Anchorage And Mat-Su Urban Backcountry XC Skiing

Cross country skiing routes that combine urban and backcountry trails in the Anchorage, Wasilla and Palmer, Alaska areas.

Web page and ski routes by Tim Kelley

2024 Update:  Anchorage has changed dramatically since some of these ski trips were first posted.  Due to the proliferation of homeless camps, and the lawlessness surrounding them, many parts of Anchorage are no longer safe for recreation.  In particular, skiing the Chester Creek Trail, Campbell Creek Trail, Coastal Trail north of Westchester Lagoon, Ship Creek Trail or anywhere near mid, east or downtown Anchorage is not advised.  Safe places to ski are Kincaid Park, Hillside/Service, Anchorage BLM lands (though trailhead theft is rampant), Chugach State Park and the Anchorage Coastal Refuge.  Please consider this safety warning before trying to ski any of the Anchorage routes on this web page.
 

What:

The term "Urban Backcountry" sounds contradictory; it sounds like an oxymoron.  But in Anchorage, Wasilla and Palmer, Alaska ... "Urban Backcountry" makes sense.

These Alaskan cities are unique in that they are large urban areas bordered by wilderness backcountry on most of their sides.  There are lots of urban trails in these towns, and there are lots of backcountry trails on the edges of these towns.  Because of these diverse and plentiful winter trails - in Anchorage and the Mat-Su you can easily link together urban and backcountry trails and make interesting cross country skiing routes.  In other words, these areas a great places  for Urban Backcountry XC (UBXC) skiing.

If you want to ski Urban Backcountry routes in these areas, it helps to be open minded about what you can slide your skis over.  Example routes shown below use a variety of trails including: multi-use groomed trails, skied-in trails, backcountry skier skinning tracks, foot and snowshoe trails, fat bike trails, snowmobile trails, paved roads, dirt roads, sidewalks, moose paths, horse trails, break-your-own-trail trails and on occasion even a groomed ski trail.  Any type of Nordic skis will do for this type of skiing, but this type of skiing is often the most fun when done on xc racing skis.

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Why:

Why try Urban Backcountry XC skiing?  Well, here are a few reasons I can think of: 1) Learn more about the many and varied trails in these towns, 2) Improve your mental health by taking a break from doing endless loops on the same groomed xc ski trails, 3) Become a better skier by skiing challenging and varied trails, 4) Learn more about these towns by visiting parts of the city, military reservations or local  backcountry that you have not been to before, 5) Have an Alaskan adventure without having to travel far from home.

Why the bullet holes in the header on this web page?  For humor mainly.  But we Alaskans do love our guns!  And some parts of these towns have a lot of 'character', if you know what I mean.

Intro:

Want to give Urban Backcountry skiing a try?  Here are some starter suggestions:  Ski from Glen Alps to Kincaid.  Head out to the Mirror Lake School in Peters Creek and ski the local powerline loop.  Ski the multi-use trails groomed by the municipality and look for trails heading off the main routes, and follow them to see where they go.  Explore trails in Far North Bicentennial Park.

Tips:

If you are not sure how to link up trails to ski an Urban Backcountry route - make shorter trips to the unknown sections and figure out how to make the trail connections. The process of making multiple trips to recon a route, before doing the whole route, is fun in itself.

The north, west and south sides of Anchorage are coastal tidal flats.  Don't forget these backcountry areas.  They are cool places to ski and often have nice skied-in trails.  And often there is good crust skiing found here in the spring.

Respect private property, respect mushing-only trails, follow JBER protocols if skiing on base and when you come to the start of a trail you've never skied before say: "Hmmm.  Where the heck does this trail go?!", and go ski it.  You will learn a lot of trails this way, and discover a lot of areas you didn't know about.

History:

Urban Backcountry XC Skiing in Anchorage is nothing new.  The first ski race in Anchorage in 1917 was on dirt roads and trails on the edge of the city, which was a small settlement on the banks of Ship Creek back then.  On into the 50's downtown Anchorage residents would ski out to areas that were backcountry then like Spenard, Lake Hood and Lake Otis.  Early Anchorage had a small urban footprint with more wilderness than today just past the edge of town.

The patch below shows that Urban Backcountry skiing was a part of the early Anchorage Nordic Ski Club scene.  This patch commemorates a ski tour from Eagle River to Anchorage, on the Iditarod Trail.  Early Iditarod sled dog races traversed a section of trail that went from Anchorage to Eagle River.  And the first Iditarod sled dog race was in 1973, the year shown on this patch.

I've been having fun skiing UBXC routes since the 80's.  A number of trails I used to like to ski have been lost to development or military restrictions.  Probably my favorite UBXC route from back in the day was my "Kincaid Big Loop".  I did this 80 mile loop that starts and ends at Kincaid, and hits Ship Pass and Arctic Valley, in March 1989 (see map below).