First Class Adventure: Black Ops Valdez
The Prominent Heli-Skiing Lodge In Alaska Giving Visitors A Unique Experience That Will Live With Them Forever
Texas may claim everything is bigger there, but they must be talking about man-made objects, because Alaska easily lays claim to having the biggest and most dramatic landscape (also, biggest in size - more than twice as big as Texas). In the true spirit of this fact, Black Ops Valdez is a lodge that specializes in Heli-Skiing. Heli-Skiing is what it sounds like - a helicopter takes skiers up to a landing spot high up on a mountain, drops them off and leaves, and skiers ski down the mountain. Besides Heli-Skiing, Black Ops does a little of everything - hiking, shooting, snowmobiling, snowcat skiing, and more, all to be enjoyed by groups no bigger than 6 at a time.
The story of the beginnings of Black Ops is a story shared by many who visit and eventually make home the Last Frontier. In this case, it is owners Tabatha and Joshua Swierk, originally from Maine. "We have mountains and beautiful landscape in Maine," Tabatha Swierk explains, "but not ones that look like this." Tabatha and Josh met in college and then did some traveling, eventually making the trip up to Valdez, Alaska, where Black Ops is based. Swierk recalls, "we were blown away by the scenery and the fact that it was 85 and sunny didn't hurt either." They bought some land in Valdez and started to build a lodge on the property in the hopes of using it for a business. During this time, "we were working at other places that featured heli-skiing," recalls Swierk, while they were building their lodge. Once the lodge was built, they began their business in 2005 and have been growing ever since.
The name, Black Ops Valdez, is an interesting one and comes with a story from the times of working at other places. "Some times the weather is too bad to fly the helicopter, so there are other things that lodges feature such as snowmobiling, hiking, and things like that," recalls Swierk, "so Josh decided to take his snowmobile up to the helicopter landing site - a long way from the lodge - and one of the guides asked 'where's Josh?' and another guide answered 'Oh he's being Josh, probably doing some black ops thing.'" The name stuck with them and they eventually used it for their company.
The Black Ops logo has the helicopter and a mountain in the middle of a green scope. The scope is there because of the popularity of their shooting activities. According to the website, "Black Ops is the only operation in Alaska to offer firearm Shooting as a down day activity." This is particularly exciting for "people who come from countries where firearms are completely banned," Swierk explains.
Not all the activities at BOV are meant as adrenaline rushes - Alaska itself provides the adrenaline in hiking, cross country skiing, and snowshoeing adventures. "We take people hiking to all the local spots, including the incredible ice caves here, " Swierk says. The ice caves are from icebergs that create tunnels of blue when melting.
BOV also provides access to what the small town of Valdez offers – things like museums, boating, and shopping. Valdez, a town of about 4000, is an important seaport in Alaska and has a long history. Incorporated in 1901 as a gold rush town, eventually it flourished with the help of highways connecting it to Fairbanks. It has had its fair share of natural disasters – most prominently an earthquake in 1964. This earthquake registered at 9.2 on the Richter scale, the most powerful ever recorded in North America. It caused an underwater landside in Port Valdez, resulting in part of the shoreline to sink into the sea. As a result, the original city of Valdez was moved 4 miles away to safer ground. There was also a massive oil spill in 1989, and an avalanche in 2014 closed the only road in or out of town for 5 days.
These all speak to the resiliency of the people of the area, something Swierk has noticed since moving there. “You have to be pretty rugged to make it up here,” she explains, “but there is a sense of pride in toughing it up.” Swierk gives the example of early this year there were category 2 hurricane winds, about 102 miles an hour, for a few weeks, but still, “School was in session.”
That being said, life up in Valdez is not much different than elsewhere in the United States. “A lot of people think we don’t have electricity or good Internet, but that’s just not true,” Swierk says, “sure, we may not have a Target on every corner, but you can always get what you need.” At Black Ops Valdez, one can get what they need, as well as things they want. Joshua and Tabiatha Swierk have activities for every adventure, as well as massages, a private chef, and more to convince visitors that everything really is bigger in Alaska.
Andrew Malo
A graduate of Northeastern Illinois University in Education, Andrew has taught for the past decade in Chicago, New Mexico, and Japan. He enjoys tinkering with trucks and motorcycles, woodworking, reading and computer programming.
Make Sure To Stay At:
Robe Lake Lodge, with beautiful Alaskan decor overlooking Robe Lake & the surrounding Chugach Mtns. Guests can enjoy continental breakfast, Wi-Fi, satellite TV, hot tub & sauna. Individual rooms, cabins or the entire lodge available with nightly,weekly,or extended stay.