Alaska Range Ski Adventure

These are big mountains and big glaciers! In our base camp we’ll be amongst these giants. “Little Switzerland”, a grouping of smaller peaks and glaciers just down glacier from Denali, is the perfect size for a great skiing adventure. The snow is consistent and cold, storms are frequent. The Pika Glacier might be base camp and where most skiing takes place. It is a tributary to the Kahiltna Glacier, the glacier most people climb when climbing Denali. But our guides also know the lesser known zones in this massive range. If the conditions are right, we can take you to ski camp in areas that barely have been visited, and to ski lines that may have never been skied.

WMG provides a base camp cook tent and individual sleeping tents. We provide all the food and do all the cooking. Guests need their own ski gear and their own sleeping bag and pad. We will send an equipment list upon booking.

What makes this trip different from most Alaska ski weeks is that the terrain is out the door of the tent. There is no helicopter queue, no daily drive, no waiting for a flight window to go skiing. A storm day is a day in camp, and the morning after a storm you are stepping into fresh snow within minutes of leaving the cook tent. Living on the glacier is part of the trip rather than a cost of it.

Where We Ski: Little Switzerland and the Pika Glacier

Little Switzerland sits down-glacier from Denali, a compact cluster of granite spires rising straight out of the Pika Glacier. The scale is the point: big enough that the lines are serious, small enough that you can ski several of them in a week without moving camp.

• Couloirs off the surrounding spires — the classic objective here, and the reason the zone has the reputation it does. Steep, consistent, and cold.
• Glacier skiing on the Pika itself — long, moderate-angle descents that run for miles and are the right call on a day when the alpine is loaded.
• Steep snowy faces reachable on foot from camp, which is where the good storm-cycle skiing happens.
• Lesser-known zones elsewhere in the range — if conditions favour it and the party is up for it, we will fly somewhere less travelled. This is the part of the trip we cannot promise in advance and the part people remember.

The Pika is a tributary of the Kahiltna, the glacier most Denali climbing expeditions use. You are in the same system, on the same flights out of Talkeetna, on a fraction of the commitment.

The Skiing

We chose the Alaska Range for our ski mountaineering week because of the awesome variety of terrain and access within walking distance of our base camp. Jagged granite rock spires are separated by snowy couloirs that drain into long glaciers offering miles of skiing pleasure. Steep snowy faces of Alaskan powder to your heart’s content.

Availability/Dates

These dates are customizable within the season’s date range (April). Please reach out to discuss the dates that work for you and your group.

April is chosen deliberately: the days are long, the snowpack is settled, and the glacier is still cold enough to hold winter snow. Earlier and the weather windows are shorter; later and the surface starts to change.

Itinerary

• Day 1: Arrive and stay in hotel in Anchorage or Talkeetna (the client will need to book their own hotel room)
• Day 2: We’ll take a shuttle to Talkeetna, and from there we’ll fly into the glacier to set up base camp.
• Day 3-6: Ski. Ski. Ski! We’ll mainly ski and snowboard the peaks and couloirs surrounding the Pika Glacier or another stunning glacier in the Denali National Park.
• Day 7: Possible half-day of skiing, pack up and fly back to Talkeetna. Weather dependent.
• Day 8-9: Days reserved for bad weather delays and a “dry out and recovery” day in Talkeetna.
• Day 10: Return home from Anchorage.

Plan on ten days total. The trip is six to seven days of skiing on the glacier, but Alaska weather decides when planes fly. Days 8 and 9 exist because they are frequently needed, and booking a flight home on Day 8 is the most common mistake people make on this trip.

To learn more about this trip, equipment needed, etc. contact us or fill out the Book Trip form.

