The Hottest Ski Ticket in Town
If you don't already have your ski train ticket to Curry, Alaska, then you are out of luck this year. The Nordic Skiing Association of Anchorage (NSAA) has sold out their infamous ski train for March 22, 2008. To get a ticket now, you have to "know" someone. And that is not a networking thing… you have to know someone who bought a ticket and broke a leg or was just relocated to Key West, Florida by their company. These tickets are like gold around here.
The ski train is run by the NSAA as a fun event, not a fundraiser. They keep the ticket prices modest ($70 for members, $80 for non-members). It is a long-standing tradition! A rite of passage! A heck of a good time! The members get first crack at them and they are usually gone (like this year) before the start date for allowing non-members to buy tickets.
This is an all day event. You arrive at the Anchorage train station between 6:00 - 7:00 AM. The Alaska Railroad recently changed their policies on chartered trains in winter, so the NSAA had to change their destination from Grandview to Curry. Grandview is South of Anchorage, but has some (snow) slide areas to get past. The railroad decided that it wasn't worth the risk. But, the tickets to Curry (up North of Anchorage, past Talkeetna) are not any less popular. In fact, demand for tickets just goes up and up.
The idea is that the train gets you WAY out into the wilderness, in an area not accessible by road. The passengers pile out of the train cars, gather up their gear and head out in a merry mass, blazing trails, singing songs, and drinking suspicious concoctions from steaming thermoses. The Polka Car is the place to dance and play all the way home.
The ski train is a place where fast friendships are formed. It is a wilderness experience with a warm fuzzy package. If anyone ever offers you a chance to buy a ticket, snap it up my friend, and consider yourself lucky to get it! If you want to start scheming a plan to get a ticket next year, here is their website information: http://www.anchoragenordicski.com/Programs/skitrain.htm
