I just came upon your website and enjoyed it immensely.

I skied many times at the Arctic Valley Ski area outside of Anchorage during the winter of 1955 & 1956 While serving with the 71st Division, 53rd Inf, 1st Bn. as a Communications Officer. It was a most memorable experience.

I am long retired and living in Colorado...and I still ski at age 78. I loved Alaska.

I am attaching a photo of the two patches that I have sewn to my hiking hat. One is a patch that I did not see on the website that you may wish to include:

Starting my days on the mountain, I can remember day passes issued by the MWR office on Elm AFB.
 
Arriving on the slopes, we ganged up on the ski rental area to get our boots fitted, our Olin Mark VI's selected with the Solomon 222 bindings adjusted by the mainly volunteer staff it the "Lodge" and then began to sort of thrash the slopes.
 
As a 16 year old with no fear or sense.. we would bomb the slope as fast as we could.. sometimes I would even hit the old lodge in my stop skid..  much to the anger of the patrol.. and fun for the kids inside
 
Then somehow were shown what was called Five Mile trail.. I'm not sure by whom or even why.. but this was the best thing ever to our 'crew'
 
Starting at the very top end of the then two seat lift.. we would crash down the slope.. headed to the "from the uphill view" left side of the "lodge" Go through the parking lot and down a fairly steep slope to a small bridge towards the right ..going across the creek at the bottom which was a quick left hand turn. From there it was a very narrow path for about a mile.. then it opened up a bit.  The run was fun and was better than dealing with bunnies everywhere.  The only thing you really had to be careful of was the quick switchback at the power line road.. if you missed you were in the trees..  I know.. I was there a few times.
 
At the end of the run was a place where the Duce would pick you up on it's way from Ft. Richardson's stops and take you back up the hill.
 
At the age that I was then.. I never even thought to thank the crew that ran the facilities at Arctic Valley.. It was a great place for dependants to learn how to Ski for very little cost and a really nice slope.
 
I currently live on the East Coast close to DC..  It is truly funny what some people will inflate into being a Mountain.  Arctic Valley was bigger and better then than most of the slopes around here now.
 
Thank you Arctic Valley Staff Alumni!
Michael Robbins  Age 46.5 03/02/2010   - and PS I still hate moguls
 

I came across your website and it brought back some old memories. This year I am getting back into skiing almost full time after being away from it for 20 years. I grew up in Anchorage and lived there from 1967-1989. I skied from 1971 -1990. My dad was retired Air Force so we had base privileges and that's how I got to ski on the military side of Arctic Valley.

First memories were about how we got up the mountain. We loaded onto deuce and a half's at the rec center at Fort Richardson. No windows, skis piled up in the middle, loud as hell and cold too. There were usually four trucks a day so off you go with your friends. Then there was always a rumor that a previous truck had overturned so us little kids were nervous but you wanted to be cool so you didn't act afraid.

The corduroy road was fun sitting on wooden benches. I still remember there was one section of bumps going up that signaled you were close to the end. We'd get off, get our ticket and off you go.

That hill was steep and there were no groomers then. I was a second year skier (age 12) when I first tried Arctic Valley. I rode up the mid-hill rope tow. The only way down was through a good sized mogul patch. I swear some of the bumps were bigger than I was. Skied about ten yards and that was it. I was tossed in the air and landed hard losing my glasses in the process. It was a rude introduction to the place. I stayed off that part of the hill until I was in high school. Most of the time I skied the bunny rope tow area with friends. Later on in my skiing career I embraced moguls and would go out of my way to ski them. When I got older and wasn't afraid of the hill we started to ski on the Alpenglow side but by then most skiing days were spent at Alyeska.

One other anecdote. One summer a friend and I (in '79) went hiking up there. I went up the hill below the Nike site. halfway up a service man with an M-16 started down the hill and chased us away. We went up behind the Alpenglow lodge and I'm stomping through the bushes and I hit my shin hard on something. I mean it hurt. I look down and its the exhaust nozzle of one of those rockets that were fired off in the 60s. I tried to dig it up but gave up anyways. SO those are some of my memories of the place. I hope you can use them.

