Anchorage Daily News

A few hundred to a few thousand feet high in the foothills and mountains above and beyond Anchorage, hard-core snow-sports fans have been at it for weeks:

• Adolescent snowboarder dudes wallowing through fresh snow to gain elevation on the slopes of Hatcher Pass north of Palmer.

• Geezer telemarkers sweating to the top of Manitoba Mountain near Summit Lake on the Kenai Peninsula to grab a few turns.

• Young twin-tippers hiking up beside the terrain park at the Hilltop Ski Area so they can slide a rail back down and do it all over again and again and again.

• Middle-age nordic skaters gliding down Powerline Pass Trail in Chugach State Park above Anchorage or skating the scantily coated trails of Hillside or Kincaid parks on rock skis.

You people know who you are. Some of you would ski frost if that was all that could be found come the start of November.

But mere mortals prefer actual snow, or at least the man-made version.

Hilltop has had some in play for more than two weeks. And the Alyeska Resort in Girdwood -- the state's only real, lift-served ski destination -- has lots more.

Over the course of the last several weeks, the resort has been making snow like mad in preparation for Wednesday's opening. At last report, 28 inches was piled up at the base, 55 inches up top. Mother Nature was pitching in to help too.

A big snowstorm moved in off the Gulf of Alaska on Monday. By noon, a foot of "freshies" was already reported on Alyeska's summit.

NEW AT ALYESKA

That is good news for all skiers, but the really big news at Alyeska is for new skiers as the resort continues to focus on its beginner-friendly terrain. Alyeska years ago expanded easy, lower-mountain runs, and this season makes it quicker and easier to get to them.

A new quad will shorten lift lines at Chair 3 at the base of the bunny hill, while a carpet loader and a new midway off-loading station will make it a cakewalk for those struggling onto Chair 7 right outside the doors of The Hotel Alyeska.

All of this had resort spokesman Jason Lott on Monday sounding pretty chipper about the start of a new season. But then, when you live in Girdwood, it's hard not to get excited about the precipitation coming down white instead of wet in November.

"It's snowing like crazy here," Lott said. Drivers heading south from Anchorage to Girdwood reported driving into a snowstorm at Bird. Lott noted that this is not unusual.

Though only 40 miles apart, Anchorage and Girdwood experience markedly different weather. It can be clear in Anchorage and snowing madly in Girdwood, or vice versa.

The difference between the two communities is best illustrated by snowfall: Anchorage averages about 140 inches per year. The top of the mountain at Alyeska averages 782 inches -- or almost 62 feet.

The Alpenglow at Arctic Valley ski area between Anchorage and Eagle River and the Hilltop Ski Area in town have more Anchorage-like weather.

Arctic Valley has about a foot and a half of snow and needs about a foot more to open. Hilltop is operating on man-made snow, though manager Steve Remme said the young Anchorage residents who flock there to play in the terrain park aren't complaining.

Twenty-five years old this year, Hilltop was built to promote youth skiing and continues to be a youth-dominated area.

Remme remembers seeing the first snowboarder on the slopes in 1983, and "since that time it's just been growing. It's really popular now. At this point, we're probably seeing 60 to 80 percent snowboards."

Times change, though, and there's no guarantee snowboards will continue to dominate the future. Twin-tip skis -- which permit skiing forward, backward and sideways -- already seem to be fueling a shift back to twin planks.

"Those guys," Remme said, "are really into features" -- rails, half-pipes, table tops, anything you can jump off or slide sideways down, including trees where found in a convenient position.

"But we still have a pretty strong ski-beginner program," Remme said.

Later, as skiers' skills improve, they can go big and get off piste in the wild and crazy steeps of Alaska.

Reporter Craig Medred can be reached at cmedred@adn.com or 257-4588.