

Our tube park is open for the season starting Thursday, December 12th! Tickets available now at arcticvalley.org/winter/tubing/

12/10/2024

Due to insufficient snow, Arctic Valley Ski Area won’t be opening on December 14th. Though we got off to a strong start with some decent early snowstorms in October, we’ve had minimal snow in the past month, paired with lots of above freezing temperatures and even some rain. Realistically, we’re looking for a couple feet of new snow before we can open. We’ve gotten that amount all in one big storm before – like September 2021 or Thanksgiving 2023 – but it may also take a bunch of smaller storms to get there.

The good news is that the lifts are ready to go, we’re nearly fully hired, and staff training is ongoing. Though we will still need to do some mountain setup, we’re ready to take advantage of the snow as soon as we have enough.

In the meantime, our snow tubing opens on Thursday! Grab your tickets at https://arcticvalley.org/winter/tubing/

Want to keep an eye on how the snowpack is doing at Arctic Valley? Check out arcticvalley.org/conditions, where you can see our we**am.

For more details, see the full blog post at https://arcticvalley.org/2024openingdelayed/