Dan Lane
 

I worked at Arctic Valley Ski Bowl for Fred Murdough from 1978-1988, and those were the best times of my life. It was great! Old Fred taught me about skiing and running a ski area, he was a terrific mentor and I am forever grateful to him.

James Miller
 

In May of 1953 I arrived at Elmendorf AFB. Having done a little skiing here in the East I soon learned of Arctic Valley ski bowl. I Drove up there a few times during the summer, did a little climbing and enjoyed the views. That winter I joined the Anchorage Ski Club and took the first aid courses required for ski patrol. After taking a test which included skiing while towing a toboggan and stopping before running into the first aid hut I became a member of the Ski Patrol and was issued my maroon parka with a yellow cross on the back.  I was able to ski a couple of days a week and signed out of the squadron and signed in to special services i.e. ski patrol. Just recently I was going through postings on your site and realized that in spite of all the information no one discussed the rope tows in use at that time. They effectively covered the whole mountain and were maintained by the ski club and the military. Most of the operators' were G.I.s. One I remember in particular was from Arkansas or Oklahoma. He would have nothing to do with skis, each morning he would climb to the power house of which ever tow he was running that day, carrying a big shovel over his shoulder. When he was ready to come down at the end of the day he put on quite a show astride that shovel, pulling up on the handle when he wanted to slow down and lowering it to pick up speed. Who needs skis?  A few of the tows were so long, with such heavy rope that they had mounted car wheels, without the tires, on posts every few hundred feet. The rope was held off the snow as it rolled over these wheels. Of course this presented a problem when a skier's hands reached the wheel. Some cleaver fellow had solved the problem by designing a steel clip which gripped the rope when tensions was applied and would fall off when the tension was released. The clip had a short piece of heavy nylon string attached to a steel pin on the other end. All of the skiers wore military ammo belts with a heavy "D" ring attached. The pin was inserted through the "D" ring and doubled back against the string. You would clamp the pin to the string with your hand and low and behold it worked. Sort of like a "T" bar without the "T". The clips were available at the two ski shops in Town and had to be used for all but the Bunny tow. The attached photo show skiers wearing the belt and the clip. It was short enough that it didn't use the wheels to hold the rope up. One of the most common injuries we treated were dislocated shoulders. Some from falls, but many from careless skiers having loose sweaters or parkas which would get wound around the rope, it was constantly twisting as it went over the pulleys. At the top of each tow, just a few feet before the power house there was a metal bar about a foot above the snow held loosely on each end by a clip. It completed the electric circuitry to keep the tows engines running. If a skiers clothing got caught in the rope or he didn’t let go, his legs would knock the bar loose, shutting down the tow. But some skiers who didn't realize the bar would come out would lift their skis above it, hanging on the rope, and slam into the power house with arm extended into the slot where the rope entered. Thus the dislocated shoulders. In some cases when the skier's clothing didn't tear soon enough it was up to an alert tow operator to shut down the tow. The worst injury I sustained while at Artic Valley happened one morning when I was straddling the rope on the bunny tow to pull the rope out of the ice that had formed over it during the night. My left ski got caught in a rut and slid under the rope. I laid there with the rope sawing away at my ankle for some time until the operator shut the tow down. I skied the rest of the morning but when I took my lunch break I loosened my boot and my ankle blew up like a balloon. It was a few weeks before I skied again. The most beautiful memory I have of Artic Valley were the occasional times at the end of the day, when the sky, snow and every thing else turned pink, alpenglow, truly a sight to remember. Some of the best powder skiing I ever experienced was in the Rendezvous bowl (so named for the fur rendezvous) It was located above the Anchorage ski club lodge. I skied both Arctic Valley and what would eventually become Alyeska (see photos I submitted earlier) until 1955 when my military service ended, and enjoyed every minute of it. 
Bill Wood
Sweetwater, NJ