Alaska Ski Guide & Avalanche Education Provider

Mat has over 1,000 days alpine touring and ski mountaineering experience throughout Alaska. He’s established numerous first descents (some from previously unclimbed peaks and via first ascents of new alpine climbing routes). He can share the Alaska backcountry skiing, snowboarding, and ski mountaineering experience with an intricate depth of knowledge for finding appropriate tours and objectives in the road-accessible areas of the Chugach, Kenai, and Talkeetna mountains. Guided trips are also available to many lesser known and wilder areas of the state:

• Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and its four major mountain ranges: Wrangell, St. Elias, & Chugach mountains, and eastern Alaska Range
• Lake Clark National Park: Aleutian Range (Chigmit & Neacola mountains) and western Alaska Range
• Brooks Range: Gates of the Arctic National Park & Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Mat spearheaded the effort to provide avalanche safety information for Alaska’s most accessible avalanche terrain for a decade before providing broader outdoor opportunities via CMI. He is committed to providing the safest and most rewarding backcountry experiences on snow, whether you seek mellow powder or steep couloirs.

Rates for private guiding and instruction start at $500 per day.

Guided skiing, snowboarding, and ski mountaineering is available statewide November through May. CMI is an American Avalanche Association recognized education provider for Avalanche Rescue, Level 1, and Level 2 courses. CMI also offers Adventure Skiing and Ski Mountaineering courses each spring.

Call/text 907-831-9686 or email Info@ChugachSnow.org for inquiries and availability. Day and multi-day trips available throughout Alaska. Learn more about trips and destinations via the links below.

Fly-in trips

CMI offers fly-in skiing, snowboarding, and ski mountaineering trips throughout Alaska. Experience skiing and riding some of the most incredible wilderness areas on Planet Earth.

All-inclusive (professional guiding, instruction, charter flights, group camp and kitchen equipment, food, coordination of travel logistics) group rates start at $500 per person per day.

Fly-in, ski-out day and multi-day trips are an even more affordable option available from Valdez in the spring.

Valdez area Chugach Mountains

maritime-coastal snow climate

The best sea-to-sky riding on Planet Earth. Big, steep terrain with a (relatively) safe snowpack (and plenty of mellow options for the less vertically inclined). Unique geographic and climatic factors provide mid-winter champagne powder all the way down to sea level.

What’s possible here will blow your mind: temperate rainforest tree skiing through incredible old growth, coastal glacier pow skipping, continuous 30-40º fall line runs for thousands of vertical feet, hundreds of continuous feet of 50º+ steeps, all in in view of the ocean and North America’s northernmost ice free port.

No place else in Alaska, or the world, offers this sort of variety all within a short drive of a small Alaskan town with all modern conveniences.

Thompson Pass area Chugach Mountains

transitional-intermountain snow climate

Thompson Pass is the snowiest place on the road system in Alaska and averages 500″+ annually. It provides the highest elevation, road-accessible touring in the Chugach. The alpine touring here is truly “choose your own adventure.” You can pull the car over just about anywhere along a ten mile stretch of highway and start skinning in nearly any direction.

Does anywhere else in the world offer 5500′ vertical of continuous turns in deep, dry powder? Experience perfectly smooth and continuous corn snow for 2000’+ vertical of fall line bliss in the long, sunny days of Alaskan spring – when only your energy, never daylight, is a limiting factor.

Tiekel Valley area Chugach Mountains

interior-continental snow climate

Relatively unknown and unexplored, this truly wild region stays wintry (especially at the upper elevations) well into April. While it does have a thinner snowpack than coastal Valdez and transitional Thompson Pass, it’s still the Chugach (i.e. this region still gets a lot of snow). Less snow than Valdez and Thompson Pass generally equates to better weather. The Tiekel is the place to go for turns when weather and visibility closer to the coasts deteriorates. Other than perhaps one location to only the mid elevations, another bonus is the solitude: you likely won’t see any other parties.

Western Chugach & Chugach State Park

maritime-coastal, transitional-intermountain, & interior-continental snow climates

World-class backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering within a 20 minute drive of downtown Anchorage and Alaska’s international airport!

The Western Chugach, especially of Chugach State Park, is rocky relative to the southern and eastern Chugach. This creates a very special ambiance with some of the best couloir skiing in the world (especially in terms of accessibility, being so close to a city).

Chugach State Park may not have Alaska’s deepest snowpack and powder, but it definitely has the lightest, driest, and fluffiest powder on this side of the state. With widespread 1000′ (300m)+ steep couloirs, numerous high alpine and treeless bowls with countless 1500′ (450m)+ mellow powder runs, and heavily glaciated mountains within a day’s approach that feature a world-class hut system along the Eklutna Traverse; the Western Chugach has appealing terrain for all types of skiers and snowboarders.

Hatcher Pass area Talkeetna Mountains

transitional-intermountain snow climate

Hatcher Pass has it all: wide open and mellow powder slopes, Alaska’s most accessible spine lines, bouldery pillows, hidden couloirs, and endless granite ridges. Its three major drainages (Fishhook, Archangel, and Little Susitna aka Gold Mint) each have a unique character and provide diverse riding opportunities. Deeper in these mountains a Mountaineering Club of Alaska and American Alpine Club hut system exists along the Bomber Traverse, which provides for incredible multi-day skiing and riding adventures in a semi-glaciated environment.

This area is only an hour drive from Anchorage and the international airport. It’s just a 20-30 minute drive from Palmer, a fast-growing town of ~6,000 with all modern conveniences and services.