Peaks and Valleys

A history of Girdwood and Alyeska

Chapter 12
(Final Chapter)

By Chris von Imhof
Special to the Turnagain Times

In the 90's the Girdwood population continued to grow and so did the Real Estate prices. One very positive project for Girdwood was the Natural Gas service for our community and a lot of credit goes to John Trautner who spearheaded this project with Enstar and the US Military command. The oil pipeline that was built during World War 2 from Whittier to Elmendorf Air Force Base, was donated by the US Military with the support of US Senator Ted Stevens and converted to a Gas pipeline. Enstar supplied the Natural Gas Service which greatly reduced our cost of Energy in Girdwood.

With a public, modern Water and Sewer system, Natural Gas Service and a greatly improved Seward Highway from „Bird to Gird“, our community was in better shape than most other towns in Alaska. As a result more and more Alaskans made Girdwood their primary residence.

Alyeska Resort continued to make good progress with more business on a yearround basis and hosted many National Ski Championships, the Celebrety Sports Invitationals with lots of film stars and many other meetings, conventions and events. The ski area was upgraded every other year. Girdwood 2020 continued to work with the Municipality of Anchorage and the Heritage Land Bank promoting the future development of Winner Creek in the Upper Valley.

Besides the Roundhouse Museum project, there were other community projects that I personally was actively involved, including the „Our Ladies of the Snows“ beautiful log chapel, that was built on land donated by Alyeska Resort.

Also one project that most residents of Girdwood supported was the continued improvement of the Winner Creek Trail that starts by the Alyeska Prince Hotel and goes 3 miles up to the Crow Creek Mine and up the Winner Creek. I took Senator Ted Stevens for a hike on the Winner Creek trail, which was wet and slippery. The Senator slipped and lost his balance and I just caught him by the jacket. At the end of the trail, he said to me : „Now I know why you took me on this US Forrest Service Trail“ and later that year the USFS got a one Million Dollar grant for the Winner Creek trail improvements.

In the year of 2006 my company Seibu and Prince Hotels of Japan informed me that due to financial and economic setbacks, especially in Japan, they were forced to sell Hotels and Resorts in Japan and overseas, including the Makena Resort in Maui, Hawaii, the Toronto Prince Hotel in Canada and Alyeska Resort in Alaska. This did not come as a surprise for me and personally I felt for the longterm continued growth and development of Alyeska Resort this was the right decision.

Lehmann Brothers and a major Real Estate Marketing firm from New York were retained by our company to find qualified investors for the various Resort properties.

The potential investors came to Alyeska Resort in the summer and fall of 2006 to inspect the Resort and meet with our Management staff. Our Japan Board of Directors originally selected a Hotel company from California to purchase Alyeska Resort. However we also had another bid from Mr. John Byrne of Cirque Properties of Utah. When we met, it was obvious he was a passionate skier who also hoped to further develop the skiarea and make substantial upgrades and improvements in the Alyeska Hotel.

The lawyers were already in the process to prepare the legal documents to sell the Resort to the California Hotel company. However, I strongly objected and recommended Mr. Byrne's Cirque Properties as the most qualified investor and listed the reasons. Fortunately I had a good friend at the head office in Japan and our company reconsidered and we selected Cirque Properties.

On December 1, 2006 John Byrne on behalf of the buyer and myself on behalf of the seller signed many legal documents to complete the sale.

In closing, I can only state Mr. Byrne, delivered as planned and “Put his money, where his mouth is” and Alyeska Resort was lucky to find an investor with deep pockets who cared about the future of this great ski area, hotel and resort destination.

This was the third time I had helped to find a buyer and investor from the early days in 1967 with CEO Charlie Willis of Alaska Airlines, Then in 1980 we sold the Resort to Mr. Tsutsumi, Owner and CEO of Seibu and Prince Hotels and in 2006 we selected Mr. Johne Byrne, Owner and CEO of Cirque Properties.

When I started at Alyeska in February of 1967 we had one chairlift, a few „high speed“ ropetows and a dayloge. So we have come a long way since that time and there were many peaks and valleys.

The major challenges while I was operating Alyeska Resort included floods and avalanches, a helicopter crash, a housefire (I barely saved my son Rudi), a robbery at the Resort, (my whole family was held hostage) an avalanche that wiped out the upper chairlift, (the ski area was closed). However the fluctuating weather cycles in the winter presented the biggest challenge operating the ski area.

After almost 40 years with Alyeska Resort (except for 10 years with Prince Hotels in Hawaii), it was time for me to go into semi-retirement. However my main home is still in Girdwood, my 3 sons and grandchildren live in Alaska including many of my good friends. I was fortunate to meet my new wife Brigitte a travel journalist and champion skier from Munich, Germany, and we live parttime in our vacation home in Tirol, Austria. My company Edelweiss Enterprises, LLC is still active in promoting Alaska.

Thank you all for your support over the many years. This is the end of “Peaks and Valleys” and I hope you enjoyed it.

I would like to thank Ken Smith of the Turnagain Times for editing the articles and Randy Brandon of Third Eye Photography for providing all the great pictures.