Arctic Valley Ski Bowl

1941 to 2003

1st Lieutenant Edith A. Spitzer, Army Nurse Corps (1943)
Photos courtesy of Sanferd "Sandy" Spitzer

William Ross Photos from 1945

Arctic Valley Ski Bowl

Post Ski Run

Waxing Up

Sign: "Warm-Up Hut Coffee ..."

Alaska Military History Association Photos from 1948

Ken Alden Photos from 1951-52

(right) Aerial View of Anchorage

Arctic Valley Skiing Photos Courteously of Veteran Skier, Ski Patroller and Anchorage Ski Club Member Harvey Turner 

[Photo credits:  Harvey Turner]

Arctic Valley rope tow in 1950

Harvey Turner running slalom in 1952

GI ski racer at Arctic Valley, 1952

[Above] Arctic Valley torchlight (road flares) parade in the 1970's.  [Below] ASC membership card.

1956 Photos of Skiing at Arctic Valley
Photos courtesy of Bill Croke

Ed Corey Pictures and a great description of skiing at the Arctic Valley Ski Bowl in 1961-1963

[Photo credits: Ed Corey]

[Ed Corey - 11 and 12 September 2007 emails]   Here's a photo of the Bear's Paw Lodge. In its time it was a pretty nice place. You can see a chimney in the middle of the lodge on the photo. There was a HUGE open fireplace inside with tables and chairs arranged all around it on all sides. Hidden behind the man in the bomber jacket was a row of double pane picture windows where you could park yourself with a cup of hot coffee or chocolate and watch everyone on the slopes while you regained your body temperature.

If you look up to the top of the T-100 pomalift you can see a little house at the top of the mountain. This was just a place to get in out of the weather and warm up a little, usually very little. The house you described at the bottom of the B-20 was for the same purpose. The B-20 poma was notorious for breaking down. When it was working, the B-20 trails were the best thing since sliced bread. When it broke down, it was quite a struggle through incredibly deep snow to get back up to the lodge area. If you didn't or couldn't climb back to the top, you had to wait and when the wind was blowing, it was very frigid. The house was there to provide a little shelter, very little.

See all those poles on the mountain? Every one of those poles had a street light on it. This place was open until 9 PM every night except Sunday when they closed at 5 PM. When it wasn't snowing you could see every little bump on the snow at night and go around it (or over it).
The B-20 trails weren't lit so we had to ski on the T-100 slopes but that was good enough. This place was great for kids like me and my friends. We got out of school, ran home and changed, dashed over to the Enlisted Men's Club and caught the next shuttle. We could get in an hour so of time on the mountain, take the shuttle back down and still have time to do homework. Had it not been for Lyndon Johnson and Robert McNamara, I probably would have been a professional ski bum.

If you look above and to the right of the opening to the lodge there is a line of snow fencing poles at regular intervals. This was a snow fence put in place to hold the snow. This area was called Sunny Ridge.
The B-20 pomalift let off its riders there, although lower and hidden behind the lodge. I nearly became a soprano on one of those poles during a fall. I'll never forget that.

In the center of this photo is the rope tow engine housing for the bunny hill. It looks high up on the mountain but it wasn't. There seems to be a lack of perspective here. From the lodge, you had to skate over to the rope tow, ride it up, then slide down to the T-100 pomalift. You can barely make out the T-100 towers in this photo, they are to the left of the rope tow. You can see the return tower on top of the mountain, the other towers are in line with it.

Here's a photo from the top of the T-100. You can see the street lights going up the mountain in this photo. If you look at the guy in the lower left corner, behind him you can see the snow fence running across Sunny Ridge above the B-20 return tower. That tower is to the right of the fence. The B-20 trails started right behind the parking lot at the bottom of the hill. They were sometimes a little hard to get to because of this. The guys who ran the snow plows probably didn't ski and didn't care so they would bank up huge piles of snow, dirt, rocks and whatever they plowed up over the B-20 entrances. Typical Army. Those trails skirted around the side of the mountain for about a mile and all culminated at the pomalift station. If you were lucky you could find your way by following someone else's tracks in the snow. If there was fresh snow and you were the first one on the trail, well, you sure had to know where you were going. I was wrapped around a tree one day and buried in a creek on another while exploring new trails after a night of heavy snow.

