Valdez, Alaska: April 14-19, 2024

This was my third visit to Valdez in mid-April and the best yet with snow and conditions. Previously, I skied Valdez:

• 2015: Valdez - H20 Guides (skied 1 out of 2 days - 50% , Black Ops Heli (2.25 out of 4 - 55%+). There was about 50" of snow during the period. Received about a 50% refund via required insurance.
• 2016: Girdwood - Alyeska (1 day), Chugach Powder Guides (1 day), Valdez - Black Ops Heli (skied 4 out of 5 days - 80%). About 10" of snow during the period. We went slightly over Heli Hours due to great weather, but they comped us due to lodging arrangements. 80% ski days is way above average!

This trip was phenomenal! Valdez received 30-40" on from a Friday/Saturday, April 12/13, then went almost bluebird for the rest of the week - with only one slightly cloudy day (one no-fly morning). We skied with Valdez Heli Guides based out of the Tsaina Lodge. Instead of a standard full-week package, we only booked 5 days (since its end of season), but did go over our Heli Hour allotment due to 100% skiable days. Highly, highly unusual!

A brief summary of Alaska Heli Operations in Girdwood/Valdez:

• Chugach Powder Guides - OK for one day. They take all the multi-day heli groups out before you, sometimes snowier or better weather destinations. Days skiers go out last to more local terrain.
• H2O Guides - Closed. You can read about the legendary Valdez pioneer HERE
• Black Ops Valdez - Excellent. They bought a heli guide operation and constructed a lodge just outside Valdez. Their guides are original Valdez pioneers and have skied many first descents - superb! The ratio was 3 skiers to 2 Guides (Lead and Tail Trainee). Their helipad is only 10 minutes up the road, so it is easy to take advantage of a sun break. The operation used to be cheaper, but they are now trying to only accept full weeks. Review HERE
• Valdez Heli Guides. Directly on Thompson Pass based at the historic restored TsainaLodge. The lodge is excellent but small and incredibly expensive during heli season. Most skiers will stay down in Valdez and commute up everyday 30-40 minutes. However, this provides access to the backside of Chugach, which can remain sunny.

As stated, we had incredible luck with weather and snow conditions in Valdez - 100% fly week is almost unheard of in the Chugach. However, April is an optimal time to visit since your daylight hours are off the chart. It's easy to start at 2/3 pm and almost get a full day of heli-skiing. For example, daylight hours in Valdez in mid-April are 6:30 am to 9 pm. Also, the terrain is unlimited! One day, we were almost 50 miles deep into the Chugach - unreal! Stability improved over the week so that we could tackle steeper lines and bigger mountains. Also, the guide starts to have confidence in your abilities and feels comfortable taking you on the steeper stuff.

Valdez Terrain
A set of mountains in the Chugach rise above the others, and they are known as the Big Five:
Article describing each (pictures lost): FreeSkier Article HERE

1. SPHINX
2. PONTOON
3. METEORITE
4. DIMOND
5. TUSK

Some of these are just off-limits to only true extreme skiers with heavy planning, and some are accessible to mere mortals. I have skied:

• Dimond - This year, 2024, with Valdez Heli Guides. It's a 6000 vertical mountain in the backyard of the Tsaina Lodge on Thompson Pass
• Meteorite - Skied in 2016 with Black Ops. It's less steep than these photos. HERE
• Tusk - Skied in 2015 with H2O Guides - specifically some shoulders of the massif (not the summit) while doing runs in The Valley of The Tusk.

Valdez Mountain Guides Heli Map. Over the years, we have skied most of the sectors/mountains in the middle and right side.



I will post some photos punctuated by ski or travel days. I asked our guide the names of runs and mountains that we skied and texted them to myself, but I accidentally deleted them. I still have SkiTracks recordings of where we skied.


Travel to Valdez, AK: Sunday, April 13, 2024.
Travel to Valdez is relatively straightforward from the West Coast. Direct flights from San Francisco (me) and Denver (my brother and friend Josh) on United and Alaska arrive around noon in Anchorage. Generally winter flights to Anchorage are pretty reasonable $ price or FF miles - not much more than SLC or Denver and less than more remote Rockies destinations.

