From Ski to Shining Sea

In the mountains around Alaska's Prince William Sound, there are no roads or trails. This is skiing's final frontier, and the only way to get there is by boat

-  Jen Murphy

I’d heard of Champagne powder, the light, fluffy snow of skiers’ dreams, and Japan’s legendary dry and deep “Japow.” But “moss pow” was a condition I didn’t know of until I traversed the peaks around Alaska’s Prince William Sound.

My co-guide for this adventure, Brooke Edwards, a tall blond with a penchant for bright, sparkly gear, had coined the term to describe the slushy snow found in the transition area between the sound’s rocky shores and the squishy, moss-carpeted temperate rainforest floor that we had to bushwhack through to begin our ski tour. It’s not a situation the average skier would seek out. But this wasn’t a trip for your typical skier. This was adventure skiing in its purest form: remote, self-powered, and full of the unknown. It was, quite simply, the ultimate ski safari.

A last frontier within America’s last frontier, the Prince William Sound area spans almost 10,000 square miles of roadless wilderness under the chin of Alaska. Its network of fjords, bays, glaciers, and 200-some islands is surrounded by thousands of peaks offering terrain ranging from steep to mellow, low-angle runs, all accessible only by boat.

Nick D’Alessio is the founder of the guide outfit Remarkable Adventures, based in Girdwood, Alaska—just off the sound. He was familiar with boat-based ski trips in Norway and Iceland and started looking for a vessel willing to take skiers here. In 2018 he met captains Alex and Brad von Wichman, sibling owners of Babkin Charters LLC who were running fishing and wildlife viewing boat tours in the local waters. After two years of scouting missions, the trio started offering a guided backcountry boat trip called Sea and Ski.