You don’t have to be a glutton for punishment or under age 35 to visit Alaska in the winter; you do have to love bracingly chilly temperatures and to pack warm clothes. It helps to be a baby boomer or senior who loves outdoor adventures from skiing to skating to sled dog racing.
However counterintuitive it is to think about travel to Alaska in February and March, that is when the ski resorts and Anchorage welcome business. It is no more than a 90-minute drive along good roads from Anchorage’s international airport to Girdwood, where Alyeska, the state's biggest ski and snowboard resort is.
Using Anchorage as the hub, travelers can plan a multipronged adventure over a week to 10 days that includes downhill skiing, a winter carnival, cross-country skiing, glacier viewing and the start of the fabled Iditarod race.
Three Fine Centrally Located Hotels
Among the largest hotels in downtown Anchorage, two that are reasonably priced, centrally located and excellent as comfortable base camps: are the independently owned Captain Cook and the Hilton Anchorage. Both are situated so visitors can get splendid vistas from their rooms and can walk to major attractions. A smaller, more charming and less expensive choice is the historic Anchorage Hotel, located at 4th and E Streets as close to the Iditarod start as the Hilton and with more charm.
The ceremonial start of the Iditarod, which in 2012 is on Sat. March 3, according to the official website takes place in the center of downtown Anchorage and caps more than a week of silly and serious events cumulatively called “Fur Rondy,” short for Fur Rendezvous.
Fur Rondy - From Outhouse Races to Running Reindeer
On the first weekend at the end of February you can watch championship sled dog sprint races through downtown streets as well as championship outhouse races, in which humans try their best to behave like animals carrying fancifully decorated mobile commodes through the snow. (You have to be there.)
Fur Rondy also includes actual fur auctions – not something that will ever be sanctioned by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, blanket toss contests, the “running of the reindeer” (an Alaskan version of the running of the bulls in Spain, although there tend to be just a few tame reindeer and a lot of quite inebriated runners), a parade and a carnival.
For a world class event, the Iditarod is a remarkably security-free moving caravan. Before the ceremonial start, visitors can mingle freely among the mushers and their handsome, athletic dogs. The actual beginning of the marathon competition, which lasts from 10 to 17 days across 1,150 miles of the most extreme and beautiful terrain known to man, is Sunday at Willow Lake in a suburb of Anchorage. Trail’s end is in Nome, far to the north.
In between the Fur Rondy weekends, visitors have the chance to downhill and cross country ski in one of the world’s most awesome landscapes. Alyeska Resort is at the base of the ski lifts, an excellent site for lodging, dining and renting ski equipment. The tram toward near the top of the 3900-foot ski area can be accessed just steps from the hotel.
Both at Girdwood, the town in which Alyeska is located, and at the Anchorage airport, small planes and pilots are available for scenic flights over majestic glaciers that make Alaska a uniquely enchanting state in both winter and summer.
Sources
Author's 2011 trip and interviews
Fur Rondy 2011 brochure
Iditarod.com
Anchorage Convention and Visitors Bureau
AlyeskaResort.com
Grace Lichtenstein - I prefer "seasoned" to "senior" but whatever term you use, I have been an outdoor adventurer for most of my adult years. I am a cycling ...
