Outdoors digest: Arctic Valley celebration, Alyeska cat-skiing, Denali snowmachining

Arctic Valley Ski Area will host a celebration Saturday of the Anchorage Ski Club's 80th anniversary.

Starting with skiing and tubing at 10:30 a.m., festivities will continue into the evening, with lighted night tubing starting at 5:30 p.m., followed by a torchlight parade at 7 p.m. and fireworks at 8:15 p.m.

Food and beverages will be available in the Alpenglow Lodge and the upstairs Afterglow bar. The Cheapest Keys will provide music starting at 6 p.m. Dinner tickets are $15, with more information at www.skiarctic.net.

The Anchorage Ski Club was founded in 1937, well before statehood. It helped sponsor such events as the old City Ski Bowl on the bluff overlooking Ship Creek below Third Avenue.

With the U.S. Army Special Services, the club developed the Arctic Valley Ski Bowl on military land in 1941. By the late 1940s, with the number of skiers growing, the Anchorage Ski Club began developing the Alpenglow Ski Area at its current location. It was renamed Arctic Valley Ski Area later.

Cat-skiing now offered at Alyeska

For skiers looking to carve turns through untracked powder, Alyeska Resort and Chugach Powder Guides are combining to offer cat-skiing at Alaska's largest ski resort.

For the first time in three years, Chugach Powder Guides has the three feet of snow necessary to construct the cat road up the hill.

"In the last month, conditions have really turned on at the low elevations in Girdwood Valley," Chugach Powder Guides general manager Henry Munter said in a press release. "Our snow cat trips, which start and end at The Hotel Alyeska, get into some of the best tree-skiing in Alaska."

A typical day of cat-skiing includes eight runs covering as much as 10,000 vertical feet with a dozen skiers. Terrain options include gladed trees, steep bowls, open powder fields, rock features, pillows and more.

For details, call the hotel at 754-2111.

Chugach Powder Guides is also launching its helicopter skiing operations. Details at 783-4354.

Portions of Denali open to snowmachining

Denali National Park and Preserve officials have determined there's enough snow cover to allow the use of snowmachines for traditional activities in areas of the 1980 park additions south of the crest of the Alaska Range.

All areas of the 1980 park additions north of the crest remain closed to snowmobile use for traditional activities due to inadequate snow.

All lands within the former Mount McKinley National Park on both the north and the south sides of the Alaska Range are closed to snowmobile use by federal regulation.

Officials remind riders that it's their responsibility to avoid locations where damage to vegetation or soils could occur, or where vegetation is taller than the protective snow cover.

Additional information and maps with GPS coordinates for the park and preserve boundary are available on the park website.

Winterfest kicks off Denali centennial

Denali National Park and Preserve Winterfest should be particularly festive this year — it's the kickoff to the park's yearlong celebration of its 100th birthday.

Winterfest is at the Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitor Center in Fairbanks on Feb. 18. Among the guests will be past participants in Denali's Artist-in-Residence program leading talks, readings and hands-on activities. John Morgan, Linda Schandelmeier, Carolyn Kremers and Nicole Stellon O'Donnell will read poems and essays.

The day will conclude with an open microphone opportunity at 3:30 p.m. for audience members to share their own short poems, stories or experiences of Denali.

Participation in the two morning art activities is free and requires no advance registration. Space and supplies are provided.

Details about Winterfest and Denali's 100th birthday activities at the park and gateway communities Feb. 20-26 can be found here:  http://go.nps.gov/Winterfest.