Then, there was the notorious bathroom. That was the building to the left of the quonset huts in the center of the picture. Inside, there was only a toilet seat mounted on a big steel pipe that seemed to be bottomless. I have no idea where that pipe went nor do I want to know.

I have oomlahs of these old Arctic Valley lift tickets from 1961-1963.  [see below]  They cost $.50 back in those days. Would you rather have them individually scanned? How many do you want to see?. I'm working on getting some old photographs scanned, they're a little faded after all these years.

I was a teen-ager in the sixties and I practically lived at Arctic Valley for six months out of the year. I knew the place inside out.  The pomalift to the top of the mountain and it's associated ski area down to the lodge was called the T-100. The six trails skirting around the side of the lower half of the mountain were known as the B-20.  These trails weren't marked anywhere so we were somewhat on our own finding our way to the pomalift at the bottom. This pomalift was also called the B-20. I can tell you much more, what mysteries are there?

Ed Corey

1963 Arctic Valley Pictures Courtesy of Dick Sawyer
[Photo credits:  Dick Sawyer]

[31 May 2013 Dick Sawyer email excerpt]  Hunting though some old files I found these pictures from Arctic Valley Ski Area (Military Side). My dad was the AK District Engineer stationed at Ft. Richardson from 1959 - 1964. My sister Tory and I learned to ski at AV - from Hans Wagner the 10th Mtn. Div. head ski instructor then stationed at Ft. Rich to teach skiing to the troops. I learned to ski race from some really good racers who were on the ski patrol, Luthar Rickerson, Cal Sorenson and Robbie Woltring. Robbie actually competed in the US Nationals at Winter Park. 

It was a glorious place to be a kid. They loaded us on the duce-and-a-halfs at the gym and trucked us up for a day of skiing - AND night skiing - and we had the run of the area. My family was stationed to West Point, NY in 1964 after the earthquake, but I will never forget my first ski real ski area. Actually my first ski area was the Dyea Ski Slope near the Junior HS on Ft. Rich. I had to swipe money from my mom's purse to buy the fifty cent lift ticket because she did not want me to ski and get hurt. Just finished my 53rd ski season at A-Basin today.

The pictures attached are all from AV about 1963, I remember because my dad got his first 35 mm slide camera - and I've scanned these jpg from those slides.

Dick (me) skiing a slalom at AV near the poma lift - you can see the ski jump review stand and the civilian lodge up the valley.

Top of the rope tow looking down towards the road that went up to the Nike site.

Picture looking up the valley towards the civilian side - a busy weekend in the valley.

The AV "ski team," L to R, Louis Ley, Cy Sineth, Dick and Tory Sawyer, Jeff and Tadd Wiley and David Lauterdale - all great skiers and racers.

1962-1965 Arctic Valley Memories and Pictures Courtesy of Alan Bryson
[Photo credits:  Alan Bryson]

[29 October 2016 Alan Bryson email]   My family arrived in Fort Richardson in the summer of 1962 and left in the summer of 1965. We lived between Beluga Avenue and Dyea Avenue – almost directly across the street from the Dyea Ski Slope. The son of our military sponsor, Butch Dixon, was my age (11) and already an avid skier. Once the snow arrived Butch lent me a pair of ancient looking wooden skis – the tip of the left ski was held in place by a plate from an erector set.

At the base of the Dyea Ski Slope he showed me how to side step up the hill, turn around on skis, and snowplow. Then we got in line for the rope tow. I got off, put my poles on and started down the hill without even attempting to snowplow. Amazingly, with my arms flailing like an inflatable tube man I made it to the bottom without crashing. The exhilaration of speeding down the hill and the sense of utter freedom was overwhelming – in a matter of seconds I was completely hooked on skiing. For Christmas I got my own skis and the Arctic Valley Ski Bowl became my primary winter residence.

