Hatcher Pass Lodge reopens

HATCHER PASS — Below a stadium of mountain peaks near the Independence Mine state historical site is the Hatcher Pass Lodge, which reopened for customers last month after a brief hiatus following the passing of Hap Wurlitzer, who died late last year.

Wurlitzer built the A-frame lodge and subsequently built nine cabins around the lodge in 1967, and has served those who travel to seek the mountains of Hatcher Pass until his death. Having worked with Wurlitzer at the Hatcher Pass Lodge for over a decade, Jeff Polk took over ownership of the lodge and welcomed customers back through the door, though they should not expect to see anything different.

“The view and the recreation around here is what you want to focus on if you’re coming up in here. If you’re not into hiking, skiing snowshoeing, all that, you’ve got the northern lights, you’ve got the photography, you could be painting, there’s so much to do up here and it’s all eye candy and eye candy is really what sets your soul to that good thing,” said Polk.

Polk said that the only changes he envisions bringing to the Hatcher Pass Lodge involve another chalkboard to display lunch specials and occasional live music from local artists. The walls of the Hatcher Pass Lodge are filled with Hap’s memorabilia of living in the Talkeetna mountains including ice axes, cramp-ons and snowshoes. Paintings of the snowy peaks depicting the mountains outside the window are all over the vaulted walls, many of which were donated by the artists themselves. Polk has received inquiries about purchasing the artwork, but it is not for sale. Polk said he hopes to preserve the rustic Alaskan nature of the space in Hatcher Pass Lodge that Hap created.

“It’s more the Alaskan experience, anybody can go to a hotel in the Lower 48. When you come to Alaska you want to rough it a little bit,” said Polk. “Up here you feel like you’re out of it, I don’t know. When I turn that corner down there I can feel the world just fall right off.”

Polk cares for Wurtlitzer’s two cats that live in the lodge and brought another two cats and a dog. Polk said that over a decade of working with Hap, he would ask about changes to the lodge and often be met with resistance because Hap had previously attempted the idea and determined it unsuccessful.

“He really did teach me patience, kindness, he was a really kind guy, an animal lover and all the qualities he had, I have them so we kind of really meshed and I enjoyed his company. Every time he talked he was like a fine bottle of wine, he’d pop that cork and I’d just drink it right up,” said Polk. “He’s still a legend. I mean he always will be.”

The Skeetawk Ski area opened the first chairlift in Hatcher Pass in nearly 50 years this summer and named one of their trails after the legendary lodge owner. Polk said that Hap wanted to see a ski lift in Hatcher Pass and was excited about the opportunity to commemorate his friend on one of the trails.

“You know how when you see somebody and they’re going away, you say happy trails. Well happy’s gone, it’s happy trails,” said Polk.

Polk does not own a television and says that the large window panes that look out from Hatcher Pass across the Valley to the Chugach Mountains is his screen of choice. Before reopening, Polk was working on generators and was reminded of an old Hap Wurlitzer story that helped name a popular ski run in Hatcher Pass.

“Hap, back in the day he was taking the sled down into the hill here, got into the creek bed boom knocked his teeth out on the handlebars. He comes up over the hill comes up in here, grabs a bottle of whiskey,” said Polk. “Drinks it down, passes out on the floor because of the pain and he wakes up in the morning, wraps a scarf around his head and gets on his sled and goes down and drives himself to the dentist. Well when it was all said and done his dentist bill was $1,000.”

Polk appreciates the solitude that can be found in the mountains and has minimal plans to bring additional technology to the Hatcher Pass Lodge.

“What really brings this place to its roots is the community. They want it to thrive and they make it thrive because they come up here and they give me business,” said Polk. “Don’t feel obligated like you’ve got to come in through the door and purchase something. Come on in, take your picture, sit down and draw down there, feel at home. It’s not like a lot of places where you can get pushed out the door if you’re not throwing some cash down. Hap was never that way. People wanted to come up here and study or do their homework or get caught up on some work stuff, he had no problem with that and I’m going to do the same thing.”