In the first year, 2015, we did Ravn Air flights from Anchorage to Valdez - great views of the Chugach! However, these flights are unreliable, and we needed a car to commute from Valdez Town to Thompson Pass/Tsaina Lodge every day, so we made the epic road trip from Anchorage to Valdez. It's a beautiful drive, seeing Denali National Park in the distance, the backside of the Chugach, St. Elias National Park, and the Copper River (home to the best Salmon in North America!) Lots of wildlife visible - moose and black bears. We previously rented a car in 2016 to get around Anchorage-Girdwood-Valdez, and it worked well. It's a relatively easy lowland 5-hour drive.



Josh and I are on the Chugach Backside/Northside, near Majestic HeliSki. The weekend storm had broken apart here. Majestic has a much lower percentage of no-fly days than coastal heli operators.




We finally made it to Valdez! Love the town, its harbor and the low tree line.








The Wheelhouse Bar and Restaurant

Valdez, AK: Monday, April 14, 2024

A Deep Day on moderate, sometimes steep Chugach terrain -30"+ new snow.

Typically, I can only take photos at the beginning of a run (after unloading from the heli) and at the end point of the run. Otherwise, I use a video camera built into a pair of Zeal goggles that I picked up very cheaply - they never caught on. I like the goggle recorder since you can see whether the camera is on/off, time recorded, etc, inside the goggle frame with side on/off and record buttons. I'm not too fond of GoPro cameras sticking off your helmet.





Run #1
Drop-offs in the Chugach are ALWAYS a bit sketchy.



Repeat Run



Another run from the same starting point



Another run



Another run

Gret steeps at the top





New Zone - another run

Into the Abyss






Another run - same start point

Back down the valley to civilization.

Valdez, AK: Tuesday, April 15, 2024

Letting the low clouds/fog burn off in the morning.....perhaps the worst visibility day.

We mostly skied on big open faces where you could let it rip—excellent high-speed powder skiing. It's nice not to have too many blind rollovers because you cannot scope the run from the backseat of the heli.

We mostly stayed in one or two proximate valleys, alternating sides. One side had been a little wind-compacted up high into 6-12" of powder. Things got deeper as you descended.


Tail guide Ben


Heli back to base

Valdez, AK: Wednesday, April 16, 2024

One of my best ski days ever: Alaska, Bluebird skies, 10-20" powder, Good stability, Steep terrain/couloirs/glaciers, getting deep into the Chugach!


Beautiful morning in Valdez town


First Run


Massive glaciers in the valleys - Thompson Pass and orod in background


More blind rollovers - What are we skiing?


Gets easier


Another run


Another run....


Tracks somewhere up there...


Another run


Avalanche/Slough avoidance


Lunch on a Glacier

Valdez, AK: Wednesday, April 16, 2024 (Continued)

Lots of photos from this day since it was exceptional.

The beautiful Chugach mountains and glaciers.


Meteorite Mountain - One of the Big 5 in the Chugach


Cutting steep slopes - Let's see if it slides.


Nice steep slopes/walls


Another way down


Lemmings into the Abyss



Another Couloir - we were lapping this section


Get enough speed to jump the Bergschrund


More steep couloirs


Happy to be alive


Lots of beautiful couloirs to choose from - each about 2500 vertical feet.

Valdez, AK: Wednesday, April 16, 2024 (Continued)

Here are just a few more pictures from the day. I am beginning to feel like one of the Germans on AlpinForum who document every ski day with hundreds of photos. But photos are easy to scroll through and do not really need much verbiage.


I need to get the name of this valley with all of these great couloirs. We must have spent half the day lapping them. They are fantastically steep and powdery. The famous Chugach snow does not easily slide but skis so well.



Guide finding another vertical wall to ski


Another run, another blind rollover.....guessing what could be on the other side. We were about 40-50 miles deep into the Chugach, nearly bordering Majestic HeliSki's terrain.


