Every legendary place has an origin story. The Tsaina Lodge, on Thompson Pass in Valdez, Alaska, has one of the best - a bush pilot with an idea, an abandoned roadhouse, a world championship, and the skiers who turned a stretch of the Richardson Highway into the epicenter of big-mountain skiing.
A pilot looks up (late 1980s)
In the late 1980s, Alaskan bush pilot Chuck McMahan was driving the Richardson Highway toward Valdez. Surrounded by snow-covered mountains, he started thinking he could land on top of them - and let skiers ride them down.
In spring 1987, a small group of Valdez skiers gathered for the first airplane-assisted skiing on Thompson Pass, flown by McMahan. The operation was a success. The skiers could not believe how good the snow was up there, and they came back, again and again.
An abandoned roadhouse becomes a base (1988)
In 1988, Michael Cozad - one of the lucky early riders flying with McMahan - bought the Tsaina Lodge. It had been a roadhouse for oil truckers since 1949, but by then it was just an abandoned building beside the highway. What it had was position: it sat in the heart of Thompson Pass. Cozad and McMahan had an idea. Bring a helicopter here, and start flying skiers.
The World Extreme Skiing Championships (1991)
To kick-start the business, and with the support of the city of Valdez, they launched the first annual World Extreme Skiing Championships on Thompson Pass. The competition introduced some of the world’s best and most influential skiers to the mountains of Alaska - among them Jim Conway, Seth Morrison, Jeff Zell and Doug Coombs.
In April 1991, when the first competition took place, judges and contestants gathered at the Tsaina Lodge. It became a kind of clubhouse where the best skiers on Earth hung out. The mayor of Valdez and half the town’s residents showed up to watch Doug Coombs crowned World Champion.
From that day, Valdez was the place to be for extreme skiers and snowboarders worldwide - and the Tsaina Lodge was its epicenter. Doug Coombs founded Valdez Heli-Ski Guides in 1993, using the lodge as the pied-a-terre for his skiers, who came to appreciate its never-ending parties.
Changing hands, and a flood (2000-2006)
When Michael Cozad moved on, Liza Wax acquired the Tsaina Lodge, which continued to serve as the base of VHSG. In 2000, Scott Raynor purchased Valdez Heli-Ski Guides from Doug and Emily Coombs - though Doug and Emily kept guiding for VHSG through 2005.
Then, after the 2005 season, the Tsaina property flooded. The original lodge became unusable. VHSG kept operating from the property the following year, but had no choice but to house guests in hotels down in Valdez.
Rebuilt from its own materials (2011-2012)
In 2011, Jeff and Ingrid Fraser - who had been skiing with VHSG since the late 1990s - could not let their favorite lodge stay in disarray. They purchased the Tsaina property from Liza Wax to restore it, and the new Tsaina Lodge was ready for the 2012 season.
The new bar area, the heart of the lodge, was designed after the original - and built with materials salvaged from it. It still pumps the same good feelings into everyone who walks in.
One company, one lodge (2018)
In 2018, Jeff and Ingrid purchased Valdez Heli-Ski Guides from Scott Raynor - finally merging the heli-ski company and its emblematic lodge into a single entity.
Why it still matters
The Tsaina Lodge is not just a lodge that happens to sit in the right place for heli-skiing. This is where Alaskan heli-skiing began, and that history hangs over the place.
When you have had one of the best ski days of your life, you do not want to go back to an empty room. You want to share it - with the strangers crowding the bar, listening to their stories, having a drink. And by the end of the night, those strangers might just be your friends.
