Alaska is off to a great winter, with cold temperatures and plenty of snow for snowmobiling and cross-country, downhill, and backcountry skiing, a blessed relief after the warm winter of 2002-03, when many events had to be cancelled for lack of snow. As I write this in December, skiing areas in Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau are all operating and dog mushing races look like they will take place on their scheduled routes. As always, I welcome questions and post answers, as well as other writings and links, on my own website: www.wohlforth.net.
Trip Planning
A travel planner who got in over her head messed up many vacations and damaged the reputation of other tour planning agencies when her firm, Ask Alaska Travel and Tours, suddenly went out of business during 2003. Claiming to be the largest Alaska custom tour planner in the business, Ask Alaska kept operating even though it was losing money, and was unable to make good on many reservations and pre-paid trips, leaving travelers stranded. The owner of the firm is also alleged to have taken credit card numbers from customers and used them to pay her own business expenses. The moral of the story for readers is: know your credit card issuer's fraud protection policies, and buy a travel insurance policy from an independent, reputable firm.
Cruising Alaska's Coast
One of the best small-ship and adventure cruise lines, Glacier Bay Cruiseline (tel. 800/451-5952; www.glacierbaycruiseline.com), is currently being sold to a new, independent owner. The change shouldn't affect passengers for the upcoming season. The cruise line has a new physical and mailing address, 2101 4th Ave., Ste. 2200, Seattle, WA 98121, due to a move in November 2003. All other contact information remains the same.
Southeast Alaska
The Alaska Marine Highway System (tel. 800/642-0066; www.alaska.gov/ferry) launched its new fast ferry, the Fairweather, in November. After a bit of political controversy, Governor Murkowski decided to homeport the new ship in Juneau rather than Sitka, as originally planned. The Fairweather will still run to Sitka, cutting the time for the trip between Juneau and Sitka from 8 hours, 45 minutes, to a mere 4 hours, 30 minutes. Although it will run to Sitka, the new ship will operate mostly between Juneau, Haines and Skagway. With all the politicking done, the new ferry schedule is finally online. Juneau has 13 new historic signs posted on downtown streets to orient visitors and to relate the stories of the buildings in the area.
A final decision was finally made in the long, litigious battle over how many cruise ships should be allowed to enter Glacier Bay National Park's waters. The National Park Service (tel. 907/697-2230; www.nps.gov/glba) set the number of ship entry permits at current levels, about two per day over the summer, but laid out a plan to determine if a higher number might be acceptable in the future. The Park Service is currently reviewing bids for a concessionaire company to operate services at Glacier Bay, but still has not reached a decision on whether the existing company will continue or if a new one will be chosen.
Next summer (2004) you will be able to take a walking tour on wheels in Ketchikan, Sitka, Wrangell, Skagway, Anchorage or Talkeetna using a Segway human transporter, the high-tech, two-wheeled, self-propelled vehicles. Alaska Travel Adventures (tel. 800/478-0052 in Alaska or 800/791-2673 outside Alaska; www.alaskaadventures.com), the largest operator of cruise ship shore tours and other similar offerings, will put visitors on Segways in groups led by guides. Guests will wear helmets with built-in communications equipment so they can hear the guide's commentary.
Anchorage
All the snow should make this a good year for visitors who want to see the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race (tel. 907/376-5155; www.iditarod.com) and other fun wintertime events that were marred or cancelled by last year's warm weather. The Anchorage Fur Rendezvous, known as the Fur Rondy (tel. 907/274-1177; www.furrondy.net), with its many community activities and World Championship Sled Dog Races, has added an extra week to its schedule of events. The final weekend of the Fur Rondy will include the start of the Iditarod on March 6. Check the websites above for the latest.
Kenai Peninsula and Prince William Sound
The long-awaited showcase for the Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, known as the Alaska Island and Ocean Visitor Center (tel. 907/235-6961; www.islandsandocean.org), opened in Homer in December. The new center is a work of art, made of dark rock and glass, and sits above lovely Bishop's Beach, which is reached by a nature trail. Inside, innovative exhibits introduce travelers to Alaska's marine environment. The Seabird Experience Theater reproduces the sight, sound, and even the smell and feel of a remote seabird colony, with misty air that wafts across visitors. Admission is free, and hours are Memorial Day to Labor Day daily 9am to 6pm; winter Thursday through Saturday 10am to 5pm.
The ferry Bartlett, which for three decades plied Prince William Sound to connect the communities of Valdez, Whittier and Cordova, was retired and sold on ebay for $389,500 to a retired Alaskan fishing industry executive, who had no definite idea of what to do with a 1,500-ton ship capable of carrying 29 cars and 236 passengers, but knew a good bargain when he saw it. The route that the Bartlett ran will now be served by the Aurora, a similar ferry that used to serve villages around Ketchikan, in Southeast Alaska. A new fast ferry, the Chenega, will eventually replace the Aurora in the Sound, possibly in 2005. More information on both can be found by logging onto www.alaskaferry.com.
Cordova's main hotel, The Reluctant Fisherman, went out of business due to the death of the owner, but a new lodge in town is getting good reviews. The Orca Adventure Lodge (tel. 907/424-7249; www.orcaadventurelodge.com) is housed within the walls of a quaint old cannery north of town, and has a restaurant and 34 comfortable rooms with private bathrooms. Lodgings are available as room-only ($125 double) or as a package with meals and free use of outdoor equipment such as sea kayaks included ($135 per person, double occupancy). Fish spawn right in front of the lodge, and kayaking and fishing excursions launch from the front door. In March and April, helicopters land on the property to whisk travelers off for alpine skiing excursions.
The Alaskan Interior
Bernie Karl, the colorful owner of the Chena Hot Springs Resort (tel. 800/478-4681 or 907/451-8104; www.chenahotsprings.com), located outside of Fairbanks, got international media attention this winter with his plan to create a hotel entirely out of carved ice, hiring a world-champion carver to fill a 30-foot-high gothic arch of ice with sculptures, furniture, and even beds and martini glasses of solid ice. When asked who was designing the structure, Karl told a reporter that no architect or engineer would touch it, because the project was too risky. Weeks from the planned opening, the state Fire Marshal got cold feet and closed down the project, stating the same reason as the architects and engineers. Undeterred, Bernie Karl is going ahead with construction, saying the former hotel is now "a sculpture," and declaring that his First Amendment right to free speech gives him the authority to keep building the edifice and thus express himself. If it works, the structure will be a marvel, complete with internal freezer coils that Karl hopes will keep it standing through the summer.
The Bush
Alaska Airlines (tel. 800/252-7522; www.alaskaair.com) stopped jet service from Anchorage to Dutch Harbor/Unalaska in January 2004 and turned over the route to PenAir (tel. 800/448-4226; www.penair.com), a commuter carrier in the region. Because the weather is often bad in the Aleutian Islands, Alaska's jet wasn't able to land at Dutch Harbor about 20 percent of the time, sometimes for four days or more consecutively. PenAir will use 30-passenger turbo-prop planes and will offer more frequent service. The hope is that the turbo props, which can divert to smaller nearby airports to wait out a squall, will make it to the Aleutians more reliably.