Alta Ski Area

Alta Ski Area, one of the world's premier ski resorts, is located in the Wasatch Mountains just east of Salt Lake City, Utah. Renowned for "The greatest snow on Earth," the skiable area consists of 2,200 acres (8.9 km²) beginning at a base elevation of 8,530 ft (2,600 m) and rising to 10,550 ft (3,216 m) for a vertical gain of 2,020 ft (616 m).

Receiving over 500 inches (12.7 m) of snow a year, Alta is home to some of the most remarkable powder skiing in North America - indeed, Alf Engen developed what is usually recognized as modern powder skiing technique at Alta in the mid-20th Century. Alta is one of the oldest ski resorts in the country and still maintains a mystique as one of the havens of "skiing's soul" as exemplified by the "skiers-only" policy at the resort - no snowboarders are allowed. Alta's unique location just East of the Great Salt Lake allows for huge lake-effect storms to dump copious amounts of snow at the resort, even when neighboring ski areas and Salt Lake City receive little or no snow. This has led to Alta being ranked #1 in North America for Snow Quality, Powder, and Value by Skiing Magazine.

The slogan, "Alta is for skiers" is more than just a marketing ploy, as many skiers feel that Alta's culture and atmosphere of "old school" or "authentic" ski culture is the way skiing should be.

History

Early history

Alta is one of the most historic ski areas in the United States. The community of Alta was established in 1871 as an offshoot of the silver mining operations in Little Cottonwood Canyon. A fire that destroyed most of the town in 1878 and a cataclysmic avalanche in 1885, combined with the decline of mining in the area in the last decade of the 19th Century heralded a period of dormancy for the town. The area did experience a modest resurgence in mining in the 1900s, but the town declined again shortly thereafter, and was deserted with the exception of a few hardy miners who continued to intermittently prospect the area.

In 1935, the U.S. Forest Service retained the noted skier Alf Engen to hike into the area and determine its potential as a future ski area. Engen's reports expressed great promise for the area, and recommended the purchase of additional surrounding lands to form the ski area. In 1937, a prominent Salt Lake City lawyer, Joe Quinney, along with other local businessmen, formed the Utah Winter Sports Association to oversee the development of Alta Ski Area. In the following year, construction began on the original Collins chairlift, then just the second lift in the United States. Alta opened to skiers for the first time on January 15, 1939, offering a single ride on the chair for 25 cents, or a full day pass for $1.50.

Recent developments

Committed to a laid-back, personal, and unobtrusive presence, the ski area did not complete its first triple chair until 1991, when the Germania double chair was upgraded. The resort did not have a developed snowmaking infrastructure until 1996, and the system was not completed until 2000 - indications of the natural greatness of Utah snow. Lately, however, even resorts as blessed with snow as Alta have moved towards snowmaking in order to remain competitive by opening earlier in the season, and retaining good skiable conditions in drier years. The late 1990s and early 2000s were marked with further modernization. In 1999, the Sunnyside lift was replaced with a detachable triple chair, the first detachable chair the resort hosted. In 2001, the Supreme chair was upgraded to a triple, and the Sugarloaf chair was replaced with a detachable quad. The most recent development is the opening of a new Collins chair for the 2004 - 2005 Season, a detachable quad, replacing the old Collins and Germania chairs. It is notable that none of Alta's chairs have safety bars, emphasising its "old school" style.

The resort currently has 2 detachable quad chairs, 1 detachable triple chair, 1 triple chair, 3 double chairs, and 5 surface tows.

The terrain is classified as 25% Beginner, 40% Intermediate, and 35% Advanced.

Partnership with Snowbird ski resort

Beginning in the winter of 2002, Alta and it's neighbor, Snowbird, began offering both a joint day-pass and a joint season ticket, allowing skiers to fully access all of the terrain on both mountains. The offer coincided with the opening of a new lift in Mineral Basin, a large bowl owned by Snowbird on the back sides of Snowbird's Hidden Peak and Alta's Sugarloaf mountains, that allowed access to Alta from the Basin. Other access points between the two resorts exist as well. The offer is open to skiers only, as a result of Alta's skiers-only policy. Snowbird is open to both skiers and snowboarders.

This is the latest effort in a string of events that has led many locals and visiting enthusiasts to think of Alta and Snowbird as one destination for skiing. A true, complete union - an "Altabird," as some have called it - seems unlikely, however, for a myriad of reasons: Alta's unwillingness to serve snowboarders and Snowbird's more cosmopolitan take on the winter sports industry are chief among them.

Popular areas

Alta is known across the world for its deep powder skiing and remarkable steeps. The Baldy Chutes (accessible from Sugarloaf lift and a hike) and Catherine's Area (accessible from Supreme lift) are renowned for their excellent pitches, difficulty, and superb snow. The Greeley Chutes and the Rustler pitches (accessible from Collins lift) are also well-known, and were the legendary favorite slopes of Engen in the early days of skiing in Utah. Other notable areas include Glory Hole, a small bowl accessed from Sugarloaf; Devil's Castle, a peak with open steeps and excellent powder skiing, also accessible from Sugarloaf; and the Wildcat Steeps, accessed from Wildcat lift, with excellent deep-powder tree skiing.

It is worth noting that the best of Alta's terrain is geared towards Advanced and Expert skiers. That is not to say that there are not good slopes for Beginner and Intermediate skiers, but merely that Alta's forte does not lie primarily in these areas. The Expert skier will be hard-pressed to find better resort skiing in North America outside of Alta, whereas the Beginner may find better-suited slopes and varied Beginner terrain at other locales. Regardless of this, Alta boasts a top-rate ski instruction program, which has its roots in Engen's pioneering work in deep-powder skiing and instruction. Skiers of all abilities enjoy Alta's unique charm, which harkens back to the golden days of skiing, an era gone past.

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