Thanks to the long ski season, flood lights, free transportation, and cheap lift tickets*, kids in my situation probably managed to cram more experience into one season than an average skier does in two or more seasons somewhere else. By the end of the 2nd season most of us were pretty good, and by the end of the 3rd season our skis were no longer equipment, they were appendages.

*(As far as I remember the season pass started during the 64/65 season, and cost $15 for kids. However, that's going way back, so I'm not completely certain.)
It was such a nice surprise to see Dick Sawyer's HQ photos and read his note. He was two years ahead of me in school, and he was starting his 4th ski season as I was beginning my first. He was an excellent skier, and someone whom we younger kids all looked up to. He mentioned Robbie Woltring in his note – Robbie had rock star status in our eyes. I can still recall “listening in” to him at the lodge as he regaled a group about how he boldly went to the General to get the Army to sponsor him for US Nationals at Winter Park, and talking about how they sprayed the slalom course at the Nationals with a water hose to make it icy. He was an exceptional talent, as well as a charismatic and unforgettable character. There was another exceptional skier on the ski patrol who could do a flip on skis, if memory serves, that was Cal Sorenson.

Another super nice guy on the ski patrol was “Swanee” Swanson. My parents never skied and didn't have an inkling that I had any talent as a skier, so the idea of me racing at Mt. Alyeska never occurred to them (or me). Swanee thought I should, so he came by my house one evening and spoke to my parents. He offered to take me with him and his wife to Mt. Alyeska so I could race. I was a bratty immature 13 year old, and looking back it is amazing to me that he went to such lengths for me – he even let me sleep in a cot in their motel room. I hope he gets some major karma points for that.

Several people mentioned the deuce-and-a-half trucks that transported us up to the Ski Bowl. I have two especially vivid memories relating to them. One was toward the end of 1963 or perhaps the beginning of 1964. Someone sitting in the back of the truck had a transistor radio and I heard the Beatles for the first time as we waited in front of the field house to leave. They were singing, “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and I remember someone saying they were English. We didn't believe it because they didn't have English accents when singing.

I can pinpoint the exact time of my other memory, and again it was sitting in a deuce-and-a-half in front of the field house on Fort Richardson. It was 5:36pm on March 27, 1964 – Good Friday. The truck started shaking violently, and I thought a group of people were outside jostling it as a prank. I got to the opening to look out, lost my balance and fell to the ground. Landing on my back, I looked up at the field house swaying back and forth above me. Long story short, after 4 and a half minutes of struggling just to remain standing during the great earthquake, most of us got back in the truck and went up to the Ski Bowl!

Once we arrived it was clear something big had happened. Naturally there was no skiing, and someone made the command decision that the truck was grounded because there could be crevasses in the roads. The plan was for all of us to remain safely in the lodge overnight. Employing the same cloudy thinking that got us up there after the earthquake, a group of us young knuckleheads decided to sneak off and ski down the road since there was snow. So in the dark we took off and managed to do some skiing after all.

Once we got to the golf club we took off our skis and began the very long walk home. Being teens we were afraid of getting a DR (delinquency report) by going through the main gate so late at night, so we “snuck” sneaked on post through the woods. I think I got home sometime before midnight.

BTW, I was really surprised to see myself in one of the photos posted by Sam Anderson. That's me in the light colored pants on the steps of the Bear Paw Lodge.

I don't remember taking the photos I submitted, but I have the original negatives, so I assume they were indeed mine.

The clipping about the Arctic Valley Ski Spree is from the Anchorage Daily Times from January 26, 1965. This was a big ski party with an unsanctioned race on Saturday Jan, 23rd organized by Hans Metz and the operators of the civilian side of Arctic Valley. Hans came over to the military side and recruited us to take part, and we were particularly excited about it because that day they accepted our military tickets on the civilian side. Skiing the T-Bar slopes was like an exotic ski vacation for us kids.

