The view in Valdez is tremendous. In every direction the mountains rise into the air, frosted in white, sparkling green in the bright Alaskan summer. Little wonder they call Valdez "Alaska’s little Switzerland". Valdez is a great place to visit on your Alaska vacation. It is a small seaside Alaskan community where the "mountains meet the sea".  Inspiring mountains, fresh sea air, and the most breathtaking views in Alaska.

The peaks of Valdez offer a tremendous variety of heli-skiing, snowcat skiing and snowboarding opportunities, including the ultimate descents, challenging couloirs and tricky spines that introduced the world to “extreme skiing,” and the deep and steep powder runs that allow you to get ALL of your turns in. Valdez offers all this — and everything in between — set in the heart of the spectacular Chugach Mountain Range. It’s Alaska heliskiing at its best! 

The Chugach Range stretches for 300 miles between the Copper River to the east and all the way to Whittier to the west. The southern boundary is the cold ocean waters of Prince William Sound. This coastal range intercepts moisture from the Gulf of Alaska and as a result, spawns a wealth of glaciers born of heavy wet snows.  Alaska has an estimated 100,000 glaciers, ranging from tiny cirque glaciers to huge valley glaciers. There are more active glaciers and ice fields in Alaska than in the rest of the inhabited world. The largest glacier is the Malaspina at 850 square miles. Five percent of the state, or 29,000 square miles, is covered by glaciers.

Valdez has the freshest snow on earth. With a long standing reputation for great snow, more than 300 inches is measured annually in the city. Nearby Thompson Pass has recorded more than 900 inches.
As one might expect with this much snow, Valdez celebrates winter with alpine and cross country skiing on world class trails, as well as with snowboarding, snowmobiling, dog sledding, and ice climbing. Access the backcountry on foot or by helicopter and snowcat for amazing big mountain skiing and snowboarding. Check out  the Valdez Alaska web site for some great information. 

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