Valdez Heli Camps

Ski Touring Huts

Earn your turns with Valdez Heli-Camps! Valdez Heli-Camps introduces new opportunities in ski touring for Thompson pass.  >From a vantage point 4100 feet above Prince William Sound enjoy breath-taking vistas overlooking expanses of glacier, ocean and Alaska's famous Chugach Mountain Range. You can enjoy brilliant mornings, afternoon alpenglow, and the quietest star filled and northern lit nights or weather even the toughest storms in the comfort of our fully insulated, heated, and electrified 25' by 12' Touring Hut. Excellent ski touring and light mountaineering is available from the front door. You can arrange for a guide or enjoy the exploration of the nearby terrain on your own. You and up to 5 of your friends can comfortably enjoy this unique and unforgettable experience. You and your gear will be transported by Snowcat to the Touring Hut located just below the 5700' summit of Stone Mountain. We provide transportation, all firewood, fuel, and waste disposal.

The cost for up to 6 people is $435 for the first night and $325 per night for each subsequent night.   (Optional) Guides are $325 per day. 

Please call (907) 783-3243 for specific details.The touring hut is towed in place and secured by our snow cat. We provide firewood and a cooking stove and fuel. You bring anything (and as much) as you want, and we’ll move all of you and your gear up to the touring hut site (lots of folks bring a couple of sets of skis). There are cots and chairs for six. It is an awesome way to earn your turns and enjoy the backcountry.  I’ve attached some photos here so you can get an idea about how the hut sits.

We use the snowcats to haul guests and gear to the hut but all cat skiing is done below the hut elevation.  The cat does not even drive by the hut.  We don’t helicopter ski on the peaks you see in the photos behind the hut. 

All cat skiing is from 500MSL to 4200’MSL.

The hut sits at about 4500’MSL and the peak you see in the back of the photo is just over 5700’ MSL descending that bowl to about 3900’ is a great run close to home. We do not cat or heli that area.  We can not officially stop snowmobiles but mostly they are very respectful of guest in the hut when made aware. “It is a small town” which helps us avoid any real conflicts.

From the close terrain you can tour out in any direction from there exploring in all directions.  The back side of that peak is big stuff!  If you choose to get a heli-drop to a new area on a particular day you can arrange that with a guide if you like.  Cell phones work sometimes from the hut but other wise there is no communications from there if you do not have a guide.  Should you choose to ski back to base it is a very easy descent over about 5 miles all down hill or flat touring.

The hut has really been our staff hangout to get away and we have really enjoyed it.  I don’t market it super heavily but am glad to share it with folks like you. I am sure you will have a blast.

Cooking is a propane camp stove, or on the wood stove top. You will need either camping or disposable eating utensils and cooking gear. We can supplement if you need something specific you don’t want to fly with in your luggage, just let us know.

The generator is just to run some lights when needed, a charger, radio, the coffee maker, etc…

Here is the Lat/Long of where it sits. We usually use

Longitude 145.8139640547402   

Latitude 61.05418426523577

We use “Google Earth” to check out the area. You can down load it to your computer by going here:  http://earth.google.com/ . The USGS has mapped the entire area, so a variety of hard-copy maps should be available from them or another map vendor.