The Final Summit

Alaskan skiing has always been unrivalled. The hospitality, not so much. But two exclusive-use chalets are changing the landscape-and more are on the way.

- Jen Murphy

It’s not uncommon to hear that once you’ve skied in Alaska, anywhere else is bound to be a letdown. And it’s true that, after hitting slopes all over the world, my first taste of Alaska’s gravity-defying mountains about a decade ago delivered the most epic day of snowboarding I’d ever experienced. But that high came to an abrupt end with a mediocre steak dinner at a Best Western sports bar. Being dropped by helicopter on a knife-edge ridge and carving fresh tracks on pristine 40-degree inclines may have been mind-blowing, but the next year I opted for the Alps.

The apex of big-mountain skiing, the 49th state in the US should be on every enthusiast’s go-now list. Yet for many snow-obsessed travellers, an ideal day requires more than steep runs and deep powder. They want creature comforts off the slopes—and Alaska was hardly Aspen or Gstaad. The dining was uninspired and the lodgings often a communal situation that could feel like a frat party after a few hours of apres ski.

Today, Alaska remains one of the last frontiers for remote, untrammelled skiing, but is no longer a stranger to luxury. Two new exclusive-use properties are redefining the travel experience in the Land of the Midnight Sun. The five-bedroom Sheldon Chalet, set just below the peak of Denali, and Eagle’s Nest, a six-bedroom heli-ski lodge near Wasilla, rival any accommodation in the Alps when it comes to amenities, cuisine and hospitality. But their unique access to Alaska’s formidable peaks and their world-class guides put them in a league of their own.