Taylor Pass Ski

4/24/25

As the St. Elias Alpine Guides crew began to show up in Alaska for their pre-season trips, I found myself hosting many of them for their layover days in Anchorage before they headed out on their bigger trips. In their time crashing on my couch, floor, and anywhere else they could squeeze, I managed to get a day off from work to take them all out skiing in Turnagain Pass. I had just returned from a trip to Cordova, and I was unsure of what had been happening in the mountains while I was gone; this led to me reaching out to Raven to see what he recommended. I was thrilled to hear he also had a friend in town and that they were heading up Taylor Pass for their day.

When we arrived at the Sunburst Parking lot, we quickly picked up on Raven and his friend’s tracks as they were about an hour ahead of us. We made decent time, stopping to enjoy the come-and-go views between the clouds that had us questioning if we’d have any visibility once we got to the skiing. As we gained the high valley, we spotted the group ahead of us nearing the pass. From that point forward, I was able to communicate with Raven via our radios, and he told us they were going to begin the climb to the peak that separates Taylor Pass from Goldpan and wait for either a clearing in the skies, or for us to catch up–whichever came first.

We did our best to catch up, and with no breaks in the clouds it seemed like we were in for some braille skiing; however, just as we were topping out, our window appeared. With clear skies above us, we hastily transitioned and began skiing the slope one at a time. Raven took off first to test the slope and provide eyes from the bottom, and then we sent our visitors down one after the other following him. I skied last and was blessed with perfect beta from everyone before me. The group at the bottom told me exactly where to roll over onto the slope, and I found a proud, steep line back down to the valley floor.

By the time I reached the bottom of the run, clouds had moved back in. This led to our decision to work our way back out to the car. With mellow terrain between us and there, the large group of us party-lapped back to the road and in no time we were having the Hungry Deckhand at Girdwood Brewing Company, a classic after any day in Turnagain Pass.