In its selection of the best trips to take, Outside Magazine turned to Valdez - and told the story of how the Tsaina Lodge became what it is.
From parking-lot tents to a wine cellar
When freeride pioneer Doug Coombs launched Valdez Heli-Ski Guides in 1993, they write, the Tsaina was a grubby base atop snowy Thompson Pass - a place where rowdy freeskiing bums grabbed cheap beers and pitched their tents in the parking lot. Heli drops, back in the day, cost fifteen dollars.
Then a former client, Jeff Fraser, bought the heli operation and the lodge, and ushered in a more discerning crowd - with touches like a hot tub and a wine cellar stocked with cult cabernet. The tents are gone. The mountains, and the reason people came in the first place, are not.
Not pricing out the diehards
What Outside singles out is our determination not to price out the very skiers who built this place. Alongside the private-helicopter weeks, we have always kept a more accessible way in - a membership that shares the machine, keeps the cost down, and still puts you on the same Chugach snow as everyone else. It remains, in their view, one of the best deals going in heli-skiing.
And with Mount Dimond delivering one of the biggest descents in the range right in the Tsaina’s backyard, Outside concludes, it is difficult to avoid getting your powder fix.
Note: this 2021 feature describes our line-up at the time. We have since added the Alaska Rendezvous Lodge and restructured our memberships - see the booking page for what is available this season, including our most accessible membership.