I had just recently turned 14, and I was in the 14 to 18 group, so I didn't expect to win. To be completely honest, there was a sanctioned giant slalom the following day at Mt. Alyeska. So there's no doubt a lot of ski racers from Anchorage were there that weekend. The Alyeska race got a small column at the bottom of the same newspaper page without a photo – seems like ski politics were at play, and the Arctic Valley operators got the upper hand for a change.

Nearly 20 years after leaving Alaska, I moved to Europe and finally went skiing again – in the Northern Italian Alps. It turns out skiing is indeed like riding a bike, even after 20 years I was about 70% the skier I was as a kid in Alaska. Now I can get to Kitzbuhel, Austria almost as quickly as I got from Fort Richardson to the Ski Bowl. But for me that time in Alaska was as good as it gets.

Thank you so much for the very interesting historical information and for preserving the memories of people who were lucky enough to have experienced the Ski Bowl.

[29 October 2016 Disk Sawyer Facebook post regarding the 1964 earthquake]   I was bending over tying my long thong up at the bottom of the rope tow just above the Bear Paws Lodge at Arctic Valley when the earthquake hit. I distinctly remember my first thought, that I was getting sick and dizzy, but then the sound hit. I was skiing with my sister Tory Sawyer and with one of Arctic Valley Ski Rats Cy Sineath who was down in the lodge. When I hit the ground I was paralyzed as the ground swelled up and down. I remember looking up the valley towards the civilian side of Arctic Valley Ski Area seeing the "waves" roll down towards all of us lying on the ground, The wave would hit, lift us into the air then drop us into the trough - very nasty and unnerving. I also remember the rumble from deep in the earth like boulders grinding together - the lift towers and light poles were swaying drastically, the cable fell off the poem lift and very vaguely I remember some folks screaming with all that movement. It lasted about five minutes and then stopped leaving us all stunned. Getting up off the snow someone said Anchorage must have been hit by a nuclear bomb, but we looked down the valley towards town which you could just nearly make out and all was well - AND there were no missiles on their launchers at the Nike base above Arcitic Valley - and no jets taking off from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson JBER (official) - so that was out and then someone said it must be an Earthquake - a big one. Communications were out with Ft. Rich and Anchorage (land lines and they were all down - I think they had radio communication but it was out as well). So, we sorted it out and they loaded us on the shuttle busses to send us back down to the Field House. It was my most memorable ski moment - something I will never forget..

1964 Arctic Valley Pictures Courtesy of Sam Anderson
[Photo credits:  Sam Anderson]

Late 1960s Photo Courtesy of Mark Murdough
[Photo credits:  Mark Murdough]

Arctic Valley Pictures Courtesy of Milt West, who was stationed at Nike Site Summit during 1965-1965

[Photo credits:  Milt West]

Arctic Valley Pictures Courtesy of Randy Sauder - 1966-1967

[Photo credits:  Randy Sauder]

Porter Family at Arctic Valley Pictures Courtesy of Kay Steward - 1968 - 1972

Our family lived on Fort Richardson from May 1967 until May of 1972. We started skiing at Arctic Valley in January of 1968, we also took lessons from Hans Metz.  It was ridiculously affordable to learn to ski at Arctic Valley, 50 cents to rent skis and 50 cents for a lift ticket!  A family season pass was $25!  Shortly after starting lessons we bought our own skis, our first purchased bindings were Cubco’s and wood skis. As us kids outgrew ski gear we upgraded. We started with the stretch ski pants and a few years later the styles changed to the “warmup pants” made from the same waterproof material as the ski jackets.  We were forever wearing our gloves out on the rope tows.

I attended Arcturus Junior High on Fort Richardson for seventh, eighth and ninth grades, between 1969 -1972.  It seemed that everyone skied.  If our parents couldn’t drive us, there was always the shuttle (deuce and a half Army transport) bus that you caught at the field house. My brothers and I raced a bit.