Greg and I


Time to head back

Thanks for posting...Great pics

Those are very impressive pics indeed. I've probably aged out of this kind of skiing; too many rest stops would not be appreciated by most groups.

How much did you overrun the vertical guarantee with no down days? Of course this is the situation where you're happy to pay up.

We were at Points North 10 years ago this exact week and skied a couple hours April 14 and maybe 3/4 of a day April 17. I decided than I was probably done with Alaska heliskiing despite having perhaps my lifetime best day on skis with Chugach Powder Guides in 2007.

Valdez, AK: Thursday, April 17, 2024

Today was one of the best heli days ever! Some groups went out early and attempted Meteorite Mountain but got fogged in and skied the entire 5-6k of vertical by Braille. They quit for the day.

We went out at noon with a new group from Israel; they crashed after 1-2 runs due to extreme jetlag. So we had our own private helicopter for the afternoon, ending at 6/7 pm. The Heli would even turn its motor off as the pilot waited for us. We could go anywhere, so we chose a few big open faces, more steep couloirs, and Dimond Peak (Big 5) 5-6k vertical for closing. We mostly stayed on the East side of Thompson Pass today.




We did a bunch of runs from this peak. It's sometimes nice to repeat a landing destination because you are finally familiar with the terrain and have skied it. The first run is always a little tricky since you cannot survey it beforehand - backseat, do not always fly over run before landing.



Landings are always exciting/scary in Chugach. One false move, and either you, your backpack, or your skis are off into who knows what. Sometimes, they need more concentration than the run itself.



Now some Couloirs - So so many in the Chugach. The snow bonds extremely well and starts to dry out over time. The only worry is sloughing snow in tighter chutes; you either try to outrun it near the bottom or let it pass. I was taken out once during the trip when too much snow loaded on the back of my skis and flipped me.



Lots of big open spaces. Not everything needs to be a challenge.


Mount Diamond - Ready to ski one of the Big 5 Chugach Peaks!


Mount Diamond Summit


Avoiding minor slides on the left



Private Helicopter waiting (for today only)


Looking back to Mount Diamond


Some less extreme fun runs


Back to more couloirs we missed; We are addicted.


Some more big open powder before heading to the Tsaina Lodge Base.


Now, we are scouting for Mount Dimond for the home run. Do not have any photos besides video since the landing and winds were sketchy; it rises about 2-2.5k higher than other mountains and is quite exposed.



Last Dinner/Night in Valdez - King Crab and ShotSki

Valdez, AK: Thursday, April 17, 2024 (Continued)
Here are a few photos of the Tsaina Lodge while we waited for the morning skies to clear. It is a beautiful renovation, but it is only for $$$$ paying groups during Valdez Heli Guide ski season ($115k for a week with up to 8 skiers).

We stay in Valdez and independently provide our own lodging, transportation, and breakfast/lunch for significantly less (50-66% less). Knowing how Valdez works, we are pretty comfortable, and down days are better in town.

.

That is Mount Dimond the distance middle-left of frame.



Here are some professional photos of Mount Diamond. Most ski the steep faces or couloirs into the Promised Land Zone, seen below. (Like we did). Obviously, it's not as vertical as the photograph.

Tony Crocker said:

Those are very impressive pics indeed. I've probably aged out of this kind of skiing; too many rest stops would not be appreciated by most groups.

How much did you overrun the vertical guarantee with no down days? Of course this is the situation where you're happy to pay up.

We were at Points North 10 years ago this exact week and skied a couple hours April 14 and maybe 3/4 of a day April 17. I decided than I was probably done with Alaska heliskiing despite having perhaps my lifetime best day on skis with Chugach Powder Guides in 2007.

Click to expand...

Valdez Heli Guides and Black Ops Valdez both operate on Hobbs Hours: there are no runs or vertical guarantees. This is advantageous for lapping steep faces/couloirs since you do not need much heli time to repeat; meanwhile, you would be racking up runs or vertical feet.

