Alta offers ample air as well as well as a seemingly endless supply of “the best snow on earth.”
ALTA
RECOMMENDED BY John Stifter
John Stifter’s relationship with Alta began with some very generous and understanding parents: “When I turned sixteen, my parents offered to take me to a ski area of my choice, within reason, as a birthday gift,” he began. “I’d grown up reading Powder magazine, and had glorified images of Utah skiing. I was especially enthralled with Alta, thanks in large part to the photography of Lee Cohen. I chose Alta, and some buddies and I headed down from Spokane, where we lived. I still remember driving up Little Cottonwood Canyon with a copy of the Powder resort guide and Alta trail maps in my lap. This was before the time of smartphones and WiFi. After everything I’d read and all the photos I’d seen, my expectations were high. They all were exceeded. The snow was softer, the mountain steeper, and to make things even better, as we went to the lift, I saw one of my favorite pro skiers, Kris Ostness, in line. Kris was from Spokane, and my friends and I idolized his ski films. [Kris Ostness appeared on the January 2000 cover of Powder, and his films include Clay Pigeons, Tee Time, and The Flying Circus, as well as Teddybear Crisis.] When we got to the top of the lift, we skied up to him. ‘Are you Kris Ostness? We’re from Spokane, and we love your films and skiing.’ He smiled and said, ‘You want to take a run?’ I’ll never forget that. Overall, it was a dream come true, just what I expected a Utah ski area to be like.”
Alta has been described as a village that happens to have a ski area in the middle, rather than a resort that sprouted a town. Established in 1871 at the upper end of Little Cottonwood Canyon, Alta enjoyed two brief silver booms, the first ending in 1873, the second beginning in early 1904 and lasting until the 1920s. Before the end of the first boom, Alta had three thousand residents! By 1930, the population had declined to six. But several businessmen, skiing Salt Lake City, saw potential in the canyon as a winter playground. Drawing upon Sun Valley, Idaho, as a model, money was raised and a lift was constructed in Alta, carrying its first passengers skyward in January 1939. As the sport expanded, so did Alta, albeit slowly. By 1970, Alta had 92 full-time residents; by 1990, 397 residents. As word spread about Alta’s five-hundred-plus inches of fluffy powder annually and its bountiful terrain, it began to emerge as a top-flight skiing destination.
“Alta has changed a bit over the years,” John continued, “but it still has retained much of its original charm, from its lodges to the older lifts and bars. The focus is on skiing, not amenities and massive lodges. It’s gotten busier, but there’s still a hard-core local scene, and the kind of camaraderie that scene fosters feels like the way skiing should be.”
Snowboarders, however, are not quite so welcome. The area’s tagline, “Alta Is for Skiers,” says it all. Alta is certainly not the only mountain to forbid snowboarders from its slopes, but it has been perhaps the most strident. Branding and public relations guru Laura Ries commented on the decision on her blog, Ries’ Pieces:
In light of this overwhelming excitement about snowboarding, what did the Alta resort in Utah do? Did they reposition the mountain to attract snowboarders as well as skiers as almost every other ski resort has?
No, Alta stuck to skiing, said no to snowboarders and according to Alta’s website: “Alta is a skier’s mountain where snowboarding is not allowed. Alta Ski Area is committed to preserving and protecting the skiing experience.”
Why is this such a brilliant marketing move? Because it does three things:
1. The strategy identifies the enemy.
2. The strategy preserves a focus.
3. The strategy creates controversy.
If you miss snowboarders—or happen to be a boarder who might be seeking terrain with a semblance to Alta—rumor has it that Snowbird, right next door, is open to nonskiers!
John described how an average day might unfold for him at Alta. “There are so many nooks and crannies on the hill, and the guys who ski it all the time can take you into some cool spots. I’ll start by cruising up the Collins lift and ski a few High Boy and work the shoulder a bit. It gets tracked out pretty fast, so I’ll work my way over to the Wildcat lift and do a few Keyhole runs at the edge of Snowbird. I’ll have lunch—beer and nachos—at the Goldminer’s Daughter, which is at the base of the Wildcat and Collins lift. After lunch, I might ride back up Wildcat, ski the fall line under the chair. Then I might head over to the area between the Collins lift and the Sugarloaf lift. From here, you can work both sides. There’s lots of traversing here. That acts as a filter to weed the less ambitious skiers out.”
Though this is Utah—a place not always noted for its bar life—Alta boasts several watering holes that let visitors cap off the day. “I like the Rustler’s Lodge, Goldminer’s Daughter, and of course, the Sitzmark Bar in Alta Lodge,” John added. “It’s been around forever [1939, to be exact, and a perennial top 10 après-ski spot]. Sitting by the roaring fire with a hot-cider drink and everyone smiling with a goggle tan—it’s classic.”
JOHN STIFTER grew up skiing Schweitzer Mountain Resort in northern Idaho. He free-lanced for ESPN for the Winter X Games and the Honda Ski Tour, during and after his time as a student at Montana State University, before joining Powder magazine as associate editor in 2007. In 2012, he was named the magazine’s twelfth editor in its forty-one-year history.
If You Go
Getting There: Visitors fly into Salt Lake City, which is served by most carriers. From here, it’s less than an hour to Alta.
Season: Alta generally opens in mid-November and remains open until mid-April, and operates the lifts a bit later in the season on weekends.
Lift Tickets: Adult day tickets are $72; multi-day tickets are available.
Level of Difficulty: There’s a variety of terrain at Alta; trails are rated as 25 percent beginner; 40 percent intermediate; 35 percent advanced.
Accommodations: Ski-in/ski-out base lodging, nearby condos, and private homes are available near the mountains. These options are highlighted at www.alta.com. Skiers on a tighter budget may opt to stay in Salt Lake City.
