Alyeska Resort

Facilities and terrain

The Alyeska Ski Corporation was founded in 1954, and the first chairlift and day lodge were opened in 1959. The Roundhouse ski lodge and ski patrol station at the top of the mountain began construction in 1960. It is an octagonal building. Still standing, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as "Mt. Alyeska Roundhouse" in 2003, and now houses a museum to local ski history.

Currently, Alyeska has five chairlifts, one high-speed aerial tramway, and two Magic Carpets. Of the five chairlifts, one is co-owned by Alyeska and the Tanaka Foundation (Chair 5). Chairs 6 and 4 are high-speed detachable quads, while Chairs 7 and 3 are normal quads. Chair 4 was updated to a high speed quad in 2012. A sixth chairlift, Chair 1, was removed from service in the summer of 2017.

Chair 4 ends halfway up the mountain. The tram ends three-quarters of the way up the mountain. The interconnected buildings contain the Roundhouse (patrol quarters), and a much newer facility housing the upper tram terminal, a quick-service cafeteria, and the Seven Glaciers 4-star restaurant and bar. At the base of the tram is the modern 300-room Hotel Alyeska.

Chair 6 goes to the highest lift served point on the mountain at 2750 ft. Several areas above Chair 6 are occasionally opened, but require hiking to access. Plans to build a new chair lift higher up the mountain have been announced.

Mount Alyeska is a fairly challenging mountain, and has a much higher percentage of advanced and expert runs, as compared to most other mountains in North America. It has a small section for the novice, but the rest of the mountain is almost entirely for the intermediate and the advanced skiers.

Terrain Aspects

• North: 35%
• West: 40%
• East: 0%
• South: 25% Source:

Racing

Alyeska hosted World Cup giant slalom ski races in 1973 for both men and women. Alyeska first hosted the U.S. Alpine Championships in 1963; the championships returned in 1981, 2004, 2007, and 2009.

American Olympic gold medalist Tommy Moe (b. 1970) sharpened his racing skills at Alyeska as a teenager in the 1980s.

2006 purchase

Alyeska was bought in December 2006 by John Byrne III, who said he planned to make improvements to the resort, with a concentration on people who come to ski for the day. Some of the improvements included the installation of RFID gates at all of the lifts, the removal of bubbles from chair 6, new paint on the tram, and construction of the only superpipe in Alaska. According to a statement issued October 9, 2018 by the resort's director of marketing, Eric Fullerton, Alyeska Resort has entered into a contract to sell "substantially all of its resort assets" to Pomeroy Lodging.

Climate

Alyeska has a subarctic climate (Köppen: Dfc), with short but mild summers and long, snowy winters. Snowfall is extremely heavy, owing to the Aleutian Low, with an average year getting 209 in of snow at the base (elevation 250 feet above sea level) and an average exceeding 650 in at the top of the Glacier Bowl Express (GBX) chairlift. The record annual snowfall measured at the top of the GBX is 939 in during the 2000–01 season. Precipitation in general is heavy, but is considerably less from late spring to mid- summer. A freeze has been recorded for every month of the year.

|Jan record high F = 57 |Feb record high F = 53 |Mar record high F = 57 |Apr record high F = 67 |May record high F = 78 |Jun record high F = 85 |Jul record high F = 89 |Aug record high F = 88 |Sep record high F = 73 |Oct record high F = 63 |Nov record high F = 51 |Dec record high F = 50 |year record high F =

|Jan avg record high F = 42.0 |Feb avg record high F = 42.9 |Mar avg record high F = 45.6 |Apr avg record high F = 54.4 |May avg record high F = 68.0 |Jun avg record high F = 75.7 |Jul avg record high F = 77.3 |Aug avg record high F = 75.3 |Sep avg record high F = 65.7 |Oct avg record high F = 54.5 |Nov avg record high F = 44.5 |Dec avg record high F = 41.2 |year avg record high F = 79.1

|Jan avg record low F = -5.0 |Feb avg record low F = 0.0 |Mar avg record low F = 4.0 |Apr avg record low F = 16.1 |May avg record low F = 29.8 |Jun avg record low F = 37.2 |Jul avg record low F = 43.0 |Aug avg record low F = 39.1 |Sep avg record low F = 29.6 |Oct avg record low F = 17.2 |Nov avg record low F = 3.7 |Dec avg record low F = -0.9 |year avg record low F = -7.4

|Jan record low F = -30 |Feb record low F = -24 |Mar record low F = -18 |Apr record low F = -2 |May record low F = 24 |Jun record low F = 31 |Jul record low F = 32 |Aug record low F = 30 |Sep record low F = 17 |Oct record low F = 2 |Nov record low F = -15 |Dec record low F = -18 |year record low F =

Retrieved on October 6, 2022 Retrieved on October 6, 2022.

References

References

1. {{NRISref
2. "Home".
3. "ZRankings Topographical Survey, Alyeska". ZRankings.
4. Terrell, Roy. (April 15, 1963). "Cool skiing in sun-baked Alaska".
5. (July 7, 2008). "Alyeska to host U.S. Alpine Championships in 2009". Ski Racing.com.
6. "VerticalFeet.com-Accurate Ski Resort Ranking with monthly updates".
7. Polk, Leroy. (October 9, 2018). "'We'll see what happens'; Girdwood locals react to Alyeska Resort's sale".