We created our own 5-day package instead of the typical 7 days because it was the last public ski week of the year. We had 4 Hobbs (Heli) hours to use as a group. Exceeding our hours sometime Thursday afternoon (lots of runs with your private heli) we purchased another Hobbs hour for about $4k divided 3 ways to cover Thursday and half a day Friday.

The website claims "the weather patterns at Tsaina Lodge are more stable than other parts of the Chugach Mountains, so Valdez Heli Ski Guides only have about 20% down days." Possibly if they can get out of Thompson Pass soup and head to the north side of the Chugach, but I do not believe this.

I believe 60% fly days might be right for the Chugach Mountains - except for Majestic Heliski. In 2016, in Valdez, the two weeks preceding our 80% fly day week, other skiers only had about 20% fly days. They sat in the lodge 80% of the time. The Chugach are the Land of Broken Bucket List Dreams.

I likely will not go to Alaska again because I do not want to take the risk of not skiing for 50%+ of a trip - despite some of the best terrain and snow on the planet. Rather have very positive meories.

In 2016, our friend Joash went bonkers with one down day out of five - being a giant PITA. Not sure what we would do with him if we only 50%.

Valdez, AK: Friday, April 18, 2024

Last day. Relatively easy skiing/big GS turns in the Southern Chugach with views of Valdez and Prince William Sound. Did not want to get injured, and did not have much heli-time left. Plus, we needed to get on the road to Anchorage and did not want to dodge moose at night - lots hang out on the road.

We did redeye flights home out of Anchorage with Northern Lights visible behind Denali. I have seen 2x on late-night flights from Anchorage in April; I have NO desire to go to Iceland or Scandinavia on a viewing trip when I have witnessed the Aurora Borealis flickering behind North America's highest mountain. Or maybe I am not that into Astronomy.


Valdez Harbor


Valdez and Prince William Sound


Still some steep faces


Group photo with Valdez and Prince William Sound in the background


A few more steep lines



Lots of big open-face skiing


The guide takes off.


Lots of huge glaciers


Last run. We only skied about a half day to 12/1 pm until our additional Hobbs Hour was used up.

WOW, very impressive trip, and great photos!

We have a boot fitter here in McCall, ID that does Heli-guiding in Valdez every spring... can't remember his name, but the couple times I've talked to him, he's made me want to get up there! Unfortunately, I'm not sure I could take the chance on the relatively low fly day numbers. The stress would drive me insane.

(Of course, we did an all day private heli-tour (of a volcano, glacier and bears) out of Homer in June last year, and got the 1 clear day out of 8 that we were there)!

snowave said:

Unfortunately, I'm not sure I could take the chance on the relatively low fly day numbers. The stress would drive me insane.

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Alaska can be the land of broken dreams. Our first visit there was a lot of sitting in the lodge, watching ski or mountain biking videos, wandering Valdez town, talking, etc. And you often have your gear on for hours waiting for any potential cloud break....as you obsessively watch Internet radar/clouds for potential ski time.

I have been lucky and enjoyed Valdez, but I do not think I will do it again. Too much risk.

I think a better first time experience for someone would be Chugach Powder Guides/Alyeska - you have a great ski area as backup to a heli trip.

I'm obviously not an audience for this news but FYI:

jamesdeluxe said:

I'm obviously not an audience for this news but FYI:

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Interesting. Valdez is the only place I know where no heliski operation is given exclusivity to a specific permit zone. However, the area is vast, with only four operators/heli-operations, so it does not matter. Maybe there are five small helicopters out on the best days? No need to farm anything!
There is one exception to this 'shared' tenure concept in the Valdez area - "The Tusk" highlighted in Red - it's a mini-range that arises from a flat valley. This was exclusive to H2O Guides (Dean Cummings) and was later transferred to Valdez Heli Guides (Doug Coombs) in 2019. This area is protected from the wind, making it highly desirable terrain.

(If you want to know more about the legendary Dean Cummings and his descent and battle with mental illness, Outside Magazine has some great write-ups. Maybe he can sell the movie rights to his life story to get back on his feet?):

My brother and I were fortunate to ski with his operation for a bit in 2015 before it went defunct.



