Skiing at Alyeska Resort – For Beginners or Experts?
By Emma Corby
I need to admit something: up until last week, I had never been downhill skiing. I’ve water skied, I’ve cross country skied, but I have never downhill skied. I’ve lived in Alaska for two years and have never “hit the slopes”… Embarrassing!
Last week, I went down to Girdwood, Alaska for the day; since I live in Eagle River, it was only an hour drive, rather than the seven hours it would have been from Fairbanks. Down in Girdwood is the Alyeska Ski Resort; outside the resort, there are a bunch of cute coffee shops and a few local restaurants. The drive there from Anchorage is almost entirely along the Cook Inlet which makes for some beautiful roadside views.
Before planning our day trip, we had a few things to consider: I couldn’t go skiing or learn to ski with Ben, because he has been skiing since he was young and, let’s be honest, he isn’t the best teacher in the world! So, I invited my friend Katie, who has also never been skiing in her life. From there, we signed up for a two hour lesson (we made sure to sign up for the “13 and Over” lesson), booked rental equipment, and a lift ticket all together in one package. Rather than $75 for just a lift ticket, we got the lesson, the rental equipment (which included boots, skis, poles, and a helmet), and the full day lift ticket all for $115, which, apparently, is an incredible deal. We also had to plan to be there early, because the lines get super long, especially on a Saturday, so we planned to get there around 9am, which meant we had to miss the pretty roadside views on the drive in.
Once we got there and got our ski equipment, Katie and I said goodbye to Ben as he headed to the black diamond slopes, which we knew we would not be going near. We headed to the bunny hills, where our lesson would be held. We met our instructor there, along with the other two people in the lesson: two men, about fifty years old each, and they each had some skiing experience – this intimidated us. We didn’t even know how to attach our boots to the skis!
Our lesson began with just getting the feel for the skis on our feet; we practiced turning right and left, stopping (which, apparently, people call “pizza” because that’s the shape the skis make), and going back and forth down the bunny hill to help slow ourselves down. The two other men in the lesson were just as encouraging as our teacher, and eventually we graduated from the bunny hills to our first green slope: Gummy Worm.
To get to Gummy Worm, we had to take a chair lift, which Katie and I had never done before. The four of us in the lesson fit onto one chair: one man on each side, and us girls in the middle. Getting on the chairlift went smoothly, and we had so much fun chatting and taking in the snowy, mountain views. When it came to getting off the chairlift, we weren’t prepared for just how quickly it had to be done. It all happened so fast: Katie lost her balance and grabbed the guy to her right, and I lost my balance and grabbed the guy to my left… All four of us went down. The ski lift operator stopped the lift and had to come out of the hut to help us up. I would have been more embarrassed if he wasn’t so friendly about it.
On our first run down Gummy Worm, Katie and I each fell twice, but to be fair, once was to get out of the way of the eight-year-olds learning how to snowboard. The slopes seemed crowded, which is to be expected on a Saturday in late January – one of the men in the lesson with us was visiting from Texas!
Our instructor told us not to worry about the crowds, and that the more experienced skiers and snowboarders would go around us. As we got to the bottom of Gummy Worm, our lesson was already over… We made our way to the other greens.
The snow was a bit icy, making it faster than usual (apparently), so Katie and I stayed on greens. We skied down Christmas, Perseverance, Sitzmark Run, and by the time we got to Blueberry Hill, our confidence let us relax a bit more, and as we skied together down Blueberry, we were laughing and yelling about how easy it was. We said we were ready for the blues; the steep hill at the bottom of Blueberry Hill proved us wrong. I left a body print followed by drag lines about halfway down, and Katie fell twice before even making it halfway. She sat on her skis the rest of the way down the hill.
Even though we were new at skiing, it was so much fun, and nobody judged us for falling or learning. The entire staff was so friendly and it was absolutely beautiful there. When it started snowing, the visibility wasn’t great for Ben up on the black diamonds, but for us down at the greens, it was perfect.