Blog Post October 2025
Transitions
It is a season of moments felt as lifetimes, of a rush into diminished daylight, accompanied by the hesitance of a nature reluctant to let go of summer. Even now the grass remains largely a defiant green, and tree leaves cling to limbs not yet bared by recurrent frost. In town, the rains have come, heavy at times, and descending clouds across the bay lift again to reveal peaks now unfamiliar with new-fallen snow.
Visitors yet arrive, both from Outside and from within our own Sourdough ranks. They are normally folks who have heard about the special place called Valdez and crave a different experience, such as a stroll down summer-busy streets gone quiet, and spectacular views of a dampened landscape hung with banners of cloud. The wildlife, moved by the anticipation of winter, are active still. Remnant salmon throng the spawning waterways, and bears and sea lions gorge. For the aurora hunter, the skies sometimes cooperate, peel back the overcast, and give the kind of multi-colored light show that blazed last week. And with the encroaching darkness, we can marvel again at the cold fire of stars once hidden by overarching daylight.
When winter finally gets here full-swing, Valdezeans move into recluse mode, preparing to curl up by the woodstove and laze away the hours till spring.
NOT!
The cold weather notwithstanding, Valdez becomes a hotbed of winter fun.
With the myriad of trails located both near the heart of Valdez and spread out along the outskirts, there’s no reason for cutting back on enjoyable outdoor activities. Snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, or simply walking through a snowy wonderland can invigorate both body and soul and put to flight those cabin fever blues.
Don’t have the equipment you’d like? Well, Prince William Sound College and Prospector Outfitters can fix you up to head out and explore the snowiest trail system in Alaska. Plus the valdezalaska.org website, under the heading of winter trails, hosts a panorama of routes into the backcountry, including a detailed map of the area’s trails, their location, and conditions.
Those with a more adventurous streak can call upon our local Black Ops Valdez. This group of professional outdoorsmen can get you out into pristine backcountry with their heli-skiing, sled trips, and cat skiing tours. Accompany their highly experienced guides for the day trip of a lifetime, and finish out the evening relaxing at the luxurious Robe Lake Lodge and Cabins. This home-away-from-home is situated a few miles from downtown Valdez, and overlooks both incredible Robe Lake, and the fortress peaks of the Chugach Mountains.
If your taste runs more toward organized festivities, both locals and visitors will have hit the proverbial jackpot. In February, the Valdez Ice Climbing Festival offers participation in challenging climbs up the frozen, undulating faces of the area’s spectacular waterfalls. This five-day event features clinics, climbs, movies, and, to tie it all up, a get-together where participants can regale each other with their own climbing tales of icy suspense and victory.
The long-running Frosty Fever comes around in February/March, too, with games and prizes and discount shopping. Hosted by KVAK radio, this ten-day event is another fun way to get out of the house and sojourn into the remainder of winter. Frosty Fever buttons entitle the wearer to certain and at times significant savings at various stores, and if you are spotted wearing one on the street you could win an on-the-spot prize. Game nights, a fashion show, live music, karaoke, an Emblem Club international Food Fair, and even the famous Splash In at the Valdez Small Boat Harbor (brrrrrrrr!) all invite locals and visitors to give the boot to those end-of-winter blues.
The first annual Valdez Winter Festival, hosted by Discover Valdez in late February/early March, will closely feature a winter parade, a variety of snow-related competitions, hotdog and marshmallow roasting over firepits, an open air movie theater night, dogsled rides, ice skating competition, and others. Head out into the merriment and help turn the bleak into the beautiful, and become part of what promises to be a yearly Valdez tradition.
In March, the Mayor’s Cup Snowmachine Race—so named because the Valdez mayor waves the green flag that starts the race—beckons both newcomer and veteran snowmachiners from all over Alaska, and some from the Lower 48. Riders compete for top prizes in this intense contest of speed, power, maneuverability, and technique. The event, dating back to its inception in 1998, is a 150-mile cross-country snowmachine race over a 25-mile loop around Hogsback Glacier and the Valdez Glacier Flats, and features participation from men’s, women’s and children’s categories.
Also in March, the Fat Bike Bash, put on by Valdez Adventure Alliance, has bikers competing for cash prizes along a course at the magnificent Valdez Glacier Lake. Cycling around frozen-in-place icebergs, exploring ice caves, breathing in the bracing, late winter air all makes this event fun, healthy, and appreciative that we Valdezeans live in the most beautiful spot on earth.
In April, a makeshift community blossoms at Thompson Pass with the five-day Mountain Man Hill Climb. Diehard snowmachiners, their spouses and supporters, and locals who are just there for the spectacle all gather to cheer on contestants, beat their own personal time, spin yarns, and fellowship with adventurous kindred spirits. Races, cookouts, challenges and tall tales abound in this wintertime spectacle.
Also in April, the Alaska Snow Kite Festival, held at Thompson Pass, is an invitation to both experienced and novice winter paragliders from around the world to strut their airborne stuff or to start with the very basics taught in the Festival’s clinics. It is an aerial ballet that has participants touch and lift off from pristine snows cradled in mountainous embraces. The week-long event holds races, freeride sessions, soaring sessions, competitions for prizes, all topped off with a Kite Fest party and bonfire and gift raffle.
