Alyeska
Alyeska Ski Resort is a ski area located in the state of Alaska in USA. The resort is in the town of Girdwood, AK.
We recently ranked all of Alaska's ski resorts, so you can see where Alyeska stacks up against all its nearby ski hills!
Season Passes
Alyeska is a part of the Ikon Ski Pass network. This allows you to buy one lift pass, and ski at all or most of the Ikon-sponsored slopes with it throughout the year, depending on the type of pass you bought.
Lodging Options
There are numerous options to stay at Alyeska around the resort. Check out the available options with the form below.
Alyeska Mountain Resort Terrain Overview
Alyeska has a total of 76 ski trails, which are serviced by 7 ski lifts, gondolas and/or trams. The amount of skiable area in this park is huge, with a maximum of 1,610 acres available to skiers. This area is equivalent to 652 hectares, 2.5 square miles, or 6.5 square kilometers.
Alyeska's slopes see on average 650 inches (16.5 meters) of snowfall a year. That is almost 54 feet every year!
Total Runs
76
Lifts
7
Skiable Acres
1,610(7 km2)
Annual Snowfall
650"(1,651 cm)
Alyeska Ski Resort Elevation
Alyeska Ski Resort has a summit elevation of 3,939 feet, or 1,201 meters. However, not all of that elevation is able to be skied. The base of the ski slope sits at 250 feet above sea level, creating a ski hill that is 3,689 feet (1,124 meters) high. This is referred to as the slope's vertical drop - or a measure of how high the skiable hill is.
Alyeska's summit elevation is about average. There are a lot of ski slopes that are quite a bit higher, but also many that are much, much smaller.
Summit Elevation
3,939'(1,201 m)
Vertical Drop
3,689'(1,124 m)
Base Elevation
250'(76 m)
Alyeska Ski Resort Difficulty Level
Difficulty Score™
77out of 100
DID YOU KNOW?
At Parks & Trips, we've created a proprietary Difficulty Score that attempts to show how difficult a particular ski slope is. We get to this number by combining a number of metrics for each resort and comparing them to its peers. Most of the score is based off the amount of easy-intermediate-expert slopes by acreage and the maximum vertical drop of the overall resort, but also includes a few lesser-used metrics as well.
Our algorithm compares each resort’s metrics with all others in North America, then assigns each a Difficulty Score, which we use to rank them accordingly. Resorts with a lower score are easier to ski than those with a higher one. However, a high score does not mean that the resort does not have any easy slopes, or vice versa. This is just an overall score given to the resort based on all its metrics grouped together.
Skiable Terrain by Difficulty Level
Alyeska has 1,610 total skiable acres, which can be broken down into the three main groups of difficulty: Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert.
Seeing as Alyeska is one of the hardest ski areas in the country, it's no surprise that over 89% of its trails rated as either intermediate or expert-level. This leaves only 11% of its skiable acres as beginner terrain.
Beginner
11%(177 acres)
Beginner trails (identified by a green circle) are the easiest trails on the hill with a gradual 25% or less gradient, and are usually wide to accommodate beginner skiers.
Intermediate
52%(837 acres)
Intermediate trails (identified by a blue square) are usually the most popular and crowded runs, which have a slope of anywhere between 25-40%.
Expert
37%(596 acres)
Expert trails (identified by a black diamond... or two) are the hardest slopes on the mountain, and have very steep gradients over 40%.
Is Alyeska Ski Resort good for beginners?
This is one of the hardest ski areas in the country to ski at, so it is not great for beginners. Alyeska Ski Resort ranks in the top 10% of the most-difficult ski resorts in the country. It has 37% of its trails rated as expert, or black-diamond level.
Alyeska Ski Resort Location
Alyeska Ski Resort is located in the state of Alaska, USA. This ski area is nearest the town of Girdwood, AK.
Address:
Girdwood, AK 99587 USA
View on Google Maps
Website:
alyeskaresort.com
GPS Coordinates:
60.97000, -149.11000
Getting to Alyeska Mountain Resort
By Car: If you are driving, you would set your GPS to either the ski resort's name (Alyeska Ski Resort), its coordinates of 60.97000, -149.11000 (latitude, longitude), or simply drive towards the town of Girdwood, AK to get close.
By Air: If you are coming in from across the country, then you may need to board an airplane to get here.
A large airport has scheduled major airline service with millions of passengers per year. This type of airport always accepts international flights. Here are the closest large airport(s) to Alyeska Ski Resort.
| Name | Code | City | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport | ANC | Anchorage, AK | 33 mi |
A medium-sized airport has scheduled regional airline service. This type of airport may or may not accept international flights. Here are the closest medium-sized airport(s) to Alyeska.
| Name | Code | City | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Merle K (Mudhole) Smith Airport | CDV | Cordova, AK | 127 mi |
There may also be much smaller regional airports next to Alyeska Ski Resort, but we didn't list them here due to the fact that no major airlines go through them.
Other Nearby Ski Resorts
Skiers will - especially if coming from far away - try and visit a couple different slopes all in the same trip. Here are the closest other ski slopes within 100 miles of Alyeska Ski Resort.
| Name | Location | Summit | Difficulty Score™ | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arctic Valley | Eagle River, AK | 3,900 ft | 48% | 25 mi |
| Hilltop Ski Area | Anchorage, AK | 894 ft | 12% | 34 mi |
Alyeska Ski Resort Mountain Stats
| Name | Statistic |
|---|---|
| Summit Elevation | 3,939 ft |
| Base Elevation | 250 ft |
| Vertical Drop | 3,689 ft |
| Trails | 76 (11% Beginner, 52% Intermediate, 37% Expert) |
| Lifts | 7 |
| Skiable Acres | 1,610 |
| Avg. Annual Snowfall | 650 inches |