Girdwood Vacation Rental Home

From Winter Wonderland to Hikers’ Bliss

Winthrop and Audrey Faulkner opened this home for rentals 12 years ago. Each had grown up in Anchorage—30 miles north, along the picturesque Turnagain Arm—and had skied and explored in these mountains around Girdwood and Alyeska Ski Resort since they were kids. They had both left Alaska for college, but met after they returned home, and decided to stay to raise their family.

Today, Winthrop is a pilot who runs a real estate business, and he and Audrey appreciate more than ever how Girdwood—surrounded by seven glaciers, the Chugach mountains and North America’s northern-most rain forest—makes a charming all-season getaway. Come summer, it attracts hikes and mountain bikers, and during winter, it’s a serious snow magnet for skiers  (Some proof: the 2013 season brought 978 inches of snow to the slopes of Mt. Alyeska.) Winthrop and Audrey have two children and live in Anchorage.