Valdez, Alaska, was easily the best skiing I have done, and will ever do, in my life. The Chugach is an exceptional place/mountain range with snow heavy enough to stick to any surface, less prone to avalanches, allowing for amazing skiable lines, and can set up overnight into a unique surface that keeps the top 6" in a powdery condition - days after storms in April. It has such a short window/season: March and April - that's it!

Some recommendations:

• Best Guide Outfits. Logistics entirely determines this. I would never use or recommend Pulseline and Alaska Backcountry Guides, as they are based at the Valdez airport. Getting 3-4 groups out into the mountains can take an hour with the longer fly times back/forth to Valdez. Problem: Weather windows can only be open for possibly 2 hours. And they will not 'hit' those windows (sun breaks) because they cannot get groups out and back in that time frame. Both Valdez Heliski Guides and BlackOps have heli bases in the Chugach Mountains proper, both near Thompson Pass, so that they can go out. And both operations can get on the 'north side' of the Chugach, which can block storms/clouds for a bit.
• Why is the above important?
  • From ABG site: DO YOU FLY EVERY DAY? https://alaskabackcountryguides.com/about
    Alaskan weather does prevent us from going out every day (the big storms are what we hope for). Skiing and flying during a storm in our glaciated terrain is not possible. The average is about 3.5 heliski days per week. We offer ski touring, massages, boat tours of Port Valdez, and other activities to keep you busy on your downtime (some activities come with an added surcharge).
  • This means you only ski 50% of the time!
  • This is why I don't want to go back - I had nearly 80%+ ski time, which is practically perfect for Alaska! I will never do better. And I don't want to waste time in lodges for vacation. I have patience, but I'd rather ski something else new.
  • Note: Fly rates for VHSG and BlackOps are higher. And the best Alaska operator, Majestic, achieves nearly 70% since it is located on the north side of the Chugach, which blocks southern storms.
• Drive to Valdez. There are only two flights a day into the small Valdez airport, and they are often cancelled since they fly through the Chugach. It's a 5.5-hour drive, but you go by all these beautiful national parks: Denali National Park, Wrangell–St. Elias National Park, and there is so much wildlife visible from the roadside: moose, bears, deer, eagles, etc. It's likely cheaper than flights, and you can drive wherever you want in Valdez on the inevitable down day.
• April is a great month: Long, long daylight hours, giving big windows to go skiing. You can go out as late as 3-4 pm, since daylight lasts until 8 pm.
• Be In-shape! This is NOT CMH Bugaboos! There are very few packed-out landing areas. You can be landing on some crazy, exposed zones. This is nothing like a Canadian Operation with known landing/pickup areas. Valdez is not a luxury Canadian Heli-Lodge Vacation; it is a bit wild, extreme, and rough around the edges.
• Terrain: What do you get in return? You are not spending 50-70% of your time in trees, with variable tree wells, poor sight lines, underbrush, etc. To me, trees are a last resort on a heli trip. I would much rather be in a powdery, steep chute, a rocky-lined couloir, big open powder, spines, a massive glacier, huge verticals (3-5k), terrain that allows you to open up and make big turns, and not stopping to collect skiers in the woods. I can ski amazing lift-served trees in the Cascades, Sierra, and British Columbia (Red, Whitewater, Fernie, Bachelor, Heavenly), among others, at a significantly lower cost per run; I am not heli-skiing to be dropped off in a forest for multiple days. Snowcat skiing is a different story - you know you are going to be skiing a combo of alpine/subalpine and trees.
• Insurance: I was able to buy a policy that refunded me directly in cash for unused Hobbs hours/Heli time. You will not wind up with just a 'credit'. These policies look like they are still being written. (Tony thinks it's insane that an insurance company would offer this.)
  • https://www.valdezheliskiguides.com/travel-protection/ (AIG Travel Guard from VHSG covers your trip, even if it is already booked with another company. Only US citizens can apply.)

