Alaska Part 2: Girdwood by Ski and Spa

Having safely arrived back in Anchorage, we quickly swapped out our rental car. Our new car didn’t have winter tires or a block heater, but at least its key connected properly. 

The next stop of our Alaska journey was about an hour’s drive from Anchorage – Girdwood. This is home to one of Alaska’s downhill ski resorts – Alyeska. Our drive there was the exact opposite of our scary drive the previous week – we weaved through the traffic of Anchorage to the coast, where we were treated to an amazing sunset over the frozen bay. 

We arrived in Girdwood just after dark at our next AirBnB. This house wasn’t nearly as well insulated as our fortress in Denali, which was fine because it was forecasted to be a balmy -15 all week. We found dinner at a delicious brewery nearby, ordering food from the food trucks stationed outside the brewery. I can’t imagine trying to keep a food truck operating in these temperatures, but our dinner was hot and delicious. 

The next day, we split into teams. Team Lucas, Nellie and Paul headed to the slopes for a day of skiing. Team Emily got dropped off at the nearby Nordic Spa. We were all pumped for our respective days. I’m not a great skier, and while the other team would have been very patient with me if I wanted to go with them, I decided to try something different. Nellie had recommended the spa, and my parents bought me a gift card for my birthday. 

First, about my day: I had done all the research and arrived at my scheduled start time. Upon check-in, they issued me a luxurious green plaid robe, sandals and a wristband. The wristband unlocked my assigned locker, where I stored my heavy winter gear and changed into my swimsuit. This Nordic spa was a series of hot and cold experiences – hot tubs, saunas, steam rooms, cold tubs and freezing tubs. It was built in the woods and all outdoors. The website suggested the following routine – hot – cold – rest – repeat. Ever the rule follower – that’s exactly what I did. 

I started with a brisk walk in my robe and sandals from the locker room building to the closest sauna – ok, that was a little chilly in the -15 degree temps. The sauna was lovely, warm and wood-lined. Inside, I met a few other first-timers and one seasoned local. She convinced all the newbies to do our first cold plunge. We left our robes in the sauna and ran next door to the outdoor cold pool. It looked like a normal outdoor hot tub, but the water was 45 degrees. We jumped in, going all the way under- when in Rome, right? Holy shock to the system. We then slipped and slid out of the icy stairs, heading straight back in the sauna. Wowza, what a start to the day!

The rest of my day was just wonderful. I didn’t do any more cold plunges, but I tried all of the different hot and warm offerings, choosing to count the brisk walk between warm things as the “cold” part of my Nordic-Spa Experience. There were circular wooden hot tubs in the forest walk area that felt straight out of the movies. I also really enjoyed the steam rooms and saunas. As expected, the saunas were very dry and the steam rooms were very wet. If there isn’t enough steam, there is a bucket on a string that you can pull to dump cold water onto the heating elements in the steam room floor. If you are really going for it, you stand under that bucket of cold water while you dump it on yourself. After watching a few people do it, I tried it too. So refreshing! 

Throughout the day, I met a few interesting people; everyone I talked to was from Alaska. This really surprised me. I assumed there would be mostly tourists, like me, at the spa. Their first question to me when they found out I was a tourist was, “Why would you come here in the winter?!” Great question.

There was a strict no-phone policy in the spa, which was fine by me. I took my Kindle and read a bit in the relaxation cabin when I needed a break from the hot-cold-repeat schedule. Around 4 p.m., my day pass was reaching its limit and so was my body. I was feeling pretty spent from all of the vigorous spa-ing. My day ended with a delicious mocktail at the bar while I waited for the others to come pick me up.

Ok, now about Team Lucas, Nellie and Paul’s day…I’d like to welcome guest blogger and full-time captain of this adventure, Lucas Kizer, to talk about their day:

“We had a great time.”

Thank you, Lucas, for those thoughtful insights!

In all seriousness, they had an amazing day skiing at Alyeska. Their gear kept them pretty warm in the -15 degree temps, especially after Paul and Lucas scored, per recommendation from the liftie, free goggles from the lost and found box. The views from the slopes and lifts were insane. They would do 2-3 runs and then take a warming break in the lodge. The temps kept most other visitors away; there were many runs where Nellie, Paul and Lucas had that section of the mountain to themselves.

Team Lucas, Nellie, Paul skied all day and enjoyed a beer at the top of the mountain to watch the sunset (at 4 p.m.). After an incident with a split beer that froze instantly, they headed back down the mountain to retrieve me from the spa. On this short journey, a great tragedy happened to Team Emily. While on their drive to retrieve me, Team Lucas, Nellie and Paul saw a moose up close. The moose was literally walking through a place called “Moose Park.” Lucas even captured an amazing picture of him. Sadly, Mr. Moose was long gone by the time we passed by Moose Park with me in the car. Damn. After a fruitless search for more moose and postcards, we called it an early night.

Our last day in Girdwood was pretty chill. Team Emily spent it operating the Alaska branch of the Mackinac Island Tourism Bureau in the morning (with some unplanned IT support needed from our favorite IT guy – Lucas!). By the early afternoon, I was done with work and we were all ready to explore a little more. Today was a balmy 16 degrees (ABOVE ZERO!), which felt like a heat wave and it was finally warm enough to snow. It snowed all day, the big fluffy flakes of winter wonderlands. We found a nearby trail and walked about 4 miles around the nature center and town. We rehydrated at the nearby brewery before finding a delicious restaurant for our 2nd annual cousins’ birthday dinner. If you remember from last year, we all have winter birthdays, so we took ourselves out for a fancy birthday dinner in the Bahamas. This year, we were a little chillier but the food was spectacular and so was the company. Happy birthday to all of us!

The next morning, more snow was forecasted and we had an hour drive to the airport. We got up super early and hit the road, worried about our lack of winter tires. Lucas expertly navigated us through the dark Alaska road network again and we arrived on time for our flight. Today, we were traveling together to our final Alaska destination – Tuntiluliak. We were finally going to visit Nellie’s new home!