My friend, Lyn Isaacson, skied together a lot. Her dad, Lt. Col. Roger Isaacson, was president of the Arctic Valley Ski Club during those years. We would meet on Sunday evenings at the Moose Run Golf Course lodge at the bottom of the ski road where we would watch Warren Miller Ski movies and have award ceremonies following races.  The ski club also sponsored overnight trips for the teens to go to Alyeska.

I’m still in contact with Lyn Isaacson and Max Stevens from those years. Whenever we get together, conversations always return to our ski days at Arctic Valley.

The Porter Family, 1969, at Arctic Valley.  My dad,  MSgt. James Porter and mom, Geri; with us kids Ron, who started skiing at  age two, Kay and Doug.

Kay Porter Steward going up the Poma to the T, 1971

Standing at the bottom of the bunny hill at Arctic Valley, 1968

The lodge at Arctic Valley, 1972

Arctic Valley Pictures And Memories Courtesy of Jim Cucurull - Mid 60's - 1983

[Photo credits:  Jim Cucurull]

It was such a pleasure to find the lost ski areas site. My name is Jim Cucurull and I practically lived at Arctic Valley from the time my family arrived in Anchorage in 1964 through high school and college years in the early ‘80s. I was a member of the Arctic Valley Ski Club and proudly skied and raced for it – especially in mortal combat with the kids from the Elmendorf ski area (Hillberg) and those dreaded “ringers” from Alyeska.

My father Philip (Phil) Cucurull, who passed in 2000, was a very close friend of Fred Murdough’s and he was a club official and USSA race official, etc. Fred and his mixed military / civilian crews kept a watchful eye on me, my brothers, and Fred’s son Mark.  I skied at AV every night after school, taking the deuce-and-a-half “bus” from Buckner Fieldhouse on Ft. Rich. The hot set-up was to make sure you were on the “chow truck” taking the hot dinner to the troops at the Nike missile site and Arctic Valley – found in insulated metal carriers that were not locked.

My mother Erna was a student of the Hans Metz “smooth school style” – whom my father would lovingly tease (after paying for private lessons) with taunts like “bend zee knees – five dollars please!”  Mostly I think she just loved being able to talk in her native German for the day. I started on rental equipment from the hill (Oh yeah! Head Standards with Cubco bindings!) until I graduated to “real” gear from Bob Seaman’s and Gary King’s as I grew.

I have more memories than I can recount. Among the great thrills were the Spring ski-jour trips Fred would do up to the top of the Valley with the Thiokol Snowcats – a full load of folks on the bed, others towed on ropes behind – which is where I first saw the Nike booster stages imbedded in the ground. Not so great was almost burning the Bear Paw lodge to the ground by sticking my foil wrapped frozen sandwich into this new-fangled thing called a “microwave” oven.

The Cucurull and Murdough families had Thanksgiving dinner together every year. One year we kids were jumping off the roof of the lodge into some massive snow drifts and we managed to loose Fred’s Suburban keys (not sure why we had those!). Of course we were the last folks on the hill – and had to call Fred’s wife Gise and my Mom to come get us – some six hours later.

We used to slide down to the long-closed B-20 warming hut for “kicks”, and then crawl back up in chest deep snow. As a teen I’ll never forget the haunting sounds of The Allman Brother’s “Whipping Post” playing in the dark and freezing January nights over the area’s outdoor army-issue PA system – echoing up the empty Valley after most folks had cleared out. Eventually I got my first job working as a lift rat for the Luedkes on the “Civilian Side”.

A few years ago I went up from the old lodge site to the remains of the snow fence line on Sunny Ridge – dang, did that bring back some emotions! More emotional was the sight of the numerous and sizable piles of bear scat!

