Alyeska gets 3 feet of Snow
Alyeska Resort is reporting snow snow snow. The Anchorage Daily News says three feet of new snow. The website says 43 inches in 48 hours. And that was yesterday... Alyeska is known for getting loads of snow, but they are sitting, in early December, on a 264 inch base, 1/3 of their usual accumulation.
I used to live in Girdwood and I can tell you right now what 8:00 AM will bring. BOOM BOOM BOOM as they fire shells into the trouble spots to bring down avalanches prior to opening. It's sort of like New Years every morning. :) There were years when we could practically step out of the 2nd story window onto the top of a snow drift... it's gonna be one of those years. I'm jealous of my friends who still live there. I bet they all call in "sick" today and head for the mountain.
Chugach Powder Guides, a heli-ski company that also runs a snowcat out the back door of the Resort (literally walk out the back door, climb in and head up into the hills behind the Resort), says that the snowcats may start running next weekend. That's wicked early! And they spent the summer carving out a new trail through the back woods, clearing their way to the top of A-1 Glacier. That will add 500 acres of terrain to their established runs, already at 1500 acres with tree runs of 1200 vertical feet on the lower part of the bowls of Notch Mountain and Sunnyside Mountain.
I'll bet everyone in Girdwood is waxing their boards and skis this week!