Trip Includes

• IFMGA or AMGA certified mountain guides
  • We operate within the AMGA’s Scope of Practice
• Base camp cook tent and individual sleeping tents
• All food and all cooking for the duration of the glacier camp
• Shuttle from Anchorage to Talkeetna
• Glacier flight from Talkeetna to the Pika Glacier and return
• Group camp and safety equipment

Trip Excludes

• Flights to and from Anchorage
• Hotel in Anchorage or Talkeetna (Day 1, and any weather-delay nights)
• Personal ski or splitboard equipment
• Sleeping bag and sleeping pad
• Meals outside the glacier camp
• Personal travel and rescue insurance

These are our two Alaska ski trips and people ask us to compare them constantly. The short version:

• Alaska Range (this trip) — fly-in glacier basecamp inside Denali National Park. Terrain out the tent door, no road, no town, no helicopter. Six to seven days skiing, ten days total. $6,500. April.
• Valdez — road-accessed human-powered touring from Thompson Pass, lodged in town, with optional heli bump and full heli days. Five days. From $5,500. Mid-March through April.

If you want the expedition, come here. If you want big Chugach lines with a bed and a shower at the end of the day, go to Valdez. A number of guests have done both.

• Advanced skiers and splitboarders. Steep couloirs in cold, variable snow, with a pack. This is not a trip to learn on.
• People who have toured before. Previous backcountry experience is expected. Glacier travel experience is helpful but we cover the systems.
• People who can live outside for a week. Cold camp, no shower, weather that decides your schedule. For the right person this is the best part; for the wrong person it is the whole trip ruined.
• People with schedule flexibility. Build in the contingency days and mean it.

Read our Mountain Guiding Difficulty & Fitness Guide for how this rates against our other trips.

• Decades in this range. Todd Passey has been working in Alaska long enough to know the zones that are not in the guidebook.
• IFMGA-certified guides, working within the AMGA Scope of Practice.
• Camp is handled. Tents, cook tent, all food, all cooking. You ski and you eat; you do not run a kitchen at altitude in the cold.
• Terrain out the door. No helicopter queue, no daily drive. The morning after a storm you are in it within minutes.
• Unvisited zones when conditions allow. If the window opens for somewhere less travelled, we have the experience and the relationships to go.
• Transparent pricing. $6,500 per person, published. Most expedition operators make you email for a number.

No, and we want to be clear about that. The trip is inside Denali National Park, on the Pika Glacier in Little Switzerland, down-glacier from the peak. You will be skiing in the shadow of Denali and on a tributary of the same glacier system climbers use to reach it, but skiing Denali itself is a different undertaking entirely.

Plan on ten days. The skiing is six to seven days, but Days 8 and 9 are reserved for weather delays and a recovery day in Talkeetna, and they are frequently needed. Booking a flight home on Day 8 is the most common planning mistake on this trip.

Your own ski or splitboard equipment, your own sleeping bag and pad, and personal layers for cold-weather camping. We provide the tents, the cook tent, all food, and all cooking. A full equipment list goes out on booking.

It helps, and we cover the systems on the trip. What we do need is that you have toured in the backcountry before and that you ski steep, variable snow confidently. This is not a first backcountry trip.

Cold enough that the snow stays good, which is why we go in April. Camp is individual sleeping tents and a shared cook tent, with all meals cooked for you. There is no shower for the duration of the glacier camp. For the right person camp is a highlight rather than a hardship.

You ski lower-angle glacier terrain, or you sit in the cook tent and wait. Storms in the Alaska Range are frequent and often productive — the skiing after one is the reason to be there. Flights in and out are weather-dependent in both directions, which is what the contingency days are for.

Yes. Splitboards work well in this terrain and we run them regularly.

Yes, the flights in and out of the range are included with the price. 

Valdez is road-accessed, lodged in town, and built around human-powered touring with optional helicopter days. This is a fly-in glacier expedition with no road, no town, and terrain out the tent door. Different commitment, different price, different trip. See our Valdez Ski and Splitboard Adventure.

Early. April dates are limited, group size is capped, and glacier flights and permits need lead time. If you are considering this for next season, start the conversation now.