Locating the Site of a Tragic 1955 Ski Area Accident

In 1955 Bob Thompson was tragically killed when a truck carrying John Goetz and him rolled down the mountain on which the Arctic Valley Ski area is located.  Bob was a member of the Castner's Cutthroats Army Scouts and one of the founders of the Arctic Valley Ski Area.  At the time Bob was driving a 6-wheel "deuce and a half" (2 1/2 ton) military truck loaded with fuel for the lift power plant at the top of the ridge.  The truck apparently started sliding and then began rolling down the mountain.  Goetz was hurt badly, but lived through the accident.  In May 2005, 50 years after this accident, Jim Renkert, Stuart Grenier and Tim Kelley located the truck and Tim photographed the remains.

Chair 1 at Arctic Valley, built in 1971 by the Anchorage Ski Club, is named the Thompson Lift after Bob Thompson. The chairlift has not been operable for several years but the Anchorage Ski Club is working hard to hire contractors and start a fundraising campaign to renovate its use. There is also the 'Thompson Trophy' that the ski club gives to its most dedicated volunteer every year.

[Photo credits:  Tim Kelley]

[Right] Jim Renkert stands next to a large discarded fuel tank.  Another tank even larger than this is in the trees a several hundred feet below.

[Next row] Fuel drums that were likely on Thompson's truck can be found down the fall line from the truck wreckage.  The ski poles in the pictures below point up the fall line to the truck site.  Photos below taken by Tim Kelley in October 2008.

Grace and Bob Thompson, circa 1955

[Photo credit:  Grace Thompson]

Old Arctic Valley Rope Tow Power Plant in the Alpenglow Parking Lot

[Photo credits: Tim Kelley 2008]

Can anyone remember what this building still standing near the base of the Arctic Valley ski area site was used for?  Thanks.

[Photo credits: Tim Kelley 2008]

Closing the Arctic Valley Ski Bowl - for Missile Firing Practice

In 1960, according to an August 1960 Anchorage Times article entitled "Closing of Ski Bowl", it was mentioned that the Arctic Valley Ski Bowl would be closed that coming March for the test firing of missiles.  Nike Hercules missiles were launched close to straight up from the missile batteries of Site Summit on a neighboring hilltop.  After 4 seconds the main missile would separate from the first stage booster and continue on towards Mt. Witherspoon in the Chugach Mountain Range.  The spent first stage booster would then coast to 45,000 feet of altitude before plummeting to the ground near the ski area.  Judging by the pictures below, and the size of the booster segments - it was a wise decision to keep skiers out of the area !!

[Photo credits:  Tim Kelley, except where otherwise credited]

Sleuthing the little known Arctic Valley Ski Jump - November 2005
(Click any photo to enlarge it)

[Photo Credits: Tim Kelley]

This flat section is the lip of the jump, from which the jumpers would take flight.

The Search for the (Almost) Forgotten Arctic Valley Ski Area Poma Lift

In May 2005 Stuart Grenier led Jim Renkert and Tim Kelley on a search for remnants of the almost forgotten Poma lift that once served slopes BELOW the ski lodge and parking lot site.  What was found is documented below.  This was a sizeable Poma lift, the vertical it serviced was almost 1000 feet.  Stuart quoted Norm Pitchler as saying the slopes the Poma lift served back in the 1960's were very windswept and eventually the lift was abandoned due to the prevailing southeast Ship Creek Valley winds.

[Photo credits:  Tim Kelley]

Remains of warm-up hut at base of lift.

Above tree-line a couple of the old Poma lift tower pedestals can be found.  The one in the far right picture was apparently the top tower's base.

Good luck finding these lift remnants when the leaves and grass come out.  As you can see, we made the search just after the snow mostly cleared from the area.

Late Summer and Fall 2005 Shots of the Arctic Valley Ski Area Site

[Photo credits:  Tim Kelley]

November 2005 shots from the Arctic Valley Ski Area: tower base on the left, highbush cranberries on the right (VERY tasty after the first freeze!).

November 2005 panoramic shot from the top of the Arctic Valley Ski Area site.
(click on this image to expand it)