For a bucket list Alaska Heli-skiing trip, I might recommend a few warm-up days at Alyeska Ski Area (Chugach Powder Guides offers single-day heli-trips), followed by four days in Valdez. This gaurantees you will get some Alaska skiing (the North Face of Alyeska is epic!), and will fly a couple of days. Some people go to Valdez only and get completely shut down, or maybe one day out of five. That's disappointing, which is why I would recommend adding a resort component.

ChrisC said:

the Big Five

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After James' post, I wondered how did I not remember those worthy pics? Then I saw the date of the original post, June. 27, 2024. I was in Namibia, in search of a different Big Five. I probably saw the post on my phone on lodge WiFi and asked a couple of questions.

ChrisC's week was truly the best case Alaska scenario. Depth of snow on day #1 looks like my best-ever in 2007.


As the week wears on after a big storm like that, groups can step up to progressively steeper runs. I had Adam with me in 2007 on an overlapping basis. The big powder heli day was a Sunday, after I skied warm up powder in the storm one day in snowcat and two mostly on Alyeska's North Face. I flew out Tuesday midnight to attend the NASJA annual meeting in Crested Butte. Adam got a second heli day with Chugach Powder Guides Wednesday, snow not as deep but he said a few 40+ degree runs with sustained 1,500 vertical pitches skied one at a time.

ChrisC said:

Chugach Powder Guides - OK for one day. They take all the multi-day heli groups out before you, sometimes snowier or better weather destinations. Days skiers go out last to more local terrain.

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My limited sample size did not reflect that. In both 2007 and 2011 The multiday groups were Mon-Fri. I had Saturday and Sunday reserved in 2007; Sunday was the first clear day after at least 3 days of stormy weather. We did not go to the most local terrain on that epic Sunday.

My rave feature article from 2007 was one of three that won my Harold Hirsch Ward from NASJA in 2009. So when NASJA scheduled its annual meeting for Alyeska in 2011. I negotiated an attractive media deal with Chugach Powder Guides. I had Mon. - Fri. reserved but I would pay $800/day only for days I actually skied. The problem in 2011 was not no-fly weather, but wind hammered surfaces. With my negotiated deal I only skied two days. The first of those days was close to home base but the second a considerable distance SW, beyond where I skied in 2007.

As far as the sustained steep runs with sketchy dropoffs ChrisC got all week, only one of mine at Points North in 2012 was comparable.

This was west facing corn snow at 5:30PM.

Tony Crocker said:

ChrisC's week was truly the best case Alaska scenario. Depth of snow on day #1 looks like my best-ever in 2007.

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Yes, it was! I don't want to go back to Valdez because I will not improve my experience compared to this last trip. Besides, after 3x, it's time to move on to something else interesting besides Alaska in ski-dom.

Typically, when I have an A or A+ experience, I want to lock it in my memory at the moment and not try to improve upon it or relive it.

Some European experiences are like that for me: Arlberg, Verbier, Dolomites, Engelberg/Andermatt, Zermatt, Courmayeur, and Val d'Isère. I really do not need to return and die happy because I have seen them at their best and done quite a few of their major lines.

Frankly, after this next trip to the Alps, I really have skied the most interesting ski resorts (to me) in the four major countries.

Tony Crocker said:

My limited sample size did not reflect that. In both 2007 and 2011 The multiday groups were Mon-Fri. I had Saturday and Sunday reserved in 2007; Sunday was the first clear day after at least 3 days of stormy weather. We did not go to the most local terrain on that epic Sunday.

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I think we started at an unusual date for Chugach Powder Guides. A pro freeskier (forget the name now) showed up to the Avalanche briefing only in his bathrobe, which began an epic pissing contest with the female trainer/guide. Anyway, you had film crews going out, as well as other helicopters with other Corporate VIPs for the week. And a couple of day heli-skiers. Not really a representative visit, a bit hectic.

Just reading this report again. Fantastic pics of the town and terrain. You men are also photogenic specimens too. Good looking blokes with big genuine smiles that have clearly not been put on for the camera.
Isn’t it a good feeling when you have genuine fun?